[Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a European Chapter

Thu Jul 27 01:39:15 PDT 2017

All,

I think OSGeo and OSGeo-EU should be very careful not to compete 
commercially or provide commercial favour for one organisation or 
individual over another. Doing so is fraught with potential for bias, 
corruption, having vendors buy influence, and accusations of foul play. 
OSGeo is by design a Not-For-Profit organisation.

We should certainly be promoting Open Source Software, and teaching 
agencies how to evaluate the value of established and mature projects 
(as proven by OSGeo incubation process).

We should be helping show agencies how to engage most effectively with 
Open Source communities, showing the business value that can be gained 
by giving back, rather than just taking from Open Source communities.

Warm regards, Cameron

On 27/7/17 5:01 pm, Maria Antonia Brovelli wrote:
> Thanks Dirk, this gives more information to the board.  Please can you 
> tell us what happens if and when two different teams of people within 
> OSGeo want to answer the same call for an EU project? As we are more 
> or less working on the same topics it will happen (is very probable) 
> that we have 2 proposals which are in competition. Who decide proposal 
> A and not B or proposal A and B?
> For sure you already discussed because this can create problems in the 
> community. Do you reach a consensus about that?
> Have a good day!
> Maria
>
>
>
> Sent from my Samsung device
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com>
> Date: 26/07/2017 17:26 (GMT+01:00)
> To: board at lists.osgeo.org, eu at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a 
> European Chapter
>
> Steven,
>
> Thank you for your reply.
> I forwarded the discussion to the eu-list, as I think more people will
> read this than the board list. So more people could be involved in the
> discussion.
>
> I think you made a good summary of an answer. If OSGeo is involved in a
> H2020 project, it could ask for funding to promote open source for Geo
> on the different dissimination actions of the project. It also could
> provide money to support code sprints and the travel costs involved.
>
> I think the most important element to involve OSGeo in such projects is
> to promote the organisation in the European projects, making it visible
> and giving it a platform to speak up.
>
> To be the prime contractor is another level I think. And to obtain this
> we should have a good team that could run such a project. In this case I
> think we should the right people to do this, and of course the money
> could come from the project to support this.
>
> But to start with, I proposr to just focus on bringing our name on the
> European agenda.
>
> I also think it is more important to act and go forward in stead of
> discuss and stand still. If problems arise, they will be discussed, as
> we do already more than 10 years.
>
> And by the way, for the H2020 project we are involved in right now is
> the prime contractor the Flemish region. So not only businesses,
> universities, but also NGO's and public authorities can be part of it.
> This is i.m.h.o. a very interesting platform for OSGeo to get involved
> in new software projects, and promote the use and creation of (Geo) open
> source software.
>
> my2c
> Dirk
>
> On 2017-07-26 16:08, Steven Feldman wrote:
> > I’m not involved in the thinking on applying for H2020 or any other EU
> > opportunities so I am not going to try to answer Maxi’s questions on
> > behalf of the prospective chapter.
> >
> > My thoughts:
> >
> > I think that we need to be flexible in considering how we would organise
> > to respond to an opportunity, it may be a consortium of European OSGeo
> > businesses (and universities)  or it may be that there is a case for
> > OSGeo Europe actually being the prime contractor. I would expect each
> > opportunity to require a different approach.
> >
> > I don’t see why membership of the European Chapter should be restricted
> > to charter members, AFAIK we don’t apply that rule in any of our local
> > chapters (we certainly don’t in UK)
> >
> > We don’t need to have hard and fast rules or to answer every question
> > before we get started.
> > ______
> > Steven
> >
> >
> >> On 26 Jul 2017, at 14:44, Maria Antonia Brovelli
> >> <maria.brovelli at polimi.it <mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Thanks Steven for your input. Please, can you help also in answering
> >> the items pointed out by Maxi?
> >> One of the reasons of creating the Eu Chaper is also to apply for Eu
> >> calls and therefore the questions seem to me of interest. Maxi is also
> >> an enthusiastic chapter member and also his opinion deserves 
> attention.
> >> Thanks a lot for helping the Board in considering all the facets and
> >> the different points of view.
> >> Best regards
> >> Maria
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Sent from my Samsung device
> >>
> >>
> >> -------- Original message --------
> >> From: Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com <mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>>
> >> Date: 26/07/2017 11:36 (GMT+01:00)
> >> To: OSGeo Board <board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>>
> >> Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a
> >> European Chapter
> >>
> >> I would encourage the board to allow the European members who are
> >> enthusiastic about the formation of a European Chapter to get started
> >> without trying to be too prescriptive or to resolve possible issues or
> >> question before it arises.
> >>
> >> Let’s harness enthusiasm to try new things
> >> ______
> >> Steven
> >>
> >>
> >>> On 26 Jul 2017, at 08:36, board-request at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> <mailto:board-request at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Message: 1
> >>> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 07:03:35 +0000
> >>> From: Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli at polimi.it
> >>> <mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>>
> >>> To: Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
> >>> <mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>>, Dirk Frigne
> >>> <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com <mailto:dirk.frigne at geosparc.com>>, OSGeo
> >>> Discussions
> >>> <discuss at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>>,
> >>> "eu at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:eu at lists.osgeo.org>" <eu at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> <mailto:eu at lists.osgeo.org>>,
> >>> OSGeo Board <board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>>
> >>> Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a
> >>> EuropeanChapter
> >>> Message-ID: <5ftepg0wr5inr7nw6af50b82.1501052432010 at email.android.com
> >>> <mailto:5ftepg0wr5inr7nw6af50b82.1501052432010 at email.android.com>>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >>>
> >>> Dear Maxi
> >>> Well noted. We'll discuss about that as well. This is a relevant
> >>> point. Thank you for suggesting solutions.
> >>> Are there other comments by other members?
> >>> Best regards
> >>> Maria
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Sent from my Samsung device
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -------- Original message --------
> >>> From: Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
> >>> <mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>>
> >>> Date: 25/07/2017 14:13 (GMT+01:00)
> >>> To: Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com
> >>> <mailto:dirk.frigne at geosparc.com>>, OSGeo Discussions
> >>> <discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> <mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>>, eu at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> <mailto:eu at lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo Board <board at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> <mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>>
> >>> Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a
> >>> European Chapter
> >>>
> >>> Dear European charter members and OSGeo board,
> >>> I would like to express my support for an OSGeo continental chapter
> >>> and provide my point of view, that even if often considered
> >>> uncomfortable, hope will bring discussion to improve.
> >>>
> >>> I hope that before starting the chapter:
> >>>
> >>> * there is a clear and equitable rule for using the OSGeo name in
> >>> European bids (see h2020 for example) since this may be a competitive
> >>> advantage.
> >>> It is totally unclear to me how OSGeo-EU would relate to H2020
> >>> projects for example:
> >>> - Will it participate as a partner in any calls?
> >>> - How the selection of supported project will be done?
> >>> - How, in case of funding, allocated money will be distributed to
> >>> members?
> >>>
> >>> * there is a defined and focused coordination with local chapters
> >>> - synergies are needed to avoid duplication of efforts and adoption
> >>> of a common action line.
> >>> - ideally I'd like to see a hierarchical structure from international
> >>> to continental and national level "chapters" but this is a matter for
> >>> the board..
> >>>
> >>> Here some proposed actions,
> >>> that in my opinion would demonstrate the open principle of the OSGeo
> >>> European Chapter  community:
> >>>
> >>> * run a democratic election of the board representatives within 6
> >>> months from the inception
> >>>
> >>> * include all the OSGeo charter member that express their willing as
> >>> "full" member (was charter member in OSGeo not sure how "full member"
> >>> is in OSGeo-EU)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Regards,
> >>> Maxi
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Board mailing list
> > Board at lists.osgeo.org
> > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> >
>
> -- 
> Yours sincerely,
>
>
> ir. Dirk Frigne
> CEO @geosparc
>
> Geosparc n.v.
> Brugsesteenweg 587
> B-9030 Ghent
> Tel: +32 9 236 60 18
> GSM: +32 495 508 799
>
> http://www.geomajas.org
> http://www.geosparc.com
>
> @DFrigne
> be.linkedin.com/in/frigne
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
M +61 419 142 254

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