[OSGeo-Board] Eleventh Board Meeting Agenda

[Dave McIlhagga]

Hi Arnulf,

Arnulf Christl wrote:
> Maybe it will be possible to have a chat - even if informal - on IRC 
> because we have pressing issues regarding booth operation at the 
> Intergeo exhibition. The plan is out and there is an Open Source Park 
> reserved and we need to fix who is going to do what and what the role of 
> the OSGeo could take on.
> Would the  OSGeo Foundation would consent at being the judge/committee 
> regarding which company is committed (enough) to doing Open Source 
> ('trustworthy?') so that it can appear in the Open Source Park.

Hmmm - this sounds like very dangerous territory to me for OSGeo to be 
wandering into ... do we really want to be determining who is more open 
source than another - or more deserving? If we look at what's going on 
at Where 2.0 -- there is no issue, since the companies have 
representatives attending and participating - but all wearing an OSGeo 
Hat (or is that a shirt?)

It's very conceivable that some companies may use zero open source 
themselves, but strategically want to be promoting adoption of open 
source. I don't think we would want to discourage this -- any and all 
support we can get for open source should and needs to be welcomed.

Don't know if this helps as I"m not sure of the context of the question 
-- but it seems like OSGeo should remain as neutral as possible when it 
comes to 'endorsing' open sourceness of companies around it.

Dave