[OSGeo-Discuss] The New Board to be and Global representation

[Jorge Gaspar Sanz Salinas]

2008/6/13 Jeroen Ticheler <Jeroen.Ticheler at fao.org>:
> Hi all,
> I have recently seen several discussions where the geographical
> representation sentiment, perceptions toward OSGeo being US or North America
> centric and so on and so forth get in (the way). So I could pick one
> randomly to react on. I'll pick this because of its title :-)
>
> We should not be blind for perspectives and try to deal with them with care.
> However, there is _no one_ I know that is trying to purposely make the
> foundation centric to any specific country. As Cameron rightly mentioned in
> a previous email, there are countries that are native English speaking and
> that makes communication easy at the global community level for them. This
> same issue can be a problem for others though and can help the bias towards
> the largest English speaking communities on this planet even if it should
> not. I know that our members from North America actually do care a lot about
> what's going on across their borders. It is frustrating to see they are put
> into a defensive position too many times. They should not be and we, as a
> community have to avoid that from happening.
>
> Again referring to Cameron's excellent email, we are a Meritocracy and not a
> political body that has to deal with country politics, disputed areas and
> global trade. This is actually the point that is most important to me when
> it comes to representation. I don't want to see geographical representation
> come into the discussion at all! :-) Every charter member of the community
> can make his/her choice based on personal considerations. I do consider that
> myself when voting, and I do consider giving a (higher) vote when it comes
> to balanced representation, be it geographical, gender or other factors. But
> in the end what counts for me is how much merit that person has and what we
> see that person brings to the community.
>
> So my call upon the community: forget about geographical representation as a
> driving factor or political means in discussions or voting! My email gets to
> you if I would send it from Khartoum in the same way it does now that I'm
> sending it from Rome. Do you care? Or instead do you care about the content?
> Focus on the last when voting; what is the added value of that person as a
> board member to you.
>
> Ciao,
> Jeroen
>

Hi I can't be more agree with we should seek the best people to
represent the foundation, based on the merits and commitment with the
usual free software values, rather than a geographic representation.
Of course having elected people from all over the world should be a
sign that FOSS4G is spreading and OSGeo is getting more and more
broader.

But, from the Spanish Language LC point of view, I wouldn't be happy
if no one from South America is elected for the PSC (or whatever name
we decide to the committee) because my wish is that this LC gets
involved all the Spanish spoken world. But of course if we are not
able to convince people from South America to participate on the
community and we don't have people really working with the LC
activities, is normal that no one would be elected by the majority.

Regards
-- 
Jorge Gaspar Sanz Salinas
Ingeniero en Geodesia y Cartografía
http://www.geomaticblog.net
http://www.prodevelop.es