[OSGeo-Discuss] Return on Equity

[Landon Blake]

I am involved in another organization that illustrates why I participate
in the OSGeo. I thought sharing that might add something to the "return
on equity" conversation.

On a regular basis I meet with 20 to 30 other surveyors that are members
of the local California Land Surveyors Association Chapter. We hold the
meetings to meet one another and to discuss items of concern to our
profession. I don't know that we necessarily get any "tangible return on
equity" from our involvement, but it is important to all of us.

I look at the OSGeo in a similar manner. I'm not "GIS Certified" or a
part of an organization like URISA. In a way the OSGeo serves as my
professional organization for GIS. It gives me the opportunity to learn
from and share with other GIS professionals with whom I have some common
interests and values.

I think we need to remember OSGeo is as much about the people as it is
about the software.

On a related note, I have heard that organizations like the OSGeo slowly
die if their members don't have an agenda of "action items" to work on.
I guess this is related to the "united by a common enemy" principle. I'm
not saying that we need a common enemy, but I think that having definite
problems or challenges that we address as an organization will make us
healthier. Here are some examples of the problems or challenges I am
talking about:

[1] Affordable and reasonable access to publicly funded geospatial data.
[2] Privacy concerns with geospatial data.
[3] Affordable and reasonable access to geospatial education focused on
open source software and technical principles, not on button pushing.
[4] Promotion of open source GIS as a tool that can be used to better
the lives of the people in our society.

Promotion and support of open source software is an important part of
what we do at the OSGeo. But if you really want to make OSGeo an
organization that matters to the general public you have to see it as an
organization that promotes the use of open source GIS to solve the
bigger challenges listed above. My "return on equity" from the OSGeo is
the opportunity to do some of those things. I don't want to just write
great open source software, I want to do great things with the software
I write. I think the OSGeo can provide me the opportunity to do that.

Landon

P.S. - Thanks to Howard for the excellent post.

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jody Garnett
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:48 AM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Return on Equity vs leech of resources

Thanks for the insight;

Right now the pitch is: "We are taking part in OSGeo in order to meet 
with the rest of the community"

I am not looking for much return out of OSGeo until the projects I am 
involved in finish incubation (am I alone in this?). So far I feel bad 
that we are taking up tones of time, occasional legal council 
etc...after incubation involvement should become more positive 
(marketing etc...)
Jody

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.

_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


Warning:
Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately.