[OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a European Chapter

Thu Jul 27 02:08:50 PDT 2017

Hi - in the midst of end-of-month deadlines I missed the first part of this
thread....please feel free to relay to the "eu" or "board" lists.

a) One comment/recommendation, reproposing the one I made in Jan 2007
during the founding meeting of GFOSS.it aka Italian Chapter.
This concerning the composition of the board / steering committee: it would
greatly help if there were a mechanism to insure an equal presence from
different stakeholder groups...namely: academics, (small-medium)
enterprises, public-sector users, and possibly even "just citizens" with
some level of geomatic maturity***.

b) With such a composition, and a minimal level of resources to insure that
the chapter can run a minimal set of activities, there is a starting point
for an action of the chapter which will balance and harmonize different
agendas.

Without these conditions, there is a possibility that different scenarios
may happen (i.e. the chapter may become a marketing office, or a "pure
research lab", a "mapping party shop", etc...depending on the prevailing
resources).
Such evolutions may also be fine, as long as the community is aware of
"paradigm shifts" in the expectations of what a  volunteer-based venture
should produce (...this related to the importance of defining a roadmap, as
indicated by Jachim).

c) Having followed for 20 years now the development of geomatics in
relation to "EU stuff", having consistently advocated FOSS4G principles in
EU-level activities in which I have been involved, and currently being
engaged in EU-centered actitivities, I will be very interested  to see the
development of an OSGEU-EU Chapter.

Ciao -

Andrea Giacomelli
http://www.pibinko.org
info at pibinko.org
+39 331 7539228
P. IVA: 01582480537

2017-07-26 9:03 GMT+02:00 Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli at polimi.it>:

> Dear Maxi
> Well noted. We'll discuss about that as well. This is a relevant point.
> Thank you for suggesting solutions.
> Are there other comments by other members?
> Best regards
> Maria
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my Samsung device
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>
> Date: 25/07/2017 14:13 (GMT+01:00)
> To: Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com>, OSGeo Discussions <
> discuss at lists.osgeo.org>, eu at lists.osgeo.org, OSGeo Board <
> board at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: Re: [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a
> European Chapter
>
> Dear European charter members and OSGeo board,
> I would like to express my support for an OSGeo continental chapter and
> provide my point of view, that even if often considered uncomfortable, hope
> will bring discussion to improve.
>
> I hope that before starting the chapter:
>
> * there is a clear and equitable rule for using the OSGeo name in European
> bids (see h2020 for example) since this may be a competitive advantage.
> It is totally unclear to me how OSGeo-EU would relate to H2020 projects
> for example:
> - Will it participate as a partner in any calls?
> - How the selection of supported project will be done?
> - How, in case of funding, allocated money will be distributed to members?
>
> * there is a defined and focused coordination with local chapters
> - synergies are needed to avoid duplication of efforts and adoption of a
> common action line.
> - ideally I'd like to see a hierarchical structure from international to
> continental and national level "chapters" but this is a matter for the
> board..
>
> Here some proposed actions,
> that in my opinion would demonstrate the open principle of the OSGeo
> European Chapter  community:
>
> * run a democratic election of the board representatives within 6 months
> from the inception
>
> * include all the OSGeo charter member that express their willing as
> "full" member (was charter member in OSGeo not sure how "full member" is in
> OSGeo-EU)
>
>
> Regards,
> Maxi
>
>
>
> Il 24 lug 2017 2:56 PM, "Dirk Frigne" <dirk.frigne at geosparc.com> ha
> scritto:
>
>> Maria
>>
>> "is a member of a local chapter also a charter
>> > member of Eu Chapter? Or we will have a complex structure where local
>> > chapter members can be not Eu charter members but charter members of
>> > OSGeo as a whole?"
>>
>> No, as Jody and Lucca already mentioned, this is an organisation of
>> volunteers. Everybody who wants to volunteer can become a member, but
>> volunteers can also be 'only' OSGeo members.
>>
>> The "official" OSGeo-Europe members are responsible to guard the correct
>> working of the organisation, as a legal structure. 22 volunteers
>> expressed there interest to become a founding member and have signed the
>> bylaws that we discussed last year as a google drive document, and
>> during the BOF of July 19 2017.
>>
>> As a community we appreciate the help of everybody who wants to promote
>> Geo free and open source software. Everybody who want's to support the
>> local chapter can add his name on the wiki [1]. As of today there are
>> already 27 names on the list. The bylaws have a mechanism to add these
>> members as "full members" during the next general assembly (a similar
>> process as for OSGeo.org).
>>
>> But as Lucca already mentioned: it is more important to be a member of
>> OSGeo.org, although I hope we can make OSGeo.org stronger trough the
>> initiative we are setting up.
>>
>> Once we've got our formal acceptance by the OSGeo Board, we will publish
>> the bylaws in the Belgian Official Journal and create the legal
>> structure. We will start to setup the agenda of the typical European
>> points we want to work on this first year asap after acceptance.
>>
>>
>> Dirk
>>
>> PS. I added the European list as I think this discussion also concerns
>> the European list.
>>
>>
>> [1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Europe
>>
>> On 2017-07-23 15:32, Luca Delucchi wrote:
>> > On 23 July 2017 at 12:54, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> All local chapters have the same relationship with OSGeo.
>> >>
>> >> A key reason to found a local chapter is to interact and advocate for
>> open
>> >> source on a regional city, state or national or union level -
>> something the
>> >> global osgeo organization is not in the best position to do.
>> >>
>> >> I do not think it is useful (or any of our business) to ask about
>> members
>> >> being automatically in a group. We are a volunteer organization and
>> members
>> >> volunteer where their hearts lie.
>> >>
>> >
>> > I fully agree with Jody, OSGeo EU will be a local chapter with its
>> > freedom as all the others, only the people who want be part of it
>> > should be part of it (for example I'm in Italian local chapter but
>> > right now I choose to not be part of OSGeo EU)
>> >
>> > As I already told during this days I don't fully believe on it right
>> > now (maybe in the future will be different) and I'm a little bit
>> > worried about the energy that it will take from other
>> > activities/chapter.
>> >
>> > However with more than 20 founders, most of them really well known in
>> > the OSGeo family, I think that OSGeo EU should be accepted as new
>> > chapter.
>> >
>> > my2cents
>> >
>>
>> --
>> Yours sincerely,
>>
>>
>> ir. Dirk Frigne
>> CEO @geosparc
>>
>> Geosparc n.v.
>> Brugsesteenweg 587
>> B-9030 Ghent
>> Tel: +32 9 236 60 18 <+32%209%20236%2060%2018>
>> GSM: +32 495 508 799
>>
>> http://www.geomajas.org
>> http://www.geosparc.com
>>
>> @DFrigne
>> be.linkedin.com/in/frigne
>>
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