Localize FOSS4G (was: [OSGeo-Conf] Committee Meeting to discuss 2008 RFP)

[Arnulf Christl (OSGeo)]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
>> Frank asked:
>>>  o Do we really aim to be *the* geospatial conference of the year?
>>
>> Sure -- aim high, why not.  It should be "the" event of the year within
>> our target demographic and content scope.
> 
> Michael,
> 
> I've been taught to aim low to avoid disappointment. :-)

>From a visibility perspective you have to aim high to get the message out. 

> Seriously, we clearly want to be the leading event for our target market.
> But I don't feel that we need to be the biggest, or the most highly 
> publicised
> geospatial event of the year.

I think that from an OSGeo perspective FOSS4G should aim at being *the* event. But definitely not the *only* event. Therefore I wondered what you would do with FOSSGIS once you dropped it out of the CFP documents? (thanks Jeff for keeping it).

There is no other place yet to put information about the FOSSGIS event, yet it contains valuable information about how to manage and fund local conferences. I believe that it is a good prototype/template for what I feel is a highly important task for OSGeo's outreach activities - help spawn and foster localized conferences on a reasonable budget. The scope of FOSSGIS is very clear, it is in German language and the venue is not outside DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The scope of ENUM is also very clear, it is mostly in Portuguese language and happens somewhere in Brazil. Then there is GFOSS attracting people in Italy (http://gislab.dirap.unipa.it/grass_meeting/index.htm) and there are several more that we don't even know or can't even spell correctly, for example if they aim at people in China, Japan or in places where they write wackbards. 

What will happen in western NA next year? Nothing. Except that (hopefully)  Portland, Oregon, United States who 'lost' this year will pick up the thread and organize a local FOSS4G in 2008 aiming at attracting people with smaller budgets. Somebody from conference committee who is local to western NA or has a business interest there should talk to them. 

Those events will collectively reach a far broader community than FOSS4G ever can and they are good for the many local businesses at the place wherever it happens to take place. Huh? English language can be such a beauty. Linger on the precision of the term "to take place" for a moment. 

I do not believe that our scarce resources will allow us to organize one FOSS4G conference on each continent each year. But this is the minimum of what we need if we want to involve people who are not able to take a week off and spend several thousand bucks traveling. More so: To reach out to those who are not (yet) prepared to invest time and money into going to a dental floss IT conference (meaning they are ignorant of what FOSS is) - it will be required to go to them. We have to rely on local events. It is one of OSGeo's primary goals to connect to local initiatives and not to compete with them. 

One question that we have to work out is how the OSGeo conference committee can or is prepared to actually help promoting or even help to organize local events. We have to avoid overlapping with *the* event if it 'takes place' in local vicinity. OSGeo should try to have one or two representatives appear at the local conference to bind the global community and further collaboration. This was what happened with Tyler appearing at ENUM, Jo at FOSSGIS and Markus at GFOSS (http://gislab.dirap.unipa.it/grass_meeting/download/foto_per_web/pages/DSCN2400.htm). OSGeo should not take on any financial responsibilities but where is the harm in helping to promote and maybe provide the IT environment to organize?

> If I wanted it to be *the* geospatial event of the year, I'd no doubt want
> to broaden it's appeal a great deal, mount a huge marketing campaign and
> so forth.  

I do not believe that this is what we need to do and this is not what VisCom aims for currently. We still have not much of a budget and I like it that way. KISS people efficiently. Grow slow. 

> But I'd be happy for it to clearly be the leading event around
> FOSS geospatial software.
> 
> Anyways, I don't mean to quibble, nor am I asking that the statement be
> removed.

I see the need to quibble but fear that whenever we do it is lost on people because we are not used to spending more than 50 seconds reading a mail. This does not include taking the time to understand what has been said... It is like producing a television advertisements that tries to sell a car in less than a minute. This is ridiculous yet it happens every day and it (de)forms our way of processing thought. Welcome all who managed to follow to this point. I am sorry for not being good at this...

> Best regards,
> 

-- 
Arnulf Benno Christl
http://www.osgeo.org
(OSGeo Board Member)
+50.7342N   +7.0707E