[Board] [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2020 - Halifax site causing confusion

Mon Dec 2 10:27:20 PST 2019

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay before answering. As you may know, I do not have
the access to shut down the foss4g.ca website. Jeff is the only owner
of this URL and website. I agree that the foss4g.ca site in its current
form is very misleading but I wanted to have more information before
responding.

Jon wrote to me last week about the situation. So, I wrote to Jeff to ask
him if he could do anything about it.

Jeff wrote back to me and we had a talk on the phone about the situation
this morning. I tried to convince him to shut down the site but as I wrote
I have no control on his decision so I will report directly to the board
off-list for the next steps.

Thank you for your patience with this and I wish you all a great event in
Calgary in 2020.

Regards,

Karine

Le lun. 2 déc. 2019 à 10:28, Jonathan Neufeld <jneufeld at tecterra.com> a
écrit :

> Hi All,
>
>
>
> Thank you for all of the support on this issue, as well as the potential
> avenues to address it.
>
> I would like to note that I also reached out to Karine and she was
> gracious and helpful.
>
>
>
> We will explore the potential to have CIRA (the .ca registrar) remove the
> domain, hopefully it is a quick and efficient process.
>
>
>
> I would strongly support OSGeo in registering the FOSS4G brand for
> international trademark protection. FOSS4G has grown into a large
> conference with attendance consistently at or above the 1,000 person mark
> and this is something valuable worth protecting so that it can confidently
> grow into the future.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Conference_dev <conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> *On
> Behalf Of *Jody Garnett
> *Sent:* Sunday, December 1, 2019 10:11 PM
> *To:* Jérôme St-Louis <jerome at ecere.com>
> *Cc:* info at gatewaygeomatics.com; jmckenna at osgeo.org; Conference Dev <
> conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org>; karine at geomatiqc.com; osgeo-board List <
> board at lists.osgeo.org>; chair at foss4g.ca
> *Subject:* Re: [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2020 - Halifax site causing confusion
>
>
>
> Good idea let us check:
> https://cira.ca/policy/domain-name/cira-domain-name-dispute-resolution-policy
>
>
>
> 1.4 Eligible Complainants. The person initiating a Proceeding (the
> “Complainant”) must, at the time of submitting a complaint (the
> “Complaint”), satisfy the Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants
> (the “CPR”) in respect of the domain name that is the subject of the
> Proceeding unless the Complaint relates to a trade-mark registered in the
> Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) and the Complainant is the
> owner of the trade-mark.
>
>
>
> It really does look like we need to be the owner of the trademark for
> OSZGeo be eligible to file a complaint.
>
>
>
> However there is something interring there "Canadian Presence
> Requirement". Perhaps the local conference organizing committee could
> qualify as a "Canadian Presence Requirement" explain that the current
> foss4g.ca website represent a failed bid that is interfering with the
> conference in Calgary?
>
> --
>
> Jody Garnett
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 2 Dec 2019 at 05:49, Jérôme St-Louis <jerome at ecere.com> wrote:
>
> Jody,
>
> AFAIK Jeff works from his home office and his phone number is listed at
> https://gatewaygeomatics.com/contact.html
>
> I question whether obtaining trademark to FOSS4G is possible after it
> having been freely used in the general sense of Free and Open Source
> Software for Geospatial in a general sense for many years?
>
>
>
> However, on foss4g.ca both OSGeo - Ottawa and OSGeo - Quebec names and
> logos are featured, and both chapters have officially called to re-direct,
> take down the content, or clarify the fact that the FOSS4G 2020 takes place
> in Calgary, not Halifax.
> That could be ground enough for .ca to take action?
>
> The name/logo of OSGeo itself is also part of those chapters logo, and
> that may already be trademarked?
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> -Jerome
>
>
>
> On 12/1/19 11:37 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:
>
> I agree it is serous, and I recommend adding this to the next board
> meeting (ideally conference chair could attend?)
>
>
>
> But I also want to say as an organization we do not own the trademark, and
> we cannot compel action of an individual. Is this statement you disagree
> with?
>
>
>
> Perhaps this is a good reason to obtain the foss4g trademark? That would
> be my advised course of action. Obtain trademark and ask dot ca to remove
> this site.
>
>
>
> I also think we could figure out where Jeff is working and phone him.
>
>
>
> Any other thoughts on actions (not seriousness) Mark?
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 4:37 AM Mark Iliffe <markiliffe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Jody,
>
>
>
> I’m sorry to disagree so strongly, but i see this is as a severe issue
> that dramatically needs to be resolved with haste.
>
>
>
> As a past (co-)chair of a global FOSS4G, i know the focus is to ensure
> that funds are raised and the delegates and sponsors are clear on the
> offering. Right now, this isnt the case as that site does look like Halifax
> is the host, not Calgary.
>
>
>
> I would strongly urge the Board to take immediate action to ensure that
> people are as clear as possible on what is being offered. The domain is the
> first step to this.
>
>
>
> There are many reasons why time has been taken to resolve this - and as
> someone who spent the first half of this year quite ill and dropped many
> balls - I can understand this...! But, we’re less than a year away, so
> let’s work on resolving this as quickly as possible.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Mark
>
> On 1 Dec 2019, at 22:28, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> k
>
> We do not maintain copyright on foss4g, this is a deliberate choice as I
> understand it. So I do not think we can ask the ca domain to intervene.
>
>
>
> As for Jeff being unavailable we like to respect folks volunteer capacity
> and ability to contribute when they have time. We have spent some effort
> working around his in availability as a board.
>
>
>
> It is worth bringing this up with the next board meeting. Indeed it may be
> appropriate to go about claiming the foss4g trademark.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 11:39 PM Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Jody
>
> ,
>
> Is this a case where the board is the committee that needs to act?
>
> Regards
>
> Steven
>
>
>
>
>
> +44 (0) 7958 924101
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
>
> On 1 Dec 2019, at 20:01, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
>
> We do not need a procedure for everything, some troubles will just need to
> be handled if they occur.
>
>
>
> I do not intend to dismiss your interest, osgeo committees are empowered
> to act and remove individuals who are not welcome. Indeed we ask that all
> committees / projects / events have a code of conduct.
>
>
>
> In the August F2F
> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/images/7/7d/Face_to_Face_Meeting_2019_Bucharest.pdf>
> meeting we discussed establishing a black list for individuals who are not
> welcome at our events, and a "gray list" for individuals who we "wanted to
> talk with" before they attended one of our events again. The kindest way we
> could think to handle this is to ask the individual to sign a the code of
> conduct (so there could be no miscommunication with respect to behaviour).
>
>
>
> Individual committees can also control their membership with a motion,
> projects can adjust an individuals commit access, and so forth. To
> specifically answer your question the board is in position to update the
> charter members list (and is supposed to do so as a result of inactivity).
>
> --
>
> Jody Garnett
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, 1 Dec 2019 at 20:08, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Haven’t seen a response yet and I note that as of now the foss4g.ca site
> is still up. That is disappointing to say the least.
>
>
>
> I have copied in Karine Jean who was the co-chair of the Halifax bid using
> the email on her OSGeo listing, perhaps she can remove the Halifax site or
> ask Jeff to do so or explain why they think it should remain almost a year
> after the decision was made to award to Calgary not Halifax?
>
>
>
> *A question for the board*: Do we have any procedure for revoking Charter
> Membership in the event of behaviour that we consider to be in conflict
> with OSGeo principles? I am not suggesting that this is the case re Halifax
> web site but I think it prompts the question of what would/should we do if
> a CM is considered to have possibly gone rogue?
>
> ______
> Steven
>
> Unusual maps in strange places -  mappery.org
>
>
>
> Subscribe to my weekly “Maps in the Wild <http://eepurl.com/dKStT-/>”
> newsletter
>
>
>
> On 29 Nov 2019, at 22:14, Jonathan Neufeld <jneufeld at tecterra.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> I apologize for sending this through the Conference_Dev list, however I’ve
> been trying to reach Jeff McKenna for the past month with no success. If I
> am out of line here, please let me know.
>
>
>
> Jeff - I’m following up again on my request to take down your Halifax
> FOSS4G site at https://foss4g.ca/.
>
>
>
> As I have previously mentioned, the Halifax site is causing confusion with
> some members of the community.
>
>
>
> In the spirit of open collaboration and building towards a successful
> event, we are *requesting that you take down the site for Halifax 2020
> which is making a false claim of hosting FOSS4G 2020 and sowing confusion
> amongst potential participants.*
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
> JONATHAN NEUFELD
>
> CO-CHAIR
>
> FOSS4G 2020 CALGARY
>
> http://2020.foss4g.org/
>
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>
>
>
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>
> --
>
> --
>
> Jody Garnett
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing list
> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
> --
>
> --
>
> Jody Garnett
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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>
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>
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>
>
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