[Oceania-Board] [OSGeo Oceania] Endorsement by OSGeo Oceania

[Adam Steer]

Hei Martin,

Thanks for pulling this out into the general discussion list. Perhaps a
good time to encourage anyone interested in governance of OSGeo Oceania to
subscribe to the public board list:
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania-board

About endorsement, I don't see endorsement of companies or services as an
encouraging direction for OO or FOSS4G SotM Oceania.

Sponsorship benefits (display of logo etc) should not be seen as
endorsement, perhaps this should be explicit in sponsorship agreements if
it is not already.

I think it's fine for both OO and FOSS4G SotM Oceania to seek sponsorship -
otherwise both don't survive. In 2018 we discussed the ethics of
sponsorship, for example 'if company X wants to sponsor but is funded by
the arbitrary detention of refugees, should we take their money?'.

There was no good answer - the sponsorship agreement simply reflected some
values that we expected to see upheld, and sponsors had the opportunity
then to walk away if they felt they could not abide by those. Maybe this
process could be stronger / better defined - I know for me I would be
disappointed to see the logo of certain organisations flying high at an OO
(or OSGeo more broadly) event, because their actions are clearly dissonant
to the values of an open and inclusive community.

It was good to see what appeared to be a consensus that OO should not get
involved in endorsement [1], and I hope the same is true for FOSS4G SotM
Oceania.

With care from the high arctic,

Adam

[1]
https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania-board/2022-February/thread.html

On Mon, Feb 7, 2022, 23:54 Martin Tomko <tomkom at unimelb.edu.au> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> This is a very interesting and relevant discussion for the community ( I
> presume triggered by some ongoing board discussion). I am not sure why I am
> still on the Board mailing list, but as I am not a member of the board, I
> should probably not respond here. Can I please ask we move this to the
> general list of the community, as this is an item of general interest?
> Cc-ing oceania at osgeo.
>
>
>
> I believe there will be hot takes on this topic, and it would be
> preferrable to have a broad agreement in the community ( although maybe not
> consensus, at least a compromise).
>
>
>
> M.
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Oceania-Board <oceania-board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf
> of Emma Hain <emmahain at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Tuesday, 8 February 2022 at 9:44 am
> *To: *Edoardo Neerhut <eneerhut at gmail.com>
> *Cc: *OSGeo Oceania Board <oceania-board at lists.osgeo.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Oceania-Board] Endorsement by OSGeo Oceania
>
>  How would this fit in to a marketplace where OS economical endeavours are
> supported ?
>
>
>
> On Tue, 8 Feb 2022, 8:37 am Edoardo Neerhut, <eneerhut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I agree that OO should never endorse products or services.
>
>
>
> There might be times where it is legitimate to refer to an open source
> geospatial product or service though. This should be done carefully and
> within suitable context. Maybe worth fleshing this out.
>
>
>
> I disagree that OO can't seek sponsorship. I see this as in the community
> interest.
>
>
>
> On Mon, 7 Feb 2022, 13:57 Jonah Sullivan, <jonahsullivan79 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> My position on endorsement of commercial (or free) services is that OSGeo
> Oceania doesn't do it...at all. We financially support the Oceania
> community's grass-roots initiatives (mainly events), and OSGeo's
> initiatives, but we don't endorse commercial service providers. One of the
> grass-roots initiatives OSGeo Oceania supports is the FOSS4G SotM Oceania
> Conference, which is administered by a separate committee: that group seeks
> sponsors and endorses service providers, but OSGeo Oceania doesn't.
>
>
>
> Is that a controversial position? Should OSGeo Oceania endorse service
> providers?
>
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