[Fundraising] First Meeting - May 9th

[Frank Warmerdam]

Dave McIlhagga wrote:
> Something else for consideration,
> 
> I think one of the best ways to get an organization to sponsor (in 
> particular smaller organizations) is to provide a degree of marketing 
> benefit such as a restricted space for organization X to describe their 
> involvement in open source, and related services they might offer.
> 
> So for instance, an organization who provides application development 
> services around mapserver, mapguide, geoserver, etc... could state this, 
> experience, etc.. and include a link to their website.
> 
> This way we offer potential sponsors something very tangible, while not 
> compromising the arm's-length direction of the organization.
> 
> This allows us to tap into Marketing & Advertising budgets which tend to 
> be more accessible then Technology budgets where the direct benefit of 
> sponsorship would be less tangible.
> 
> It would also help raise profile and credibility for OSGeo through 
> sponsorship numbers.

Dave,

I think this is a good idea, though a few concerns I have:

1) I think it mainly will be attractive to services firms working
with OSGeo software who will benefit from such a listing.  So it
is good for consultants, and integrators.  But it doesn't do much
for end user organizations (like governments, NGOs, commercial
users of the software).

2) I'm a wee bit nervous about companies without appropriate competency
buying prominent support from OSGeo but not being able to deliver.

3) For the sake of promoting open source software I think it is going to
be important for us to list consulting organizations.  I am nervous about
only listing those who pay-to-play as it will reduce the apparently available
number of consultants.

Now, oddly enough, I was thinking about this very issue a bunch last night
and this morning.  And my thinking was that we should provide a consultant
/ integrator listing service that anyone can get a listing on for free
(perhaps subject to some judgement on whether they are legit).  But that
we would offer preferential placement, amounts of text and logo size for
sponsors.

With the above caveats, I certainly think that promotion/marketing
is the best angle for getting sponsorships from services organizations.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org