[Board] Supporting OSGeo4W

[Angelos Tzotsos]

Hi Paolo,

The board has already approved the budget for 2020.
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2020

There is already a discussion item in the agenda for OSGeo4W:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2020-01-27#Current_items

Best regards,
Angelos


On 1/26/20 12:10 PM, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> Hi all,
> how could we proceed on this?
> Cheers.
>
> Il 2020-01-16 19:18 Jody Garnett ha scritto:
>> 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 [1] <http://www.faunalia.eu>
>>>> QGIS.ORG [2] <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 [1]
>>> QGIS.ORG [2] Chair:
>>> http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
>>
>>
>> Links:
>> ------
>> [1] http://www.faunalia.eu
>> [2] http://QGIS.ORG
>


-- 
Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
Charter Member
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos