[Marketing] OSGeo philosophical support request

Fri Dec 11 23:55:09 EST 2009

Hi Tyler - please see below some feedback from the media relations manager
for the Italian OSGEO Chapter, GFOSS.it

I apologize if the message is slightly longer than expected (by myself, for
a start ;) )...but I thought it was a good idea to share/refresh some points
which are maybe not known to all, and which I consider important for OSGEO
marketing in 2010-2014.

a) First and most important: I am glad that Massimiliano issued his request
to the OSGEO marketing committee.

b) For your information, Massimiliano contacted also GFOSS.it with a similar
request for "patrocinio" (i.e. patronage), and we have already confirmed
this will happen.

This means, at the local level, that we will be advertising the event
through our standard "news/events" mailing lists and media relations.

NB: the mailing lists I am referring to are not the "normal" discussion
lists (with some 430 readers).
 I am talking about  the same channels which allow GFOSS.it events to be
known to a direct audience (direct e-mail) of various thousands of people in
Italy, with mailing lists built gradually over three years, identifying
targets interested in geospatial information (as users or suppliers).

These are also the same channels which over the past three years have
generated interest on "free/open geospatial" towards audiences which we did
not think could be interested,  like:

- having blind people participate in collaborative mapping projects "on the
road"
- independent movie directors use GIS packages to support their production
plans
- major national radio entertainment shows interviewing us

c) As GFOSS.it, we have been organizing at least one event per month since
October 2007.
 These events have been involving attendance of anything between 10 and 240
people, with ages from 10 to 80.

In general, we have always maintained a line saying "this is organised by
GFOSS.it, which is also the local chapter for OSGEO".

Logos are presented as needed, and we have developed a local logo which
shows also the OSGEO logo (see the www.gfoss.it banner).

I think this model helps to maintain a clear identity between the "umbrella"
organization, and the local organizer, while providing visibility to both.

to date, we never made any request for support to OSGEO for "general" events
(this does not mean that we would not consider this in the future ;)
)....simply: we thought that it was important to work on a "local brand"
(while the OSGEO brand already had a lot of marketing at the upper level).

There may have been a few events where we basically forgot to indicate the
OSGEO logo in the past.
Where this happened- it was either in the very first steps of the local
chapter (with lots of start-up challenges), or in a few minor cases where
life priorities win over the volunteer activity which is the base driving
the local chapter.

>From 2008, I can't think of a case where we did not mention in some form
OSGEO, within the life cycle of an event we have organized.

d) For those who don't know me

- discovered recently that an Andrea Giacomelli is credited on shapelib
development: http://shapelib.maptools.org/ ... I don't even remember if that
is me (maybe in 1997-1998, when I was doing more coding than
today)...however the only other Andrea Giacomelli I know is an economist
from Tuscany, so I don't think that's him....but I don't remember!! ...I'd
be glad to verifiy more in depth;)

- PhD in hydrology (1997) with 16 years of experience in GIS-based data
integration and analysis experience and some 30 publications/presentations
on these topics (including the famous "geospatial Tuscan card player" video
produced in early 2007 [1]...you should all have seen this by now ;)
....also OSGEO  has visibility in this video....)

- member of no PSC, but has been one of the first GRASS users in Italy
(installing and managing the system in Politecnico di Milano - Dept. of
Hydraulics, in 1993 or 1994), and still uses GRASS within his support to
large environmental remediation studies, working for multinational clients

- never participated to date to a FOSS4G conference (given the difficulty
for a private sector environmental company to fund intercontinental travel
;) ), but has first hand experience in creating and organizing international
and/or not always conventional events. May I suggest a small clip [1] to
learn about my flagship project to date, and a full list of projects [2].

- promoting the Barcelona event actively since February 2009.....Andrea's
spot for Barcelona to any European citizen with a stake in geospatial is :
"You should come to Barcelona; if you can't come, let's talk...we have X
months to do it" (where X = months missing to September 2010)

- looking forward to reach Barcelona in September

e) Let me know if you need more information. I'll be glad to support, if
possible.

Saluti

Andrea Giacomelli
http://www.pibinko.org

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZOQSn5tyqQ
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dGyq5qHdI
[3] http://www.pibinko.org/projects.php?l=en&pmode=list

2009/12/11 Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) <tmitchell at osgeo.org>

> Massimiliano Cannata wrote:
> > Dear marketing committee,
> >
> > with this mail I'm officially asking a philosophical support of OSGeo
> > for the XII GRASS and FOSS4G meeting of the Italian Language users.
> >
> > The event will be held in Lugano (South Switzerland) on the 10-11-12
> > February 2010.
> >
> > The organization is coordinated by myself (Massimiliano Cannata) with
> > the support of gfoss.it users (actually the Italian local chapter) and
> > the historical Italian users of GRASS (Zatelli, Brovelli, Ciolli, etc.).
> >
> > The program includes workshops, invited talks, and presentations.
> >
> > In the case I will be the contact for OSGeo for this event
> > (massimiliano.cannata [] supsi.ch).
> >
> > In the case of acceptance of this request I think that some
> > arrangement to enhance OSGeo visibility is required (market material).
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Massimiliano
> >
> > P.s.:
> > - Monetary support is not request but as always is more then welcome
> > (just the coffee break expenses are needed)
> > - For those who don't know me (http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Maxi71):
> > Massimiliano has a P.h.D. in Geodesy and Geomatic and is member of the
> > GRASS PSC and participate to the OSGeo activity since the first join
> > meeting in Bangkok between GRASS and Mapserver and presented to all
> > the OSGeo meetings with different contributions.
> > I was one of the Funding member of the Italian OSGeo Chapter and its
> > first liason officer.
> >
> Thanks for bringing this to the list,
>
> I know this event is typically well attended and run by many OSGeo
> members, so I support this request.   It'd be great to be listed as a
> supporter of the event.  There are some further thoughts on here that
> may apply - in particular a follow up report would be nice to have to
> show how OSGeo support helped:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Event_Management
>
> On another note, any local chapter should feel free to say that they are
> doing or supporting something, without having to come to ask the OSGeo
> marketing committee.  In that case, just make sure it's clear that the
> "local chapter" is doing it and not say it is OSGeo in general.  Hope
> that makes sense..  In this case I support either approach - any
> thoughts from others on the list?
>
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