[OSGeo-Discuss] Board Geographic Diversity

Mon Aug 13 15:26:51 PDT 2007

There have been a lot of good comments on this topic. I see another
potential problem with trying to fill board member seats from different
geographic regions. We may have a lot of qualified candidates running
from a very active region, and only one candidate running from another
region. 

If we have to select a candidate from each region we may end up forcing
qualified members out of the running and forcing less qualified
candidates in. 

Not only that, but how do we decide if a nominee adequately represents a
region? Does he have to live there? What if the region contains his
"homeland" but he is now working and living in another country? What if
this out-of-town assignment is only temporary? What if I'm living in one
country but working on a lot of projects dealing with another specific
region? Could I then run for the board seat from that region?

I think this could open up a can of worms.

I'd much rather see some questions posed to board nominees that address
the promotion of open source GIS software in a "global" manner. For
example, you might ask the nominees what they are doing to support
internationalization of software, translation of user interfaces, and
support for global or "foreign" unit and coordinate systems.

The Sunburned Surveyor

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Dave McIlhagga
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 2:56 PM
To: punkish at eidesis.org; OSGeo Discussions
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Board Geographic Diversity

One of the benefits of the open source model is it breaks down the  
artificial geographic barriers among it's participants. Open Source  
is about quality of contributions from wherever they may come around  
the world.

As much as we all would like to see maximum geographic representation  
in OSGeo and the board -- I think that trying to re-institute  
artificial geographic barriers flies in the face of what has made  
open source successful in the first place.

Dave

On 13-Aug-07, at 2:06 PM, P Kishor wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I would love hear from others about what they think of geography-based
> Board seats. Please weigh in.
>
> PS: If anyone is CDG tomorrow morning at 8.20a local time, page me,
> but make sure to wear your OSGeo swag so I can recognize you... I'll
> be there for two hours waiting for my flight to DEL.
>
> On 8/11/07, P Kishor <punk.kish at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 8/10/07, Steve Lime <Steve.Lime at dnr.state.mn.us> wrote:
>>> Hi all: Perhaps this has been discussed before, but... Given the  
>>> apparent desire to maintain geographic diversity amongst OSgeo  
>>> leadership perhaps in the future we might consider regionally  
>>> based board seats.
>>
>> This is absolutely the most wonderful, workable, and simplest idea to
>> this problem.
>>
>> When I was casting my vote, I had little to go on. One vote went to
>> someone who I have met personally, if only briefly (that person won
>> the election). One vote went to someone from a geographic area other
>> than Europe/NA (that person did not win). The other votes were based
>> on my recollection of their contribution to the mailing lists,
>> software, activism, and somewhat on the nomination write-ups. It is
>> hard to compare someone who writes code (I don't as much... at least,
>> not basic code) to someone who evangelizes (I do a lot of that... I
>> just spent the entire morning yesterday giving a presentation on open
>> geospatial at the World Bank... it was received with a lot of
>> enthusiasm and interest).
>>
>> Having regionally allocated board seats would cut down on some of  
>> this
>> comparison problem, and it would also ensure representation from
>> around the world, from regions that are different levels in diffusion
>> and adoption, and hence, need different kinds of work and  
>> involvement.
>>
>> Thanks Steve, for suggesting this... I wholeheartedly second this.
>>
>>
>>> That is, you have representatives from:
>>>
>>> North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, South/Central America and  
>>> Oceania
>>>
>>> If the bulk of activity is in North America and Europe then given  
>>> them two seats. Then you have nominations within a region and so  
>>> on... Every other year different geographic regions would be up  
>>> for re-election. As a voting member you'd vote for candidates in  
>>> each region.
>>>
>>> If organizational affiliation diversity is more important  
>>> (government vs. higher education vs. private sector vs. hobbyist)  
>>> than geographic diversity then the same idea would apply. We do  
>>> that here in Minnesota for our state GIS/LIS consortium board.  
>>> That board also has an at-large seat open to anyone.
>>>
>>> Just a thought...
>>>
>>> Steve
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
>> Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
>> Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
>> S&T Policy Fellow, National Academy of Sciences http://www.nas.edu/
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> collaborate, communicate, compete
>> =====================================================================
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
> Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
> Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
> S&T Policy Fellow, National Academy of Sciences http://www.nas.edu/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> collaborate, communicate, compete
> =====================================================================
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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