Daniel - <br><br>1) I can provide my personal opinion (still, built on top of almost 18 months of making an effort within GFOSS.it, and a much longer period in thinking on how to help raise awareness on GIS and open source).<br>
<br>All of this reasoning spawns from the mission that we see for a local chapter (<a href="http://www.osgeo.org/content/chapters/guidelines.html">http://www.osgeo.org/content/chapters/guidelines.html</a>) and in the drive to make this happen in Italy.<br>
<br>2) In Italy, even if you don't want to "deal with money", if you don't have a legal entity, anything you do in the "real world" [1] in order to follow local chapter guidelines is strongly limited.<br>
<br>Without a registered association you may promote activities as a single individual, or as a "comitato spontaneo" (meaning a self-made committee).<br>A list of people on a web page in Italy does not qualify as an Association or a "chapter".<br>
<br>However a "real" association will have a much greater "role recognition" than the work of a group of individuals.<br><br>3) SAMPLE CASES<br><br>REAL CASE 1: An association with a formal presence can obtain "sponsorship" by a local administration authority, and have free (as in no cost) access to <br>
facilities with broadband access to host any event....a group of individuals as a "spontaneous committee" may or may not be eligible for the same...a group of individuals referenced on a wiki page will not.. ;)<br>
<br>REAL CASE 2: An individual or a "spontaneous committee" may be invited for a seminar by a University Department, but an Association can create a formal partnership with the same entity, and trigger much more structured initiatives...etc. etc. etc.<br>
<br>Again: it all depends, possibly, on the peculiarities of a given local setting, and the combination of the local chapter guidelines as suggested by OSGEO with the vision of the people acting locally.<br><br>4) PLEASE NOTE: In my previous post I did not say that all local chapters in any region of the globe would require a legal entity to be effective in their mission - I was possibly stressing the fact that, while creating the "virtual" presence of a Chapter is easy, this needs to come from an assessment of the environmet we, as "locals" operate.<br>
<br>5) The other non-secondary aspect of having the "real world" entity is that people are required to meet to make certain things happen in the operation of the association itself. <br>In terms of consolidation of a community, people sitting around a table (possibly with a bottle of their favorite drink - be it spirits or water), will help.<br>
<br>6) As a result of the approach we took in Italy, following our first year of existence, we started from Feb 08 a calendar of activities that is leading to a substantial awareness raising process (<a href="http://wiki.gfoss.it/index.php/To_Do#Programmazione_eventi">http://wiki.gfoss.it/index.php/To_Do#Programmazione_eventi</a> for a partial list...and please bear with us if we don't translate all material targeted to local activities in English ;))<br>
<br>7) If you live in a country where things are simpler, we'll be glad to make contact with you... we could set up some "FOSS advocate exchange program"...you come for one month in Italy, and try our byzantine heritage environment (but with lots of good food) ...and we try some simpler settings to raise awareness and to create networking opportunities etc etc.<br>
<br>I hope this mail helped in expanding the picture.<br>I apologize if I may have taken a kind of philosophical/post-cyberpunk angle...and talk to you on our European AM time... ;)<br><br>Andrea, aka pibinko<br><a href="http://www.pibinko.org">http://www.pibinko.org</a><br>
<br>[1] or let's say "off the web"...given the amount of time we spend on the
web we can't really tell which is our main "reference" environment ;) )<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2008/6/12 Daniel Morissette <<a href="mailto:dmorissette@mapgears.com">dmorissette@mapgears.com</a>>:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="Ih2E3d">andrea giacomelli wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
I encourage ANY new chapter to consider this prior to opening a wiki section on the OSGEO site as a local chapter (whiche does not mean I don't like the OSGEO wiki).<br>
<br>
I encourage ANY pre-existing local chapter that does not yet have a local "formal entity" to re-consider their approach (and maybe decide that they are fine without a local legal entity ;)...but as a result of a full evaluation of existing options).<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
Andrea,<br>
<br>
Could you please elaborate a bit more on the reasons why a "formal entity" seems so important to you for a local chapter?<br>
<br>
Your comment is interesting because we are in the process of starting a Quebec Chapter of OSGeo *without* a formal entity, exactly to avoid the overhead of a legal entity and since our initial goals are networking and sharing of expertise (in collaboration with the French Chapter with whom we share the French language). We figured that since we have no current plans to deal with money we are better build the networking tools first (wiki, discuss lists, regular meetings) and then get to the legal/formal stuff only later on if/when we really need it.<br>
<br>
This is the model of the Ottawa chapter which has been operating without a formal entity since ~2004. It was the first OSGeo chapter and the group existed as MapServer Users Group and Grass Users Group before OSGeo was even created.<br>
<br>
Since your experience seems to differ from ours and we are just about to create a new chapter without a formal entity I'd really like to learn more about your own experience and the reasons why we should consider the formal entity options.<br>
<br>
Thanks<br>
<br>
Daniel<br><font color="#888888">
-- <br>
Daniel Morissette<br>
<a href="http://www.mapgears.com/" target="_blank">http://www.mapgears.com/</a></font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
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