[Foss4g2012] RE: [Board] RE: [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Beijing - a regional event

[Dave McIlhagga]

Something to keep in mind - the logic behind choosing to host the FOSS4G event outside North America and Europe every three years was to promote adoption of OSGeo technologies in parts of the world that might not otherwise have such opportunity.

Canceling the International component of this event flies in the face of this objective.

I think the risks of not having an annual international event would significantly outweigh the risks with continuing to go ahead.

At this point OSGeo has no financial risk at stake if I understand the situation correctly, so that's not the issue.

Clearly there have been communication issues here and delays getting everything launched ... But is that enough to actually pulling support of the event?

There's a credibility issue at stake here too - to suddenly withdraw from a previous commitment makes the organization seem unreliable and unprofessional in how we conduct ourselves.

Unless there's a financial risk that I'm unaware of, I say plough ahead and try to make the event as successful as it can be. A significant adoption of open source Geospatial in China and neighboring countries as a result is surely worth some short term pain.

Dave



Sent from mobile
dmcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca

On 2012-05-25, at 6:55 PM, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bo,
> (speaking as a community member, not on behalf of the board),
> 
> OSGeo Board needs to think about the long term viability of both OSGeo and all current and future FOSS4G conferences.
> To date, FOSS4G conferences have built up a reputation for openness, enthusiastic presenters and audiences, and lots of smart OSGeo related people, drawn from around the world, all congregating together.
> Due to a number of concerns already voiced, many of us with prior FOSS4G experience expect a low international engagement. It would be greatly detrimental to the future of FOSS4G events if there were are number of people attending the FOSS4G Beijing conference under false impressions of what to expect. It would be even more detrimental if it became apparent that the board had serious concerns prior to the event, and either voiced false confidence, or implied confidence by saying nothing.
> The board should still be supporting FOSS4G Beijing as much as possible, by encouraging people to attend, but it should be done with realistic expectations about what to expect. These are the reasons behind my previous suggested email noting the categorising of FOSS4G Beijing as a Regional event, then explaining the value of regional conferences.
> 
> On 26/05/2012 8:12 AM, bo.guo at gisticinc.com wrote:
>> I do not understand what is accomplished by this motion.
>> 
>> I met and communicated with some key LOC members earlier this week in Beijing. They had the full intention to make the conference an international event. However, they acknowledged that they were not as experienced in organizing such event and they were particularly short on members who could reach out to the international communities.
>> 
>> I think our priority is to help make the event international, as opposed to marking the event un-international.
>> 
>> Bo
>> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Cameron Shorter<cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>> Sender: conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>> Date: Sat, 26 May 2012 06:31:33
>> To:<mpg at flaxen.com>
>> Cc: 'conference'<conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org>; 'OSGeo Board'<board at lists.osgeo.org>; 'FOSS4G 2012'<foss4g2012 at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Foss4g2012] RE: [Board] RE: [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Beijing - a
>>    regional event
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Solutions Manager
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
> 
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
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