[Geodata] Geodata Mission

[Frank Warmerdam]

David William Bitner wrote:
> At the last meeting of the Geodata Committee, we talked about refining 
> the mission of the Public Geospatial Data Project.  In order to assist 
> this process, I have created a wiki ( 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Public_Geospatial_Data_Project_Update_Mission) 
> with a list of statements under four categories: Purpose, Tasks, 
> Beliefs, and Hurdles.  I would like to encourage everyone to please look 
> at the lists of statements and to add any statements they can think of 
> to each of the lists.  In addition, please voice your support or 
> opposition to those statements you feel most strongly about (don't feel 
> the need to vote for every statement).

David,

I find it interesting that your tasks do not include advocacy to encourage
free distribution of data, nor work on devising/vetting/promoting/educating
around appropriate licenses for free geodata.  I originally thought of those
two things as the core of the geodata committee mission.

I think these fall within the aegis of the geodata committee.  It might be
that no one is particularly interested in pursuing them, in which case they
could be considered "inactive" responsibilities but I don't think they
should disappear altogether.

Collecting, processing and offering free geodata via various services is
also of interest, but I think we have seen that this can proceed reasonably
well without a committee to guide it.  In fact, it has pretty much had to
go underground in order to avoid "Too much wanking keeps things from
getting done."

/me comments from the sidelines...

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 OSGeo, http://osgeo.org