[Marketing] Re: [Foss4g2008loc] Integration showcase: Feedback

[Tim Bowden]

Thanks Geoff,

looks like we need to significantly rejig our integration showcase
efforts for Sydney.  I believe if we do no more than duplicate what's
already been done it will be a failure otherwise.  Your insights are
valuable in helping us plan this.  Assuming we take Geoff's advice wrt
the OGC, who would like to take the lead in getting them involved for
Sydney?

Issues:  Getting OSGeo projects to involve at the same level of
participation at the proprietary vendors would require considerable
resources for each project.  Perhaps each project would need a
commercial sponsor or co-sponsors (ie, Refractions sponsors
PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Lisasoft Geoserver, DM Solutions Mapserver, Autodesk
(or local reseller?) Mapguide OS etc).  This way each would have the
ability to maximise the marketing potential of the exercise.  Without
that, I suspect it is much harder for a project to find the resources to
fully participate.  Maybe this, and lack of a credible event scenario
has been part of the problem to date?

If we go down this route, can we get the OGC to bend their minds this
way quickly enough to announce their in principle support in time for
the Cape Town closing plenary Sydney sales slot?  Probably not, which is
a pity.

Regards,
Tim Bowden

On Sat, 2008-09-20 at 11:52 -0700, Geoff Zeiss wrote:
> I have experienced some very successful interoperability (geospatial)
>  workshops
> 
> Important features - the OGC (greg buehler) organized them, this makes
>  the workshop to be perceived as non-denominational - they focussed on
>  open standards (wms, wfs, gml) - there were ~10 vendors involved, at
>  FOSS4G I would suggest encouraging ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo and other
>  closed source vendors to participate, I expect that Autodesk would
>  want to participate and focus on FDO - participation was organized in
>  advance, greg put a lot of effort into signing up vendors and ensuring
>  there were enough servers and clients from different vendors to make
>  it interesting - primarily technical people from the vendors were
>  involved - it was a mainstage event, so it got a lot of attention -
>  there were significant publicity benefits to the participants, not
>  participating was a negative - there was a scenario around a disaster
>  management theme that made it very clear to the audience and
>  participants how important interoperability is in the real world
> 
> Geoff
> 
> geospatial.blogs.com
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: marketing-bounces at lists.osgeo.org <marketing-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
> To: marketing at lists.osgeo.org <marketing at lists.osgeo.org>
> Sent: Fri Sep 19 23:50:40 2008
> Subject: [Marketing] Re: [Foss4g2008loc] Integration showcase: Feedback
> 
> Tim,
> I think these are very good questions. In case you don't get many answers
> right now due to people being busy with other stuff you might want to add
> it to the Conference and/or Marketing Committee agenda so we don't loose
> sight of it again.
> 
> Best regards,
> Arnulf.
> 
> On Sat, September 20, 2008 06:44, Tim Bowden wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> >
> > I'm looking for feedback on how the integration showcase has gone so
> > far.  From what I understand, not many sponsors have been overly
> > interested.  If so, this seems to be the same as Victoria last year. Given
> > I'm helping the Sydney bid, and we're planning one, I'd like to
> > get some ideas as to what works and doesn't.
> >
> > 1. Is it a case of not selling the showcase aggressively enough?
> >
> >
> > 2. Has it been too hard for sponsors to understand how to use it or what
> > they can do with it?
> >
> > 3. Do the sponsors just not see it as adding value for them?  From a
> > FOSS pov, it's clear the value that integration between different
> > ecosystems brings for us, but perhaps that same value proposition isn't
> > there for vendors.  Thoughts?
> >
> > 4. Is there anything that could be done to increase the value
> > proposition for sponsors?
> >
> > I understand things are a little busy right now, so if this is best left
> > on the back burner till later, that's fine.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Tim Bowden
> > --
> > Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
> > when you make it again.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > FOSS4G2008LOC mailing list
> > FOSS4G2008LOC at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2008loc
> >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Arnulf Christl
> http://www.wheregroup.com
> 
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-- 
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
when you make it again.