[OSGeo-Discuss] Nomination for OSGEO Board election: Paolo Cavallini

[andrea giacomelli]

Hi,

Having made an effort in proposing Paolo as a charter member, it makes sense
to take the process a step forward....let's see some evidence...thoughts are
numbered, but not ranked ...just a midnight stream of consciousness...

1) Paolo makes a living out of consulting services on free/open source GIS,
with a team. For over ten years now.
This tells me that Paolo can run a business.

2) Paolo has a track record of publications on GIS. This tells me that Paolo
is keen on research and documentation/sharing of results of what he does
with his collaborators

3) Paolo lives in Tuscany, where he is originally from, but has toured for
work and leisure various continents...he recently started  maintaining a
blog with a nickname, from where he tries to explain that Italy should be
annexed by France in order to recover some of its mess.

The combination of these points tells me that Paolo is a global/local guy,
who cares for where he lives, but could take off tomorrow for a different
place (speaking three languages)

4) Paolo has long-established technical skills in free/open source

5) Paolo has proven, in his drive to stimulate the creation of GFOSS.it
(first registered as a legal not for profit entity in Italy, and
subsequently tuned as the Italian chapter for OSGEO), to have a vision to
foster the awareness and development of open source software (and free data)
in Italy, with a well-defined relationship to the broader European and
"global" context.

5.1) Paolo has been confirmed as president of the association in Feb 08, and
is expected to be in this position until February 2010. This is insuring a
stable leadership in an extremely interesting phase of free/open source GIS
developments.

6) Paolo is not perfect, and occasionally (working with him a lot in my role
as vice-president for GFOSS.it) I hear the famous Animals song "Don't let me
be misunderstood", typically in the Santa Esmeralda cover version from the
Seventies...but he has shown the capability of working "on the barricades",
as well as on strategic issues, and makes an effort to improve where things
can be improved.

7) Paolo has a team in the Italian local chapter. This means that he will
have the flexibility of balancing his commitments towards OSGEO with the
support that other chapter members will be glad to provide.

I would be very curious of seeing how all of this would work with Paolo on
the Board.

Thanks for your attention, and regards

andrea giacomelli, aka pibinko
http://www.pibinko.org

p.s. last but not least: with Paolo on the board, the other board members
would have a chance of arranging meetings around lunch at his home close to
Pisa...I know...that may be unfair to mention...and besides: you will still
have this opportunity even he eventually does not make it in the election -
so let's just see what happens ...;)
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