[OSGeo-Discuss] Creating a new "local-osgeo-chapter"

[Frank Warmerdam]

Mateusz Loskot wrote:
> Paolo Cavallini wrote:
>> Interest also in Italy. It would be good to coordinate efforts.
> 
> I'm also very interested in OSGeo chapters subject.
> There is no such or similar group in Poland.
> There are many Linux User Groups and one GRASS group but inactive since
> 2004.

Folks,

The board is certainly keen on having local chapters.  Most of our thinking
"to date" has been that they would be primarily aimed at serving particular
language user bases more effectively.  To that end there is an OSGeo Japan
chapter/branch in the process of being launched.  Certainly Italian, and
Polish groups would be welcome too.

The board is working on some guidelines for what is involved in establishing
a local chapter and how it relates back to the foundation as a whole.

What we hadn't really thought about much was local chapters in the
"North Carolina" or "Ottawa" sense.  Essentialy folks that would like to get
together and do some projects together.

I certainly have no objection to this either and as DanielB has suggested
I think these could also be established as "osgeo project pages" to provide
a focus for the groups that are easily managable, provide mailing list and
web services and so forth.

For now, I would encourage those wishing to setup a local chapter to submit
a proposal to the board indicating the scope intended for the chapter, what
support you anticipate and if you are interested in setting up a .osgeo.org
sub-project for the chapter.

Eventually we will need to establish some general limits on local chapter
activities as long as they are using the OSGeo name and logo.  For instance,
we wouldn't want a "local OSGeo chapter" operating that generally advocated
that proprietary software is preferrable to open source software.  On the
other hand, I can't imagine we (the foundation and board) want to interfere
too much in local chapter activities.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org