[OSGeo-Discuss] Next 5 years for OSGeo

[Arnulf Christl (OSGeo)]

Howard,
your list looks good to me. OSGeo should focus on:
* Local Chapters
* Conferences (FOSS4G + many, many localized versions)
* Global strategic binding (that is cross project, journal, marketing, etc.)

I want to add that for me it is also a goal to limit OSGeo's growth wrt
the number of paid staff and budget. We can make good use with 100k more
for hardware, services and to have more reserves for the conferences.
But I believe that we should not let the budget grow beyond ~half a
million - not even in five years. If there is money to make then it
should be made by businesses. They in turn are welcome to sponsor OSGeo.
By supporting FOSS business development OSGeo automagically supports
itself.

Local Chapters should grow by themselves, in most cases an small initial
stub created from "within" OSGeo "Global" is enough to get going. And as
Howard said - the life of OSGeo is within the local chapters.

Regards,
Arnulf.

PS:
I wonder how many FOSS geospatial core software developers there are?
Any educated guesses? What for? Becasue those are the ones who need
OSGeo global. All the others are well served with LCs.

Howard Butler schrieb:
> 
> On Sep 14, 2009, at 4:01 PM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone, a recent chat I was asked about our vision for OSGeo over
>> the next 3 and 5 years.  I'd really like to hear thoughts on the matter
>> and pool a few of the ideas together for further discussions amongst
>> committees, projects, chapters and the board.
>>
>> It's also a good way for the board nominees in the upcoming election to
>> get a sense of where other members are thinking these days.
> 
> 
> My measurement of success for OSGeo and priorities I hope it shares in
> the next 3-5 years are the following three items:
> - Continued expansion of the local chapters.  Local chapters make OSGeo
> real in the sense that mailing lists, websites, and an IRC channel can't.
> - The conference continues uninterrupted for the next five years, and we
> start to use it our central fundraising piece.
> - Cross-project collaboration, like the journal, osgeo4w, metacrs,
> benchmarking, system administration, and geodata continues to be
> fostered by us.  From my biased developer's perspective, these have been
> OSGeo's biggest accomplishments along with the local chapter development
> and consolidation of the conference.
> 
> Howard
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-- 
Arnulf Christl
OSGeo President
http://www.osgeo.org