[OSGeo-Discuss] Membership fee (was: Proposed process for selecting OSGeo charter members)

[Dirk Frigne]

Mateusz,

[and others],

thanks for your reaction,

On 02-07-14 11:44, Mateusz Łoskot wrote:
> On 1 July 2014 18:46, Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com> wrote:
>> [...]
>> I may be naive, but for me personally this works out well, and having
>> that feeling is one of the important incentives to keep contributing to
>> the community. (And by the way, working with other members of the OSGeo
>> community didn't result in any bad experience until now)
>> [...]
>> "Core principles are:
>>
>>     OSGeo should act as a low capital, volunteer focused organisation.
>>     OSGeo should focus support on OSGeo communities and initiatives
>> which support themselves. " [1]
>> [...]
>> Personally, I don't think it are the users nor the community members who
>> should take care of that. Because the belonging to the community should
>> remain a *free* right, where the value comes from respect and the
>> intense feeling of giving something without expecting something back.
>>
>> The strange thing is that many of the members are also professional
>> involved into OSGeo (acting as A T G or C).
>> So I suggest it should not be the (community) members who should pay for
>> the support, but these professional actors.
>> [...]
>> The sponsoring should not be an obligation either, but should be the
>> common responsibility of the companies sponsoring the FOSS4G events today.
> Dirk,
>
> You've captured the essence well and it fits my personal point of view
> at OSGeo too.
> You've also given some good ideas to work on, on how to move about the mixture
> of expectations within the community.
>
> We may need to be careful to not to divide the community to classes of members,
> professionals and non-professionals. It may turn into a very similar
> issue as paying
> and non-paying members.
I agree with you.
What I tried to express with next phrase:

The strange thing is that many of the members are also professional
involved into OSGeo (acting as A T G or C).
So I suggest it should not be the (community) members who should pay for
the support, but these professional actors.

Is the following:

We are all members of one community, and as such are we are all acting
as users, in the broadest sense.
However, belonging to the community gives each member a return, also in
the broadest sense.
(f.e. because of the simple principle you will not become a member if
there is no return).
 
What is important in my view, and I think many of us agree with that
(counting the positive reactions on my reply [2]), this return is not
about money, but in many aspects much more valuable. (I'll come to that
in the reply to Bruce [3] I am preparing).

I observe that many (if not all) members of our community have different
roles in life. I tried to simplify these roles into 4 categories to use
the image of Deoxyribonucleic acid ( *DNA* ), where 4 nucleotides form
the kernel of all known living organisms. The only thing I tried to
express was that it should be the members that benefit in these
different roles in life, using tools, techniques, software or know how
they share in the community should have the [*not* mandatory]  respect
to donate to the community they believe is valuable.

(valuable not to be expressed in $$ but real *value* such as:
 - having qualities worthy of respect, admiration, or esteem: a valuable
friend.
 - of considerable use, service, or importance: valuable information.
)[4]

Why? Because they get the opportunity to benefit from the common assets
of the community in whatever aspect, and get the possibility to return
some of these benefits for the needs of the community.
Important is that there is no guarantee what is done with what you
return, just like [many] members commit time, code or whatever without
expecting immediate return.

Hope this makes it more clear.

>  
>
> Thanks for your writing.
>
> Best regards,
You're welcome,

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors#Board_Priorities
 
[2] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-July/013030.html
[3] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-July/013043.html
[4] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/valuable ; meaning 2. and 3.

-- 
Yours sincerely,


ir. Dirk Frigne
CEO

Geosparc n.v.
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