[Marketing] random catchup on sponsorship

[Alex M]

Open Source and/or geospatial.

We can't rule out that some companies/orgs are users of OSGeo projects
internally. Any business that maps their customers potentially is a sponsor.

So it seems some sort of questionnaire (1-4 question), asking about the
above uses could help us weed out sponsors that aren't relevant. Who is
going to be tasked with reviewing sponsors?

Example questions:
1. Why do you want to sponsor OSGeo?
2. What open source geospatial projects do you use?
3. What open source geospatial projects do you contribute to?
etc...

Example scenario, what if some large company sponsors us, but then makes
a public statement that goes against our Code of Conduct with
racist/sexists/etc... remarks. Do we drop them as a sponsor? As per some
voting mechanism?

+1 on this rule needs to not be retro-active but apply to future new and
renewals.

+1 on preference/suggestion for link to company being their page about
their open source and/or geospatial usage.

Thanks,
Alex

On 06/24/2016 10:25 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:
> I think it is too late for this year Jeroen, do you think the suggestion on
> "linking to open source participation page" would be effective policy
> change for next year?
> 
> --
> Jody Garnett
> 
> On 24 June 2016 at 02:00, Jeroen Ticheler <jeroen.ticheler at geocat.net>
> wrote:
> 
>> +1 on not accepting unrelated sponsors. The current Bronze sponsors listed
>> seem to be advertising totally different stuff. No good marketing for OSGeo.
>> Cheers,
>> Jeroen
>>
>> GeoCat Bridge for ArcGIS allows instant publishing of data and metadata on
>> GeoServer, MapServer, PostGIS and GeoNetwork. Visit http://geocat.net for
>> details.
>> _________________________
>> Jeroen Ticheler
>> GeoCat bv
>> Veenderweg 13
>> 6721 WD Bennekom
>> Tel: +31 (0)6 81286572
>> http://geocat.net
>>
>>> Op 23 jun. 2016 om 21:11 heeft Eli Adam <eadam at co.lincoln.or.us> het
>> volgende geschreven:
>>>
>>> Hi Jody and all,
>>>
>>>> On Thu, Jun 23, 2016 at 11:39 AM, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>> Question for the marketing committee, since it is a bit about the
>> messaging
>>>> on our website.
>>>>
>>>> With a revised sponsorship approach we are collecting more sponsors
>> (yay!)
>>>
>>> Great, good work.  If we have stable revenue from something other than
>>> FOSS4G, that makes it easier to take different approaches with the
>>> conference.  And additional diversified foundation revenue is always
>>> good.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/sponsors.html
>>>>
>>>> One surprise this year is collecting bronze sponsors (this was at the
>> $500
>>>> USD level) that are not directly from our industry. Is this something we
>>>> should care about from a marketing/branding perspective?
>>>
>>> Yes, we should care.  Our focus is open source geospatial software;
>>> we're not an advertising platform.  The reason that we are getting
>>> unrelated sponsors is that we are selling a really good page rank at a
>>> very low price.  I think that other OSGeo project have had to decline
>>> sponsorships from adult or other non-related websites.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Background: The original intension here was to have a way for small
>> business
>>>> to be represented in our organization by offering a lower price point.
>> The
>>>> cumulative sponsorship (combining support of OSGeo events, projects,
>>>> initiatives) also meets this need.
>>>
>>> If we raised our prices so that bronze sponsorship was no longer an
>>> incredibly good deal for the page rank, then this would end.  (i.e. We
>>> won't ever have an over abundance of unrelated platinum sponsors.)
>>> However, the goal is to raise sponsorship and a reasonable entry point
>>> for small businesses which often make substantial contributions to
>>> OSGeo projects.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> One idea (for next year) is to ask sponsors for a link to their open
>> source
>>>> landing page (example, example, example, example).
>>>
>>> I think that we should have a requirement that sponsors be at least
>>> related to the geospatial industry.  This requirement can easily be
>>> applied with just a bit of thought.  If denied sponsors don't like
>>> their denial, they can appeal to the Board and make their case that
>>> they are geospatially related.  I would be in favor of returning those
>>> unrelated sponsors' money and removing them.  At least no more
>>> unrelated sponsors and no option for renewal for the existing
>>> unrelated sponsors if we don't refund and remove.
>>>
>>> My thoughts, Eli
>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Jody Garnett
>>>>
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>>
> 
> 
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