[OSGeo-Conf] [Board] FOSS4G rotation

[Jachym Cepicky]

Good points, which are summarising the discussion we had at board
meetings during last months.

Correct me, if I'm wrong, but from publicly easy available materials
(osgeo.org) it is not fully clear, that the financial risk of the
conference goes to OSGeo. OSGeo is investing money to FOSS4G, naturally
it's expecting revenue and also profit, so the not-so-financially
oriented events (as already noted, basically non-US/EU events) could
take place without having to worry, whether we will be able to organize
next event. Also not, that putting 1000 people together, you already
need appropriate venue, which are not cheep. Universities are usually
off, due to size reasons. AFAIK regional events do have no direct
financial relationship to OSGeo.org But they are filling potential gap
in the non-NA/EU countries (if you get my point).

If there is such page, which would explain the relationship of OSGeo to
FOSS4G from the financial point of view, sorry, I did not searching
well. It could clarify a lot of misunderstandings from the community.

Second option: as I said, having < 1 year for the organization of next
event is IMHO too short time. I would be glad, if the RFC for 2015 would
start along with 2014 (with maybe one month delay) (sorry, if you
already started - not read the conference-ml yet).

Jachym

Dne 12.4.2013 23:24, Cameron Shorter napsal(a):
> In the last board meeting, the question was raised about global FOSS4G
> rotation.
> 
> we currently have a 3 way rotation policy: Europe 2013 / North America
> 2014 / Rest of world 2015
> 
> It has been suggested that we should revisit this rotation policy, and
> consider:
> 
> Europe / North America / Europe / North America
> 
> Reasons:
> * Previous global FOSS4G events have attracted more people and been more
> lucrative in Europe / North America
> * Europe/North America could be argued to be less financially risky. Our
> one cancelled FOSS4G was in China in 2012.
> * FOSS4G (global and regional) events traditionally draw half their
> attendance from the local region. Europe and North America both have
> large populations with established OSGeo communities.
> 
> I'm in favour of continuing our current 3 way rotation, on the proviso
> that there are proven OSGeo communities outside of NA/Europe. By proven,
> I'd suggest that we would consider regions which have already
> successfully staged a FOSS4G regional event (or similar) and who can put
> together a compelling justification that they can attract comparable
> attendees and sponsors to Europe/North America.
> 
> Looking at: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_History
> I see that there have previously been regional FOSS4G events in:
> Argentina
> India
> Korea
> Malaysia
> Japan
> 
> So for 2015, I'd suggest that our FOSS4G pre qualification should invite
> responses from "rest of the world" and Europe, but we should give a
> preference to "rest of world" assuming they can provide a compelling
> proposal which is likely to attract similar success to past European and
> North American conferences.
> 
> Generalising the rule. Our rotation policy should be:
> 
> * We give a strong preference to a region which hasn't had FOSS4G for 2
> years
> * We next consider the region which had FOSS4G 2 years ago
> * Only as a last resort would we consider a region which had FOSS4G last
> year
> 
> Regions are considered as: Europe / North America / Other locations
> 

-- 
Jachym Cepicky
Help Service - Remote Sensing s.r.o.
jachym.cepicky at gmail.com
HS-RS: jachym at hsrs.cz http://bnhelp.cz
http://les-ejk.cz

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