[OSGeo-Discuss] Hacking OSGeo
Andrew Ross
andrew.ross at eclipse.org
Sun Sep 14 08:07:53 PDT 2014
Dear Jachym, Everyone
Just a few quite thoughts.
I encourage anyone who has concerns, or fears anything resembling a
take-over to please speak up on the list, off-list with any other person
from OSGeo & me, or even just me in private. We, people involved with
both OSGeo & LocationTech, have been talking for roughly 2 years. I
don't think everyone is fully aware of the fact that at each step
collaboration was possible, we approached the OSGeo board & other
leaders in the community discretely to talk about it and once there was
a rough plan, followed-through publicly such as bidding on FOSS4G 2014,
organizing FOSS4G NA 2015. I can't think of anything that was done
improperly. We're very open to feedback in public or private about this.
The team organizing & assembling the program for FOSS4G NA 2015 is a
team of 11 people volunteering from the community. These are people well
known to OSGeo and many have participated in past FOSS4G teams. They are
freed up from the burden of the logistics of organizing the conference
by Anne Jacko's team at the Eclipse Foundation who organizes conferences
for a living. I believe that there will be more "control" in such a
circumstance. For what it's worth, when discussing with the OSGeo board
yesterday we noticed obvious signs of this like much more prominent
mention of OSGeo & OSGeo's logo on the FOSS4G NA web site. Also, FOSS4G
NA 2015 speakers will get free passes. We hope this is seen as a nice
positive step forward.
Kind regards,
Andrew
On 14/09/14 07:25, Jachym Cepicky wrote:
> Guys,
>
> as long as I understand it: "some members of the community" are scared
> of LocationTech "taking over" whatever (FOSS4G conference, OSGeo
> projects and community). This can be based on real action, taken on
> either site, unofficial statement, misunderstandings or personal
> dislikes.
>
> Yesterday, we had short (about 2hours) face 2 face discussion with
> Andrew here in PDX (me, Vasile, Jeff and Gerald) and I personally
> believe, that it is not in interest of LocationTech to "crush" OSGeo
> or FOSS4G conference. It was clearly stated, that LocationTech would
> like to contribute to FOSS4G and make it to better conference,
> regarding (again) "some remarks" of "some members of the community"
> (including myself), that the way, FOSS4G is organised, does not
> necessary meet some of the community aspects, we would like to stress.
> I would like to note, that the discussion was very open on both sides,
> still calm and productive.
>
> "To contribute" of course means "to work" and LocationTech is anything
> but volunteer driven organisation. It has been stated, that FOSS4G-NA
> next year will be organised primarily by LocationTech, but OSGeo willl
> be represented clearly and (so to say) loudly.
>
> This could be one of the firsts steps towards closer cooperation
> between LocationTech and OSGeo.
>
> Everybody is aware, that on some points, LocationTech is not that
> good, as OSGeo currently is. OSGeo is certainly failing in other
> things. Looking for ways, how to strengthen common strengths and
> weaken our weaknesses should have "non-zero-sum" effect.
>
> We, as OSGeo shall later evaluate, whether the price for helping us
> LocationTech with conferences (regardless if on regional or global
> level), was too hight or quite ok. In case of disagreement, we shall
> try to find solution for the next time.
>
> In the worst case, we find out, that cooperation is not possible and
> everybody can go it's way than.
>
> I hope, you get my point(s) and that I did not misinterpreted
> anything, what was said.
>
> Thank you
>
>
> Jachym
>
>
>
>
> 2014-09-14 10:07 GMT+02:00 Bart van den Eijnden <bartvde at osgis.nl>:
>> Barend,
>>
>> I'm talking about the "burn-out" signals that have been given recently by the current LOC (mostly because they have to re-invent the wheel every year and do a lot more than can be expected from them).
>>
>> So IMHO organising it this way is not sustainable in the long run, past organisers will not come back for a second round. It simply has gotten too big to organise it this way.
>>
>> There have been many related threads on the conference committee about this recently.
>>
>> Sorry if my brief summary does not reflect all of those discussions.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Bart
>>
>> On 14 Sep 2014, at 09:10, <b.j.kobben at utwente.nl> <b.j.kobben at utwente.nl> wrote:
>>
>>> What actually do you perceive to be the "problem with FOSS4G organising"?
>>>
>>> I see it being a rather succesful, pretty large conference for the last
>>> two years, bringing in a substantial amount of income to OSGEO. One might
>>> perceive it as being "not the same as it used to be", but that is because
>>> size DOES matter, and once such a thing grows over a certain size (I guess
>>> around 700+ participants or so), you just cant have the "informal cosy
>>> event" that used to be...
>>>
>>> Yours,
>>> Barend
>>>
>>> --
>>> Barend Köbben
>>> Senior Lecturer - ITC-University of Twente
>>> PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede (Netherlands)
>>> @barendkobben
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 13-09-2014 23:51, "Bart van den Eijnden" <bartvde at osgis.nl> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Okay then I have 2 follow-up questions for you and/or Jeff:
>>>>
>>>> 1) do you acknowledge we have a problem with FOSS4G organising?
>>>>
>>>> 2) what other solutions to this problem do you see and why are they
>>>> better than co-organising with Eclipse/LocationTech?
>>>>
>>>> Bart
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>>> On 14 sep. 2014, at 03:25, Venkatesh Raghavan
>>>>> <raghavan at media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2014/09/14 0:11, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>>>>>> Responding to your comment, we now work closely with several
>>>>>> foundations (ISPRS, ICA, GLTN, and soon GSDI, are examples that I have
>>>>>> met with recently personally).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There does seem to be something different about the way LocationTech
>>>>>> is handing this, seems somewhat 'rushed' or 'forced', and I am not sure
>>>>>> why this pressure. Maybe we can slow things down a bit, take the hand
>>>>>> off the throttle, sign an MoU, maybe have booths at each other's
>>>>>> events...similar to how OSGeo works already with these other
>>>>>> foundations.
>>>>> I fully agree with views expressed by Jeff.
>>>>> I look forward growing collaborations with
>>>>> OSGeo and other international organizations
>>>>> in a systematic and orderly manner.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best
>>>>>
>>>>> Venka
>>>>>> We can talk about this shortly.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -jeff
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 2014-09-13 7:51 AM, Andrew Ross wrote:
>>>>>>> Dear Jeff, Everyone,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'll drop in to help as well. I may be a little late as I promised my
>>>>>>> children a video chat. I apologize as I'd like to be there and help.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> For what it's worth, regarding the tag line agenda item, OSGeo is far
>>>>>>> from the only open source community. Unaffiliated projects in Github
>>>>>>> can
>>>>>>> claim that for example. It might be better to aim for something a bit
>>>>>>> more distinct.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> See you soon,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Andrew
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On September 12, 2014 7:28:08 PM PDT, Jeff McKenna
>>>>>>> <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> For the record Arnulf forgot that the Board meeting starts at 8am
>>>>>>> at the
>>>>>>> same location, discussing of course the exact topics that he
>>>>>>> mentioned
>>>>>>> (http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2014-09-13). But please
>>>>>>> don't
>>>>>>> let me hinder your energy, definitely tackle the areas that need
>>>>>>> love
>>>>>>> (reviving the marketting committee, picking your favorite project
>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>> incubation and give some nudges...lots to do!)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks, see you early at the sprint.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> PS. the Board meeting, and any Board meeting, is open to anyone and
>>>>>>> everyone.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -jeff
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 2014-09-12 9:25 AM, Seven wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>>>>> Hash: SHA1
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Folks,
>>>>>>> if anybody indicates interest in hacking OSGeo at the code
>>>>>>> sprint in
>>>>>>> Portland tomorrow please answer.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In past years we have brain stormed around Marketing,
>>>>>>> Sponsorship,
>>>>>>> Education, Data (specifically how OSGeo can support the Open
>>>>>>> Data
>>>>>>> model) and so on. It is a aunique opportunity to evolve OSGeo
>>>>>>> as an
>>>>>>> organization and I would be happy to contribute to anything you
>>>>>>> might
>>>>>>> want to achieve for within and around OSGeo as an organization.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This can also include how (or rather if at all) OSGeo manages
>>>>>>> FOSS4G.
>>>>>>> In my experience the day directly after the event is the best
>>>>>>> time to
>>>>>>> actually do this, impressions are still fresh and lots of
>>>>>>> ideas have
>>>>>>> popped up. If we do not invest some time into realizing them
>>>>>>> we are
>>>>>>> not going to get anywhere. So if you think OSGeo needs a push
>>>>>>> in a
>>>>>>> certain direction, join. There will be representatives from the
>>>>>>> board
>>>>>>> of directors, the president (I guess you are there Jeff,
>>>>>>> right?) and
>>>>>>> other folks in key roles. It is probably the only time in the
>>>>>>> year
>>>>>>> when you will get so many bright OSGeo folks in one place.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Here is a link to drop your ideas. Its a Wiki, just go hack it
>>>>>>> as you
>>>>>>> like:
>>>>>>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Hack_2014
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>> Arnulf
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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