[Geo4All] UN SDG mapping book updates

[Arnulf Christl (Metaspatial)]

Am 2017-06-02 um 10:53 schrieb Anthony Robinson:
> Once again I feel like the GeoForAll effort is hampered by a strict dogma
> that tests every geospatial initiative with a purity evaluation that
> virtually nothing will be able to meet. And once again it's an argument
> against doing something with no proposed viable alternative.

Dear Anthony,

by all means, please get GeoForAll publications on Esri press, but maybe 
not exclusively. I'll be happy to contribute an introduction on the 
philosophy of open access in software, education and (while we are at 
it) geospatial data.

The term "Dogma" is generally applied to a strong belief that the ones 
adhering to are not willing to rationally discuss [1]. I don't think 
that OSGeo or GeoForAll can be blamed for not rationally discussing 
openness. Quite the contrary, one of our prime missions is to actually 
start and promote a dialog on openness and to show how restrictive 
models hamper development and competition (which is our belief, 
philosophy and may appear as a Dogma).

OSGeo has a very transparent "purity evaluation" for the openness for 
software: Stick to one of the accepted licenses. Anybody can meet this 
criteria because it is a simple choice.

I can see that you have educated 100.000+ professionals in 80 countries 
with a Coursera course. Congratulations to that effort, this is really 
cool! Unfortunately you chose to use a proprietary platform which is 
developed and owned by a business that depends on income from 
restricting licenses. This makes the future of this software depend 
entirely on the entrepreneurial whims of a few business leaders. I am 
currently working on tenure security in poor countries and projects 
invariably fail because local authorities and communities cannot afford 
to sustain the license cost of the proprietary software which was 
introduced by well meaning aid organizations after the project ends. 
This is gruesome.

No questions asked: There may well be great people producing great 
results with proprietary software, including employees of proprietary 
businesses. Nonetheless the future of proprietary software is controlled 
and restricted by a few. This is something that OSGeo can prevent from 
happening for any software project wishing to become an OSGeo project. 
It has to go through an incubation process where questions are asked 
around ownership and influence on a software - additionally to having an 
Open Source license.


And lastly, yes there is a simple and viable alternative proposed: 
Publish elsewhere. There are many open access options these days.


Enjoy,
Arnulf

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogma

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