[OSGeo-Conf] [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: Incubation, osgeo-EU and FOSS4G

[till.adams at fossgis.de]

I totally agree with Jeroen in his arguing and want to stress this last 
sentence:

NEVER IGNORE COMPANIES AGAIN IN OSGEO OR FOSS4G! THEY ARE NOT A THREAT, 
THEY ARE A NECESSITY.


Till


Am 2016-05-12 09:17, schrieb Jeroen Ticheler:
> Hi Max,
> Good to have a summarized discussion about what OSGeo is. Let me only
> react on the business side you discussed. I absolutely disagree with
> what you are saying ;-) I'll explain:
>
> People can only contribute voluntary (or professional) time if at
> some point they earn a salary that pays their bills. And if 
> businesses
> didn't flourish, there wouldn't be governments, universities etcetera
> because there wouldn't be money for governments to fund itself nor
> academia. I've been a government employee for many years and I'm
> convinced governments and academia are indispensable in a well
> developed society. Some things are better done there than in 
> business.
> BUT, many other things are better done in business. I often see a lot
> of distrust from the public sector towards the business sector,
> including in your expressed view. This is harmful to OSGeo! If I can
> send my whole company to FOSS4G to present our work, provide free
> workshops, sponsor AND learn this is a highly valuable thing in my
> opinion. It is ALL about individuals contributing and learning and
> sharing knowledge equally.
>
> I have spend many years in Africa, both as a child and as an adult.
> As a kid I've even travelled on food trucks delivering aid in refugee
> camps. I don't need many words to describe the impression that made 
> on
> me: people (Tuaregs in my case) that lost their cattle and thus their
> work, suffered deeply, but still had their pride and served us tea on
> the edge of the desert. They had nowhere to go and were forced to
> abandon their nomad lifestyle to settle as farmers on land that was
> unsuitable for agriculture. You can't sink much further in life.
> This led me to work at the UN and then change to business because I
> thinks that's where the real difference can be made if done right. 
> One
> of my main objectives is to develop knowledge that is non-exclusive
> and also helps those living in less favorable economic conditions.
> Technology won't be of much help to those Tuaregs, but I'm always
> looking at opportunities to get some company kickstarted there
> (hopefully under the GeoCat umbrella) so solid commercial activity 
> can
> be developed locally. And for that, I won't ignore the commercial
> interests I have because I'm convinced in doing so that the
> development of a local company has the largest chance of success. And
> thus this company can contribute to the lives of its employees and 
> pay
> (the least possible, but proper amount of) taxes to its government.
> When successful, also those employees could attend a local or global
> OSGeo event. Every successful company can contribute significantly to
> improving the lives of individuals. And open source is a great 
> vehicle
> for this. FOSS4G and OSGeo are great vehicles for this too. Companies
> must be able to benefit from them, because it is the people in those
> companies and their families that benefit. And it is government and
> academia that can then pay salaries to you.
>
> NEVER IGNORE COMPANIES AGAIN IN OSGEO OR FOSS4G! THEY ARE NOT A
> THREAT, THEY ARE A NECESSITY.
>
> Warm hearted greetings,
> Jeroen
>
>> Op 11 mei 2016 om 11:01 heeft massimiliano cannata 
>> <massimiliano.cannata at gmail.com> het volgende geschreven:
>>
>> BUSINESS AND OSGEO(EU)
>> OSGeo is an organisation of people. Not of sectors or groups or 
>> parties. Of course people belong to categories and this tend to 
>> influence the way they see the world. For this reason people tend to 
>> contribute to the community for their competence and interest within 
>> committees or working groups. It is not the mandate of OSGeo making 
>> lobbies or acquire mandates. To me OSGeo should get together great 
>> projects and people to offer the world the possibility of advance and 
>> improve the life of people. I know It is a bit exaggerated but when i 
>> think of open source i see it as a mean of equity: like making  
>> accessible food and sanitation and drinking water and medicine to 
>> everyone in the world. Making tools for a better governance available 
>> to all.
>> OSGeo is about mutually sharing experiences, ideas, solutions not 
>> building business. For this LocationTech which is a community of 
>> companies / entities I understood is more suited.
>> So my vision is OSGeo focused on people not on companies or groups. 
>> Splitting the community is not an advancement but a loss of value.
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