[Aust-NZ] Can proprietary products be discussed/promoted at FOSS4G2009?

[Chris Tweedie]

I agree with Brent 100%. If FOSS4G is about broadening the reach of
opensource geospatial, it has to hinge on the interoperability with existing
spatial systems, commercial or otherwise. Would commercial vendors even risk
pitching "too-commercial" abstracts at the cost of alienating the FOSS4G
community? Furthermore, has this actually been a problem at previous
conferences?

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Cameron Shorter
Sent: Thursday, 24 July 2008 12:17 PM
To: pcreso at pcreso.com; Aust-NZ OSGeo
Subject: Re: [Aust-NZ] Can proprietary products be discussed/promoted at
FOSS4G2009?

Brent seems to have issues getting through to the list. Scroll down for 
his comments.

pcreso at pcreso.com wrote:
> Hi Cameron, 
>
> I have sent it there, twice, one bounce (my fault) & then a non-event.
I'll try again, but if you don't see it there, can you post it there for me?
>
> Cheers,
>
>    Brent
>
>
> --- On Thu, 7/24/08, Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> From: Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Aust-NZ] Can proprietary products be discussed/promoted at
FOSS4G2009?
>> To: pcreso at pcreso.com
>> Date: Thursday, July 24, 2008, 10:23 AM
>> Thanks, this is good advice, do you mind if you CC it to the
>> Aust-NZ 
>> list as well and lend weight to go down the path you
>> recommend.
>>
>> pcreso at pcreso.com wrote:
>>     
>>> My 02c on this...
>>>
>>> I have been involved with a few conferences based on
>>>       
>> FOSS GIS/database apps, and my presentations used to focus
>> pretty much exclusively on the FOSS aspect. In response to
>> user feedback & what I perceive as a change in the
>> industry, I now focus on Open Standards &
>> interoperability. If a proprietary app supports open
>> standards & is interoperable with FOSS, I'm happy
>> to include them. 
>>     
>>> This leads to, for example, Oracle sites migrating to
>>>       
>> Postgres, because Oracle users are willing to come to
>> discussions/presentations where Oracle is discussed, but
>> not otherwise...
>>     
>>> Otherwise I feel we tend to just preach to the
>>>       
>> converted, which makes for fun & supportive
>> conferences, but doesn't necessarily introduce FOSS to
>> non-FOSS users. 
>>     
>>> There are plenty of Arc sites out there, & getting
>>>       
>> them to consider PostGIS under SDE, making their data
>> available via OGC web services, accessing our data via web
>> services & supporting initiatives like GeoNetworks
>> won't happen without dialogue. We need to involve them
>> more.
>>     
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>>   Brent Wood
>>>
>>>
>>> --- On Wed, 7/23/08, Cameron Shorter
>>>       
>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> From: Cameron Shorter
>>>>         
>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>>     
>>>> Subject: [Aust-NZ] Can proprietary products be
>>>>         
>> discussed/promoted at FOSS4G2009?
>>     
>>>> To: "conference_dev"
>>>>         
>> <conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org>, "Aust-NZ
>> OSGeo" <Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org>
>>     
>>>> Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 6:36 PM
>>>> While talking up FOSS4G2009 at a recent Australian
>>>> conference (Qld SSI 
>>>> on the Gold Coast) we were asked:
>>>>
>>>> "Are proprietary products allowed to be
>>>> discussed/promoted at FOSS4G?"
>>>>
>>>> More specifically:
>>>> * Do we accept presentations about integrating
>>>>         
>> Open Source
>>     
>>>> with Proprietary?
>>>> * Do we accept presentations from proprietary
>>>>         
>> vendors about
>>     
>>>> how they can 
>>>> integrate with Open Standards/Open Source?
>>>> * Are proprietary vendors allowed to Sponsor the
>>>> conference?
>>>> * Are proprietary vendors allowed to set up a
>>>>         
>> booth?
>>     
>>>> * Are proprietary vendors allowed to participate
>>>>         
>> in an
>>     
>>>> interoperability 
>>>> testbed?
>>>>   - To what extent?
>>>>
>>>> My take is:
>>>> FOSS4G 2009's theme is "User Driven"
>>>>         
>> and
>>     
>>>> users need to integrate open 
>>>> source with proprietary applications.
>>>>
>>>> So presentations and testbeds targeting
>>>>         
>> "Integrating
>>     
>>>> Proprietary with 
>>>> Open Source" should be encouraged,
>>>>         
>> Proprietary only is
>>     
>>>> not allowed, and 
>>>> at least 75% of the topics should be completely
>>>>         
>> Open Source
>>     
>>>> focused.
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>> Geospatial Systems Architect
>>>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>>>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>>>
>>>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>>> Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source
>>>>         
>> Solutions
>>     
>> http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
>>     
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Aust-NZ mailing list
>>>> Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/aust-nz
>>>>     
>>>>         
>> -- 
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Geospatial Systems Architect
>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>
>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>> Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
>> http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
>>     


-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html

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