[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2007 - whats in a name?

[Tyler Mitchell]

On 30-Sep-06, at 5:04 PM, Paul Ramsey wrote:

> I prefer OSGeo 2007, or OSG 2007.
>
> I find the whole "FOSS4G" thing incredibly unwieldy.

My preference is the same, I like OSGeo 2007, for these reasons:
- It has the "Geo" in it, so it is not only an ambiguous acronym
- This is a new incarnation of the conference, I think a fresh name  
would be good without choosing from ones used in the past
- I think it should reflect the foundation closely if we are going to  
be the core organisers
- It builds up recognition and value of the foundation, showing we  
are interested in non-OSGeo projects as well
- I think OSGeo sounds more professional and is less of a mouthful
- I don't think adding the "F" helps communicate anything more when  
the people I talk to rarely understand the difference between FOSS  
and OSS anyway
- 'Geospatial' (as in OSGeo) is more generally understood by the  
public than 'Geomatics' (as in FOSS4G).  Geomatics tends to be an  
industry niche, whereas Geospatial embraces geomatics plus the new  
era of web, spatial database, GIS, mapping, 'neo-geographers', etc.

I can keep debating, but think that we will be split on this.   
Getting feedback through a poll would be good as long as we can get  
broad representation to vote on it.  Any other name suggestions to  
vote on?

Tyler