[OSGeo-Discuss] Small projects

[Ari Jolma]

One more aspect to this thread, maybe this is a new topic but anyway.

I'm writing with a bunch of other guys a position paper to a workshop, 
whose theme is FOSS for geoinformatics in environmental modeling and 
management and which will be at iEMSs 2006. (versions of the paper are 
kept at http://map.hut.fi, the conference site is 
http://www.iemss.org/iemss2006/)

One conclusion that we are getting to, I believe, is that one benefit of 
FOSS is that because of its nature, it is possible to build better tools 
for complex problems with it. One reason is that the FOSS platform and 
geospatial tool stacks support, or _is bound to support_ more complex 
systems. Institutions such as OSGeo will be instrumental in this. And 
the way these institutions will best serve this goal is to oversee 
efforts to enhance interoperability and development of software stacks 
capable in solving complex problems.

Thus, and this is the point I'm trying to make here, I believe the 
foundation should also be proactive in starting foundation projects, not 
just admitting projects into the foundation. The projects it should seek 
to start are perhaps small but they would close perceived gaps or enable 
something seen as important. I'm not sure what will be the best way to 
do this. Perhaps by organizing "think tanks" at the conferences, perhaps 
in some other way.

Just my thoughts after spending a day writing the paper :)

Ari

-- 
Prof. Ari Jolma
Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics
Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology
POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland
Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma