[Board] Supporting OSGeo4W

[Jody Garnett]

I guess "adoption" is the key word we are not in a position to provide as
an organization .. no other project is "adopted".

That said OSGeo4W is in an interesting position being a joint-initiative
(is their an MOU to this effect?). An initiative gives the board a chance
to fund it outside of the "community project" program. I think "MetaGIS"
and "OSGeo Live" were also in this position ... and both made the
transition to a full OSGeo project (resulting in some autonomy on budgeting
and spending).

aside: If an MOU is made it would be good to update
https://www.osgeo.org/partners/qgis-org-association/ to reflect this as a
joint initiative.

In terms of treating OSGeo as a stable source of funding (for any project):

- OSZGeo is into year 4 of providing projects a budget (as a
strategic shift from running as a low or no cost organization). It has
taken this long for projects to notice funding is available :)
- Many projects position to use funds provided (as shown by the difference
between the amount budgeted and the amount spent in any given year)
- Foundation budget guidance has always been a reflection of income
(primarily from foss4g events). Rule of thumb is to be able to run 2-3
foss4g events without profit.
- TLDR: I would expect the "stability" to be flexible over time - OSGeo may
not always be in a position to provide funds.

aside: We have had to drop our geroserver installer (due to lack of
resources), it would be great to see this added back into OSGeo4W.
--
Jody Garnett


On Thu, 16 Jan 2020 at 08:10, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it> wrote:

> Thanks Jody. Our request was in fact about having a stable budget, as
> implied by an adoption, as it is IOHO a fundamental piece of
> infrastructure, that deserve a stable commitment.
> Cheers.
>
> Il 16/01/20 17:06, Jody Garnett ha scritto:
> > Paolo:
> >
> > OSGeo4W is already "adopted" by OSGeo as part of the community project
> > program. While the project does not have an independent budget (until it
> > goes through incubation) it does have access to funding through
> > attending board meetings.
> >
> > I think if you look at the draft budget
> > <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2020> a request has already
> > been made on behalf of OSGeo4W, indeed it appears to be funded as a
> > joint initiative with QGIS.org.
> > --
> > Jody Garnett
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 16 Jan 2020 at 07:43, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it
> > <mailto:cavallini at faunalia.it>> wrote:
> >
> >     Dear OSGEO Board
> >
> >     We are writing to petition your help both financially and for general
> >     support with the OSGEO4W project. Over the years, OSGEO4W (started by
> >     Frank Warmerdam and Jürgen Fischer) has become the de-facto delivery
> >     mechanism to Windows users for many of the projects that make up
> OSGEO -
> >     including GDAL, PROJ, GRASS, QGIS and many more.
> >
> >     Currently, most of the maintenance and improvements to OSGEO4W are
> >     carried out through activities of the QGIS packaging process (our
> >     windows standalone packages are based on OSGEO4W). This includes
> using a
> >     portion of the income donated to QGIS.org each year to support the
> >     OSGEO4W project.
> >
> >     Since OSGEO4W plays such a central role in the OSGEO landscape we
> would
> >     like to ask you to 'adopt' the OSGEO4W project financially and also
> help
> >     with marshalling more contributors to the project so that it is not a
> >     'one man show' - which represents a vulnerability to the long term
> >     prospects of this project. You can see these sentiments reflected in
> the
> >     budget request for supporting OSGEO4W in the OSGEO budget call. This
> >     budget request represents 50% of the anticipated budget for funded
> >     OSGEO4W work for 2020, with the remainder being funded by QGIS.org
> for
> >     the interim.
> >
> >     Regards
> >
> >     The QGIS team.
> >     --
> >     Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu <http://www.faunalia.eu>
> >     QGIS.ORG <http://QGIS.ORG> Chair:
> >     http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
> >     _______________________________________________
> >     Board mailing list
> >     Board at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Board at lists.osgeo.org>
> >     https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> >
>
> --
> Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
> QGIS.ORG Chair:
> http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
>
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