[Local-chapters] Regional Chapters

Daniel Morissette dmorissette at mapgears.com
Tue Sep 3 11:39:07 PDT 2013


Hi Arnulf, and all,

Just a quick note to let you know that I like the idea of having 
"representatives of the existing local chaps form a higher level group" 
to coordinate their activities for things such as a regional conference. 
I have been thinking about and discussing this concept with a few others 
when FOSS4G-NA came to life and the need for an OSGeo-NA chapter arose.

What form this takes in the end is up for discussion. One option is to 
create the concept of "meta-chapter", which is really just a group of 
local chapters in which the members are reps of existing local chapters 
in the given region. e.g. OSGeo-NA could be a chapter whose members are 
all local chapters in North America, the continent, not just USA, same 
for an OSGeo-Europe for instance.

The problem with this approach that was raised in past discussions is 
that it creates an artificial hierarchy that some people don't like, so 
we may be better with something that is more free-form, i.e. we decide 
that it is okay to allow overlapping chapters, and then OSGeo-NA is just 
another chapter in which members are individuals who care about a NA 
presence of OSGeo, same for Europe. The members of OSGeo-NA or 
OSGeo-Europe may also be member of another local chapter (e.g. OSGeo-Qc 
and OSGeo-Fr in my case), but their participation in the regional 
chapter would be as individual and not as a rep of another chapter. Note 
that allowing overlapping chapters means that we may be creating some 
confusion in the outside world when they see multiple chapters 
apparently addressing the needs of the same group or region.

In summary, we'd have two options to consider with their own pros and cons:

1- Create the concept of Meta-chapters (better name welcome) in which 
members are local chapter reps

2- Allow overlapping chapters in which the members are individuals and 
NOT acting as reps of other local chapters.

Daniel


On 13-09-03 10:11 AM, Arnulf Christl wrote:
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> NA Local Chaps;
> I think it is high time for a North America Chapter. Maybe it suffices
> to start with slightly formalizing the existing team which already
> selects and organizes the conferences. I am sure that eventually a
> full-fledged Regional Chapter will form so it is just a questions of
> when to officially start. As we all know publish early and release often
> is the way to go. It seems like we are almost beyond publishing early.
>
>
> All,
> we are thinking about similar ideas in Europe with a strong CEE group
> already under way and Germany, UK, Spain, The Netherlands and Italy
> pretty strong already we will eventually have to coordinate anyway. One
> way to go forward would be to have representatives of the existing local
> chaps form a higher level group. The Spanish speaking group has gone a
> different way and organizes around a language regardless of location.
> Both can be good.
>
> If you have ideas how to do this we'd be interested in learning about
> them and sharing experiences. Please subscribe to the Local Chapters
> list and let us know:
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/local-chapters
>
>
> Best regards,
> Arnulf
>
> On 30.08.2013 17:12, David William Bitner wrote:
>> With the second FOSS4G North America in Minneapolis in the history books
>> and looking forward to the "Big Show" in Portland next Fall, I'd love to
>> start the ball rolling to drum up interest in hosting FOSS4G North
>> America in the Spring of 2015.
>>
>> There are two parts here:
>>
>> 1) Who's interested? If you have a local community that you think would
>> be great to host, speak up! If you have questions as to what it takes,
>> ask. If there's a city you'd love to see take this on - start pestering
>> them.
>>
>> 2) If there is competing interest, we'll need identify the selection
>> process/committee. We can take the easy route here and do something
>> simple like prior Conference & Program Chairs make up the committee, or
>> we can try (again) to create a more formal group for North America to
>> handle things like this. If you have $.02 on this - bring it up now!
>>
>> I'd love to see us be able to move on this and be able to select a venue
>> by the end of November if possible to make sure there is ample time for
>> planning. Important thing right now is to start the discussion and get
>> folks thinking about what we need to do to make the next FOSS4G NA
>> another awesome event!
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> David
>>
>> --
>> ************************************
>> David William Bitner
>> dbSpatial LLC
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>
>
> - --
> Arnulf Christl (Executive Director)
> Open Source Geospatial Software, Data and Services
> http://www.metaspatial.net
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-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000



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