[OSGeo-Discuss] Nomination for Michael Gerlek to OSGeo Board 2011

[Michael P. Gerlek]

I'm on vacation right now, so this will have to be short -- I'll write something more up when I get home in a few days, but for now let me just make some bullet points:

* Thank you to Aaron for the nomination.  It's a privilege to be nominated, and doubly so to be in company of so many other nominees.

* In addition to the stuff Aaron lists below, I'm working with Howard Butler the PDAL (nee libLAS) project for lidar and point cloud support.  It's not a formal OSGeo project today, but as it matures it will hopefully become one someday.

* I also worked at LizardTech for a decade, where I championed LizardTech's open source initiatives, including bringing open source libraries into their projects, financially sponsoring OSGeo annually, and rewriting the licenses for their closed-source libraries to be freely distributable within the open source world.

* I know of nothing seriously "broken" within OSGeo today that I want to charge right in and start fixing.  Tyler and the board members have done well over the past five years.  However, there are two areas I’d like to focus on...

* First, as Aaron notes below, I'm one of the folks who runs our local chapter.  We've got a great group that meets monthly, and we've been able to put on some great activities -- such as arranging to give talks and panels at local conferences, and putting on our own day-long workshop/conference/sprint at a local university that was attended by many, many people.  I'd like to see the board be proactive in getting more local chapters organized and running, as this sort of grass roots work at the individual level is often the best way to introduce people to open source and open data.  I've got some ideas on how we could help jump-start things.

* Second, I had the good fortune to serve as editor for the "Open Sources" column in GeoConnexions magazine.  We produced two dozen columns over two years, all contributed by members of the OSGeo community, covering everything from libraries and apps to open data and open curricula.  I have also just started a smaller, similar column for the Lidar News magazine.  OSGeo should work with the media in our industry to identify more opportunities like this.  Publishers always want quality content, it's something we can provide for little direct financial cost, and it is a good way to get our message out and seed development of other marketing-like content.

Thanks for considering me for the board!

-mpg



-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Aaron Racicot
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 2:22 PM
To: discuss
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Nomination for Michael Gerlek to OSGeo Board 2011

I would like to take this opportunity to nominate Michael Gerlek for the OSGeo Board.  Michael (known to many as MPG) has been an active member of the OSGeo community from the very first planning meetings in 2006.
He has been a Charter member of OSGeo since 2006 and has actively participated in many functions of OSGeo including leading the Visibility committee.  Michael also co-founded CUGOS, the regional OSGeo chapter in the Pacific Northwest.  He is actively involved in many open source GIS projects, and now dedicates himself to full time consulting work in the open source GIS space through his company Flaxen Geo Consulting.  He has a long history in participating with the OGC and could bring unique experience in that arena to the board.  Most importantly his participation in the OSGeo board would bring great industry insight, leadership experience, and a true dedication to furthering the OSGeo mission.  I strongly encourage the OSGeo community to consider Michael as a valuable addition to the board and the OSGeo family.

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Mpg

Thanks for your consideration.

Aaron

--
Aaron Racicot
Z-Pulley Inc.
aaronr at z-pulley.com
360-221-2441


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