[OSGeo-Conf] Motion Regarding FOSS4G-CEE Name

[Daniel P. Ames]

Consider this...

Rather than the local/regional conferences being renamed to something
unwieldy like "osgeo-conf-my-location", it would be awesome if there were a
series of "FOSS4G" named events around the world every year. This would
really BUILD the brand name of FOSS4G by INCREASING visibility of the brand.
This would not dilute it, but would pump it up.

Imagine: FOSS4G So-Cal, FOSS4G CEE, FOSS4G Japan, FOSS4G Netherlands all
helping to build up the FOSS4G name!

Then... wait for it... rather than the local meetings changing their name,
instead the main annual meeting changes ITS name... The main, sanctioned,
world wide gathering of the tribes every year should carry the very clear
and unambiguous title,

*"FOSS4G World Conference"! *(or "FOSS4G World Roundup" or "FOSS4G Global
Mashup" - I kind of like the last one...)

This should start with Beijing and be used at every annual, OSGeo
sanctioned, global event thereafter - one per year. From a marketing point
of view, this is clearly the way forward. Build the brand, spread it around,
get people using it and encourage all these local organizers to fully
promote "*FOSS4G World Conference*" at their meetings.

To put it in narcotics theory terms, the local events become the "gateway
drug" eventually leading them to the hard core *FOSS4G World Conference*.
People get hooked by attending FOSS4G-local and are eventually drawn to the
hard core world event.

- Dan

--------------------------
Daniel P. Ames, Ph.D. PE
Associate Professor, Geosciences
Idaho State University - Idaho Falls
dan.ames at isu.edu
geology.isu.edu
www.mapwindow.org



On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Dave McIlhagga
<dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca>wrote:

> +1 from me on this as well.
>
> I was somewhat indifferent to this until I considered the reality that if
> there's enough demand for local open source geospatial conferences -- they
> will happen regardless of the brand that's attached. The opportunity to
> share the branding then brings these events (including the international
> event) closer. One side effect of this - with more local events comes more
> people interacting with OSGeo and the FOSS4G brand. That should broaden the
> pool of potential attendees for the International FOSS4G Event.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2011-10-07, at 10:28 AM, Peter Batty wrote:
>
> I am not quite sure if I am officially on the conference committee yet, but
> I vote +1 if I have a vote.
>
> I recognize the concerns over potentially diluting the global FOSS4G, but
> the reality is that that great majority of people don't have the opportunity
> to travel to the other side of the world to attend a FOSS4G event (I will
> publish more numbers on this shortly, but in all cases so far, a substantial
> majority of attendees at every global event has been from the continent
> hosting the event). I think that expanding local and regional events allows
> many more people to get the benefits of attending an open source geospatial
> conference, and I think that is what OSGeo should be about. I think it's
> better to have one name for these events, that helps all of them build on
> the success of others. There is already a well established precedent for
> using the name FOSS4G for local events, with the Japanese event. We can
> still clearly indicate that a given event is the designated global FOSS4G or
> a regional event.
>
> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 4:19 AM, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> On 7/10/2011 4:57 AM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>>
>>> Motion: The OSGeo Conference Committee on behalf of OSGeo
>>> declares that it has no objection to the name FOSS4G-CEE being
>>> used for an open source geospatial conference in central and eastern
>>> europe organized by a group including Karel Charvat and Jachym
>>> Cepicky.
>>>
>>
>> -0 (based on Jeff's comment that local foss4g events will cause confusion
>> in the market place). However, I do suggest that we encourage local
>> conferences to select a common name and encourage re-use of similar
>> guidelines. Maybe osgeo-conf-cee, osgeo-conf-japan, ... with url:
>> http://2011.cee.conf.osgeo.org
>> Note, I don't feel strongly about my comments and don't want it to block
>> this motion if the majority of people support it.
>>
>> --
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Geospatial Solutions Manager
>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>
>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>
>>
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>
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