[OSGeo-Discuss] We won. It's time for OSGeo 2.0.

Sun Aug 2 02:21:04 PDT 2015

Michael- thanks for the clarification!

You are mentioning maturity, by referring to a premature stage for the
community to "mutate" into a professional society.

>From my experience in the NGO/activitsm sector, which started in 2002 and
has covered also other themes, such as cultural mediation, ancient seeds,
or live music, the possibility of understanding the level of maturity of a
community is essential.

here is my thought in response to a prompt for issues (suggested
soundtrack: Ravel's Bolero)

a) if OSGeo is able to define over the next 4-5 months its level of
maturity as a community, it will be possible to people to understand where
to go from there.

b) If not, no major damage will be done, but I would figure that
individuals/chapter/project steering committees who feel they have a
different level of maturity or clearer objectives (starting from
*****market***** objectives) will just "go for it", develop their own
operation, and reduce their level of commitment in a joint effort.

c) I have seen this happening in the Italian scenario ....actually: this is
my story ;), and I know a couple more from others..... so I don't see why
this should not happen at a different level.

We Italians are weltmeisters in individual ventures, and find it hard to
build and maintain coalitions... at the same time, as Depeche Mode used to
say, "People are People" ;)

d) note: this scenario may not be detrimental for the geospatial open
source ecosystem in the end. It's just a matter of perspective.

In Italy there are two sentences we use when commenting the value of
collaborations.

"chi fa da sé, fa per tre": when you do things on your own, the outcome is
like if you had three people

"l'unione fa la forza": strength comes from unity

interestingly, both make sense...it all depends in sensing the context
where you are operating

e)  I hope this can happen for OSGeo over the coming months ;)

With the small NGO I created in 2011 with three other folks (one of which
is Stefano Costa, one of the pillars in the creation of GFOSS.it and one of
the drivers in Italy for the first steps of OKFN in this country) we will
be glad to contribute to this process.

Even though free/open-source is not at the core of our mission, it is an
organic part of initiatives we develop, and in any case I spent three full
years in the communications/marketing think-tank of GFOSS.it, including
liaison to various OSGeo threads.

Last but not least, we have the legal status of an NGO in Italy, but we
operate in fact on a European scale (and for some projects we network in
other continents)

We are planning for November our final event in Italy, after a very lively
year...you may have seen some of my announcements related to m(')appare .

....if any of you likes the idea of having Attivarti.org in the picture,
let me know....please visit the www.attivarti.org and check the "ENGLISH"
section of the site or the English-language entries in the blog to
understand more of what we do and if this may related to whatever you are
doing within OSGeo.

Best regards from Southern Tuscany!

Andrea aka pibinko
http://www.pibinko.org
http://www.attivarti.org

2015-08-01 18:03 GMT+02:00 Michael Gerlek <mpg at flaxen.com>:

> Mostly positive -- maybe a little wistful, but not intended to be negative.
>
> I still see areas where OSGeo does (or could) add value, but I think the
> ideas of becoming a professional society or requiring people to pay dues
> are premature at best, until we can define what OSGeo’s charter and
> activities will be for the coming couple years.
>
> If nothing else, Vasile’s survey is prompting people to think about this
> issues, and that’s what’s most important.
>
> -mpg
>
>
>
> On Aug 1, 2015, at 2:44 AM, Andrea Giacomelli <pibinko at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Michael -
>
> 1) Without knowing you in person, I can't say if your message is to be
> intended as with a "positive" tone, or with a bitter-sweet and slightly
> ironic tone ;)
>
> Whichever way, I agree that any organization (starting even from small
> groups) periodically needs to stop and consider if its current state is in
> line with the external and internal conditions and -if not- try and
> understand if some form of change should be applied.
>
> 2) the other consideration I appreciated is the one from  Even Rouault: it
> is true that, as Joni Mitchell used to sing
>
> "Don't it always seem to go / That you don't know what you've got / ‘Til
> it's gone" (Big Yellow Taxi)
>
> ...a simple test would be for OSGEO activists (I mean guys who donate at
> least half a day per week  of personal time -not paid time- to this) go on
> a "sabbatical leave" for, say, six months.
>
> then we see what happens ;)
>
> best regards from Italy.
>
> Andrea Giacomelli
> http://www.pibinko.org
>
>
> 2015-07-31 19:49 GMT+02:00 Michael Gerlek <mpg at flaxen.com>:
>
>> I've stayed out of the pre-survey discussions on charter membership and
>> whatnot, but after taking the survey yesterday, I’m starting to think that
>>
>>
>>         OSGeo has accomplished what it set out to do some years ago, and
>> as currently construed OSGeo will no longer serve a useful purpose.
>>
>> ...
>>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
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