[OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Wed Sep 20 11:39:53 PDT 2017

I like your language that our open source projects are much more than
proprietary software - it is this reason we are focusing on a team photo
for each page (rather than a screen shot of the software).

The original bug report reported a direct link to ESRI which was fixed,
this is where the "advertising" came in - which was never the original
intention and was fixed.

The "Migrate from: ArcMap, MapInfo" idea looks like it does a way better
job of communicating and is a positive result of this discussion.
- This information is mission critical for outreach and driving adoption of
open source, the top question this website and those new to open source ask
is "I am using XXX, what is available?"
- In many cases I do not know the proprietary software and a link to
wikipedia article would give a visitor like me useful context (of course we
can remove the link and just have text because the website is not for me).
- It also occurs to me to be respectful of trademark; listing competitors
is a good practice but it can be done with respect.

Maria of course no offence is intended to volunteers (myself) included.
Thanks for participating in this discussion.

--
Jody Garnett

On 20 September 2017 at 10:29, Maria Antonia Brovelli <
maria.brovelli at polimi.it> wrote:

> Jody, I see very difficult  the existence of a  vast majority of GIS
> industry that has honestly not heard about open source yet.  Anyway I
> refuse the idea of "similar proprietary software" because our projects are
> much more than pieces of code. Behind our software there are communities
> and limiting our projects to pieces  of code is offensive and insulting for
> the volunteers behind them. We are more and diverse. This is the reason why
> there are not "similar proprietary software".
> Thanks for removing the links.
> Best
> Maria
>
>
>
>
> Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung
>
>
> -------- Messaggio originale --------
> Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
> Data: 20/09/17 18:53 (GMT+01:00)
> A: Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli at polimi.it>
> Cc: Margherita Di Leo <diregola at gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <
> hellik at web.de>, OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>,
> OSGeo-Marketing <marketing at lists.osgeo.org>
> Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo
> website
>
> Thanks Maria,
>
> I reject the idea that we are advertising proprietary software, so each
> time it is phrased that way of course everyone well say "no".
>
> I want to help our software reach visitors that feel locked into
> proprietary software, please recognize this goal and how "migrate from" can
> help.
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On 20 September 2017 at 09:49, Maria Antonia Brovelli <
> maria.brovelli at polimi.it> wrote:
>
>> Dear Jody
>> Personally I agree with Helmut and I don't see any necessity of putting
>> "similar proprietary software" on our web pages. I don't think proprietary
>> software need to be advertized. We are a Foundation about Open Software and
>> I want to see the open source projects on the website that we have been
>> paying as OSGeo.
>> I ask please to remove the "similar proprietary software"  and the
>> related links.
>> Many thanks
>> Best,
>> Maria
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung
>>
>>
>> -------- Messaggio originale --------
>> Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
>> Data: 20/09/17 14:45 (GMT+01:00)
>> A: Margherita Di Leo <diregola at gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <
>> hellik at web.de>
>> Cc: OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Marketing <
>> marketing at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo
>> website
>>
>> Thanks for the discussion on the bug report. Please keep in mind that
>> this website is written by us, but it is not intended for us - it is
>> intended for the vast majority of the GIS industry that has honestly not
>> heard about open source yet.
>>
>> These sections are optional, if one of our open source projects has a
>> particular target market in mind filling in this information would really
>> help! Indeed when I go to a normal GIS conference this is the top question
>> - since I have not had a chance to use the proprietary software it is not
>> one I can easily answer.
>>
>> In the above bug report I would like to change the heading from "Similar
>> Proprietary Products" to "Migrate From", but perhaps that is too
>> confrontational? I would also like to avoid advertising proprietary
>> software, linking to the associated wikipedia entry if appropriate.
>>
>> I am not interested in reciprocity, I am interested in OSGeo projects
>> taking competition to the GIS industry which as been missing.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 5:09 AM Margherita Di Leo <diregola at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 11:41 AM, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik at web.de>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear OSGeo community
>>>>
>>>> I want to bring you a discussion on a github ticket about linking to
>>>> "similar proprietary products" [1] to your attention.
>>>>
>>>> My comment there:
>>>>
>>>> "I support and concur with Venka that the item "Similar Proprietary
>>>> Products" should be removed. There isn't only one proprietary GIS software
>>>> out there, there are several others. IMHO such comparisons may be part of
>>>> e.g. a reviewed scientific paper/elaboration, where our OSGeo projects - if
>>>> they want to - may link to. I see no added value for OSGeo to serve such
>>>> links. As already elsewhere mentioned by me, reciprocity is the key if such
>>>> items are listed, but I can't see this happen. "
>>>>
>>>
>>> I agree. I don't understand it either.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm pretty much convinced that more effort to help our OSGeo projects
>>>> improving on every level (e.g. documentation, reach out, testing, etc) is
>>>> the key rather than linking to proprietary software. One of such
>>>> opportunities may be the upcoming Google Code In (GCI) 2017 e.g. to produce
>>>> nice screenshots for documentation, produce some fancy videos etc. based on
>>>> tiny little tasks for students aged 13 to 17. A good invest in the young
>>>> who will be our OSGeo's future.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for mentioning that, Helli. May I add that suitable tasks for
>>> students may include design of web pages and / or promotional material, see
>>> for example  https://codein.withgoogle.com/
>>> archive/2015/organization/4777925899452416/task/5259692246827008/
>>> I take the liberty of cc'ing the marketing committee, because it would
>>> be nice to see some members joining the code-in mentors pool. Let us know
>>> that you want to join, writing an email to gsoc-admin at osgeo.org and
>>> I'll send you the subscription form.
>>> Hoping that I didn't go much off topic respect to the original meaning
>>> of this email
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Margherita Di Leo
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Marketing mailing list
>>> Marketing at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
>>
>>
>
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