[Industry] [OSGeo-Discuss] Board meeting 2014-07-17: minutes
Gert-Jan van der Weijden
gert-jan at osgeo.nl
Sun Jul 20 09:55:37 PDT 2014
At first a message to the moderator:
Given the fact that the discussion on creating an Eu-based fund is not just
business (or:industry) related, but also has impact on the local chapters
I'm not that happy with moving this discussion the a newly created, and thus
sparsely populated "industry" list. Therefore a cross-posting to both
lists.
On topic:
I like the idea of creating a EU-fund, in order to skip legal problems that
appartly exists when fund-raising across the Atlantic Ocean. Just a fund,
not an OSGeo-EU! (and i think under Belgian law an "IVZW" would do fine for
this purpose)
However, when attracting OSGeo-sponsors in Europe, both local chapters and a
newly established OSGeo-Eu-fund might try to attract the same potential
sponsors.
The Dutch local chapter has signed contracts with 5 sponsors over the last
year, most of them local based. Currently we are in the process of
attracting new sponsors, among them some larger companies that do business
in the entire EU. To have OSgeo.nl and a newly established OSGeo-EU-Fund
competing to attract sponsors is something we have to avoid.
So before establishing such a fund, please have a discussion with all
European local chapters
The idea of an OSGeo.eu (as in more than just a fund) doesn't appeal to me
that much. I think the strength of OSGeo are the local (either geographic or
linguistic) chapters. The members of these chapters have a lot in common
(language, network, development of the national geo-infrastructure), which
on a European scale might become too dense.
Best regards,
Gert-Jan van der Weijden
chairman of the Dutch local chapter OSGeo.nl
Van: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] Namens Dirk Frigne
Verzonden: vrijdag 18 juli 2014 18:03
Aan: discuss at lists.osgeo.org
CC: industry at lists.osgeo.org
Onderwerp: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Board meeting 2014-07-17: minutes
Thank you Anne,
to give us the possibility to speak up on these important topics.
I was on the FOSS4GE[6] conference this week and had the opportunity to talk
to several other members of the organisation.
I also attended (remotely) the BOF OSGeo business meeting yesterday
and I did some reading (f.i. the blog of Steve Feldmann [1])
So here are my 2c on the different topics:
about the trivial aspects:
---------------------------------
First some easy things (where everybody is agreeing)
- the conclusion of the BOF OSGeo business meeting is the creation of an
industry list[2] and everybody interested in the topic is welcome to
register on this list. I forwarded this mail also to that list as to
kickstart the discussion.
about grant early bird price to FOSS4G for Charter members[4]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
I agree. It is important for an organisation that people have the chance to
meet face to face with each other to build trust relationships and
friendships.
We are a community of #people and human beings.
about the travel budget and other costs for the organisation:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
- As indicated above, I think we should discuss this topic more deeper in
the above list[2]. But to enable me to try to formulate an answer that makes
sense on the budget discussion I feel free to post a statement here.
So please react on this statement in the industry list, as this is the right
place to further discuss this topic.
*axiom 1* OSGeo is a non for profit organisation of #people with a passion
about #Geo&#opensource
(see also my mail concerning membership fees [3] )
*bydefinition* Business should remain *outside* OSGeo
(as it doesn't fit with a non profit organisation)
(but some members of OSGeo - if not all - are involved in business
processes, as users, customers, developers or part of an administrative,
academic or industrial organisation, sometimes in different roles)
*axiom 2* OSGeo is a professionally governed organisation
Well, in a professional governed organisation, you have a board,
representing the organisation, responsible and acting on behalf everything
the organisation does. The board is allowed to do that and get the trust to
do that every year expressed on the general assembly.
*axiom 3* OSGeo aims to be and stay a growing, strong and Healthy
organisation
An organisation such as OSGeo is just like a living organism.
Like all living organisms, an organisations starts, grows, falls, stands up
learning from previous mistakes, becomes stronger and survives for living a
long and prosperous live. In this process it is important that, from a
financial point of view, you earn more than you spend. This also applies to
non for profit organisations as for profit organisation.
Today OSGeo is already 10 years old (young). This is not yet a mature
individual, an important period of teenager is coming into sight. A
necessary process to become an adult.
Like a child of 10 year old, I think we should progress handling issues as
money and business and relationships.
Money is important to cover the necessary costs, at a minimum.
So here I follow the decision of the board to use a certain amount of travel
budget to represent the organisation physically on places where this is
appropriate to do. I think the board is wise enough to make these decisions
on her own. Also other costs to fix broken servers, or do something else
that is necessary for the good continuation of the organisation fall under
these decisions. Of course the board is responsible not to spend more than
the income statement allows.
But this way of working is only temporary in my eyes.
It is also the task of the board to help the 10 year young OSGeo
organisation to transform into a professional, open and transparent governed
mature vehicle.
(without losing the strong points of childhood).
i.e.:
- a clear vision should be formulated about the further direction of the
organisation
points like:
- how to help the OSGeo projects in their shared mission
- how to treat all the OSGeo projects as equal
- how to motivate new projects to become a full incubated OSGeo project
- how to respond to non OSGeo GIS projects, convincing them to join
OSGeo
- how OSGeo should embrace her members
- how OSGeo should treat her sponsors
- how OSGeo should partner with other organisations
- how OSGeo should look to and promote #respectfull and #transparent
business
- ... []
- an estimate should be made of the to expecting income in 2015 (before the
FOSS4G conference 2014 preferable - but ambitious, better do this for 2016)
- an estimate should be made of the expecting costs in 2015.
- the exercise should be made to have more income than costs.
- the result of this exercise is the budget for next year. This can be
presented on the general assembly, so all the members can approve this
budget. As long as the board respects this budget, the board can decide on
be halve all the members to do their job and take their responsibility. If
things are happening such as the board can no longer respect this agreement,
an escalation to the discuss mailing list or a new general assembly should
be organized.
about OSGeo-Europe:
-----------------------------
Although I know there are several local chapters having their own legal
structure, I want to break a lance for maintaining one team, one group of
#people, one #OSGeo. Local chapters are a good thing and should be promoted,
but the strength of open source is to share and to help each other to create
strong technology, public available source code, documentation, idea's, fun
and friendships. I want to break a lance than to go further what we do
today, and really bridge gaps between the different projects, but that are
thoughts for another topic, another time ...
Last week I heard several comments on the restrictions a US based legal non
for profit organisation has, and the will and feeling that OSGeo could do
more, if we decide better and clearly what to do with the money. It should
be used in steering the GIS Open Source Future in the right direction.
These remarks and comments did me think of creating a European Fund.
- having a US based org and a EU based Fund will spread the organisation in
an organic way further over the globe.
- Money can be collected from sponsoring activities into the fund.
- A European fund should be able to participate in European programs such as
Horizon2020 and others. [to be investigated]
- The money can be governed by the EU Fund, but the decisions what we should
do with the money could be decided by the board of OSGeo, respecting certain
rules:
- Specific European funded projects still need a budget to complete, so the
fund can be used to complete these budgets
- With the available money, OSGeo can sponsor innovative idea's, where a
valorisation factor can be included. Innovative idea's can be sponsored by a
vehicle that understands the needs of an Open Source Business.
- If a project is successful it should result in new value for the fund,
giving more budget to sponsor other innovative projects. This should be
managed like a professional investment fund, so that the balance remains
positive and the leverage OSGeo can maintain on open source related business
grows year after year.
I think I can help setting up a team that has the right technical and legal
expertise to create such a vehicle.
OSGeo managed to grow from not existing into a world wide organisation with
#many members. OSGeo wishes to further grow into a professional governed
organisation (*axiom 2 and 3*), so I think we should have the ambition to
take this path further and create the right environment to be able to reach
that ambition.
I want to end this mail by expressing my personal believe that doing things
voluntary, because we (the committing members) really are convinced that
sharing and working together to make the world a better place and to give
the opportunity to all (committing and involved members) to use, distribute,
document, improve gives a personal benefit in happiness and satisfaction
which can not be reached by money.
Have a nice weekend!
In Ghent where I live 10 Days of party are starting tonight [5] and I will
leave now to drink a couple of beers (which I will pay myself :-)
Dirk Frigne
[1] http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch/
[2] industry at lists.osgeo.org
[3] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2014-July/013030.html
[4] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GDiscount
[5] http://www.gentsefeesten.be/en
[6] http://www.osgeo.org/node/1422
On 18-07-14 12:42, Anne Ghisla wrote:
Hello all,
here are the minutes and logs of yesterday's Board meeting:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2014-07-17
(Minutes and motions are yet unapproved.)
There has been discussion over elections 2014, strategic funding, OSGeo
and Europe, and finally OSGeo's business model.
My comment is that this has been one of the (few) meetings where there
was less of the usual large consensus.
Therefore I feel important to get thoughts from OSGeo members other
than the current Board, as it is already happening in last emails. At
the moment we have no better way to collect opinions and comments
besides mailing lists and in-person discussions, that are notoriously
difficult to summarise. (A wiki page is good to summarise, but not to
discuss.) Nevertheless, I encourage members to speak up on these
important topics.
Best regards,
Anne
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
--
Yours sincerely,
ir. Dirk Frigne
CEO
Geosparc n.v.
Brugsesteenweg 587
B-9030 Ghent
Tel: +32 9 236 60 18
GSM: +32 495 508 799
http://www.geomajas.org
http://www.geosparc.com
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