[Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Defining an OSGeo Ambassador role

Sat May 5 10:58:07 EDT 2012

Venka:

Your points have actually been discussed, but so far there hasn't apparently been enough interest to further push the idea of stronger charter member roles. 

(Your points (1) and (3) are already the case, and some people (myself included) feel that (2) is not desirable right now.)

-mpg

From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Venkatesh Raghavan
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 5:46 AM
Cc: discuss at lists.osgeo.org; OSGeo-Board; marketing
Subject: [Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Defining an OSGeo Ambassador role

There was a discussion about responsibility of Charter members
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2011-December/009239.html

and a wiki page (see below) was initiated (at the request of a Board member)
but not much input after that.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_charter_member_page_instruction

I also made several suggestions to the board which till date is answered by anyone
on the OSGeo board.
See thread http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2012-January/009337.html

Venka

On 2012/05/05 21:01, Margherita Di Leo wrote: 

Hi all,

I support the ideas exposed by Cameron and Stefano. Particularly for what
concerns charter members, as a charter member, I am aware that voting the
boarding members is a strong responsibility, but I think we should have
more responsibilities linked to our role. Personally, since I have been
voted as a charter member, I have considered myself somehow
an OSGeo "ambassador", for example including the Foundation in my
presentations, spreading out FOSS4G among the academy (students and
colleagues) and professionals, organizing events and conferences, etc..
Also, I think it would be nice to have a dedicated wiki page and email
address (or alias).

Regards,
madi

On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 7:33 AM, Cameron Shorter
 <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>wrote:

Following on from ideas from this previous email thread, and in particular
picking up on Stefano's ideas, I'd like to make the following proposal:

I suggest that we define an OSGeo Ambassador role very widely, but also
have different levels of Ambassador - so that conference organisors can
still feel like they are getting someone distinguished and pick someone
exclusive.

The OSGeo Ambassador categories would be:

1. OSGeo Board Member
2. Ex OSGeo Board Member
These are the elite of the OSGeo community. We only have 8 active board
members in the world, which have been peer selected based upon their
outstanding leadership in the greater OSGeo community.

3. Charter member
Charter membership is obtained through a strongly contested selective
process. Members tend to be developers and leaders in one or more OSGeo
projects, and/or OSGeo business leaders, and have a deep understanding in
many of the OSGeo projects and principles of Open Source.

4. Voted position in an OSGeo community
These people hold a position of responsibility within one of the OSGeo
sub-communities. This may be a chair of an OSGeo Regional Chapter, or as a
member of a project's Project Steering Committee.

5. OSGeo community member
These people are actively involved in one or more OSGeo communities,
acting as a developer, user or supporter of OSGeo software.

Anyone fitting one of the above categories, may put themselves forward as
an OSGeo Ambassador. Each ambassador would be expected to create a profile
for themselves on an OSGeo Ambassador wiki page, which includes:

* Name
* City and Country of residence
* Phone, Email
* Photo
* OSGeo relevant experience. (~150 words)

I also propose that the OSGeo Marketing committee would be responsible for
overseeing the Ambassador wiki page, once the guidelines have been put into
place.

I welcome feedback from all, and call upon the board to make a final vote
on whether this proposal (or a variant) should be put into action.

On 21/04/12 20:47, Stefano Costa wrote:

Il 21/04/2012 12:28, Jody Garnett ha scritto:

I would hope that our charter members (who have been through a public
nomination process in part for their involvement) are already acting in
the capacity of "Ambassador" for OSGeo.

I totally agree on this point. The fact that charter members only
official role is to nominate new charter members and the Board is IMHO a
weakness. Their role as OSGeo champions (and "Ambassadors" if there's
consensus on that) should be emphasised. Quick ideas:

- personal pages on osgeo.org (osgeo.org/members/johndoe)
- @osgeo.org e-mail address (even an alias is fine) to be used as their
primary address
- interviews on the main blog
- a track record of their public activity wrt OSGeo promotion, software
development, management, documentation and what else

In this way the charter members could gain a higher visibility in the
wider geospatial community and be recognised as official representatives.

Ciao
steko

BTW is there any process in place to "remove" charter members if they
become inactive, move to another planet or are deemed unfit for the purpose
by the community?
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On 20/04/12 07:24, Cameron Shorter wrote:

On 20/04/2012 4:06 AM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:

Do we have any policies and cost structures for the Ambassador function
yet?

I've seen a few people talking about creating an OSGeo Ambassador role.
Arnulf I think might have been the first to mention it, and I think it is
an excellent idea. I'm also aware that the OGC are considering developing
OGC ambassadors too.

So I'd like to open the floor and see what people think an ambassador's
role could involve, which leads into the qualities we would wish our
ambassador's to have, which leads into the ways we may select an ambassador.

Let me start by noting some of the driving factors:
1. Arnulf has noted that as OSGeo president, he has spent a significant
amount of time on areoplanes travelling around the world to talk on behalf
of OSGeo. He has suggested that this role should be shared.
Conference organisors, who have a primary goal of attracting attendees,
look for authoritative figureheads to talk at conferences. They are
expected to have a deep insight into a specific domain, such as OSGeo. They
should also speak well, even better if they are entertaining.

2. OSGeo is a sexy topic has many conferences, and there are hundreds, if
not thousands of conferences around the world which would like to see an
OSGeo presence.

3. OSGeo is fortunate to draw membership from around the world, including
boasting a number of very healthy local chapters. As such, we are likely to
have potential ambassadors in most counties. (We might be a bit short in
Antarctica)

4. There are times when negotiating MOUs or similar with other countries,
it would be useful to have someone local speak with authority on behalf of
OSGeo.

5. Note that there are conflicting interests here of wanting to open up
the role for anyone who volunteers, verses maintaining a selectiveness and
prestige for the role which is the key selection criteria for conferences
asking for an ambassador.

As such, I think it important that ambassadors can only be voted into the
position, and not handed out to anyone. We already vote for a board, and
charter members.
I think board members should be considered ambassadors by default.
Should charter members be considered ambassadors? Charter members only
get this role after demonstrating a commitment to OSGeo, so will likely
have a reasonable depth of OSGeo knowledge. Maybe we should ask for a
history of speaking well (as demonstrated at conferences), to the
ambassador criteria.

Then lastly, do we wish to invite ambassadors from a greater circle? At
this point, I'd probably err on saying no, as if the entry bar to becoming
an ambassador is too easy, then the mystic of the role will be lost.

--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com

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