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

[Gary Lang]

I would go a bit further than this and say that local groups need to be
using our infrastructure and work with our community manager to make
sure that whatever local activities occur are consonant with the charter
of OSGeo and do not use the OSGeo name for activities outside the scope
of OSGeo. 

So I would do more than encourage those who want to do this to submit a
proposal to the board, it should be a requirement, with some ongoing
oversight by OSGeo governance built into the process.

Doing this would avoid the kinds of things Frank expresses concern
about, for one thing. 

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Warmerdam [mailto:fwarmerdam at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Frank
Warmerdam (External)
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 6:25 AM
To: discuss at mail.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Creating a new "local-osgeo-chapter"

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,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------
---------------------------------------+------
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


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