[OSGeo-Discuss] Return on Equity

[Frank Warmerdam]

Howard Butler wrote:
> Open source software works because people acting in their own self 
> interest have the auxiliary benefit of helping everyone in the project.  
> Report your pet bug, file a patch, add a new feature -- all of these 
> things immediately help you, but ultimately help the project.  This 
> activity also imparts tangential benefits that are very hard to quantify 
> but can be clearly important like personal visibility, credibility, and 
> status.
...
 > I think it is time we take a step back and attempt to
> quantify what the return on that investment has been.  What has the 
> existence of OSGeo enabled that could not have happened otherwise?

Howard,

I would claim that the benefits of OSGeo are quite hard to quantify.
But hopefully we can at least identify some qualitative improvements.

 From my perspective the more obvious benefits are:

1) I was able to launch a GDAL/OGR sponsorship program that is fairly
credible to corporate entities (ie. it doesn't just look like me
feather-bedding), and we were able to turn that funding around to
fund a maintainer role.

2) We have some organization around selecting conference venues, and this
process has (I think) resulted in multiple credible host candidates
putting the conference on a more even keel.

3) We have dependable project infrastructure for those that want to
use it.  I'd add that this "shared hosting" effort has had a substantial
benefit for GDAL/OGR (and I think MapServer, OSSIM, etc) of encouraging
the use of better tools (trac/svn vs. bugzilla/cvs) that might not have
happened if the projects were still on their own.

There are some less tangible benefits, but I find there are many and
it is hard for me to decide which are significant and which are in my
own head.

>  What is the elevator pitch, one-sentence value proposition to a 
 > potential sponsor of OSGeo?

My "short pitch" to existing users of open source geospatial software
is that they need to find ways of supporting and fostering the
community that makes and improves the software they use.  That some
modest effort in this direction keeps the "factory" working, and
provides them with credibility when they need something.

Depending on the organization this pitch might lead to in-kind
support, project specific sponsorship or sponsorship for OSGeo as
a whole.

With consulting companies working in the field, I would emphasize
that having some profile as a project and community supporter is
important to clients when they are selecting a service vendor.

The inverse of the above, is that if we want OSGeo sponsors on this
sort of basis we need to demonstrate that sponsorship of OSGeo
actually helps the projects and that such sponsorship actually
produces a higher profile for the sponsors.

 > What is the concrete return on sweat equity that a volunteer
> within OSGeo can expect to earn?  We need to think about structural 
> issues OSGeo might have that hinder our ability to model the Open Source 
> symbiosis described in the first paragraphs of this email for those with 
> financial resources or those willing to swing an ax or two.

This I will need to think on this.  I'd like to think the web site
spotlights, the Sol Katz award, and "fancy OSGeo titles" provide a
little visibility/credibility/status juice but clearly the feedback loop
for participating in the "incubation committee" for instance isn't going
to be as tight as implementing a new software feature you can use right
away.

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 OSGeo, http://osgeo.org