[OSGeo Oceania] [Aus-NZ-QGIS-group] Community consultation: OO Org QGIS Special Interest Group Charter

Fri Nov 27 20:57:16 PST 2020

Andrew, thanks a lot for continuing to push this forward. It has been a
couple of months since I last looked at this, and I haven't really had a
detailed look at the SIG concept yet.

I'm 'out of the office' for the next few days, but would be happy to join
in this discussion when I get back, and have a proper chance to refresh my
memory and get up to speed on SIGs.

One brief thought, it feels like it would be good to consider a free (or
very inexpensive) tier of membership. I suspect many of us can't justify
(or can't afford) to spend much, but could contribute in other ways.

Cheers
John

On Fri, 27 Nov 2020, 9:46 am Andrew Jeffrey, <aljeffrey83 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Adam,
>
> Thanks for the feedback.
>
> I agree the SIG shouldn't bring about any duplication of the processes
> that the OO currently does. A SIG as defined in the guidelines
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U3R3wSHR9jo9VgywmAQqKswrylwjxw9-/edit>
> should be "enabling OSGeo Oceania members to interact, share knowledge,
> organise events, and collaborate on a selected, targeted topic within the
> scope of OSGeo Oceania". So a SIG should be complementary to the OO
> function and allow the interested community members to drive engagement in
> that area without the OO board having to do it all. Like you say though,
> open communication between the SIG and the OO board is key in making sure
> there is no overlap being introduced. Also to be clear the SIG isn’t
> seeking “sponsorship” as such but we do want to be able to collect a
> membership fee for people/orgs wanting to be involved, allowing them to
> fund items that maybe other OO members don’t see as important. I don’t see
> this taking away from conference sponsorship and this idea will ultimately
> sink or swim depending on whether the SIG members have an appetite to fund
> the items in our scope.
>
> As for the conflict of interest, to be honest I don't know the answer in
> regards to how that should be dealt with. I think we need to add something
> in the charter, would removing those people from the proposal and voting
> process be enough? How does OO deal with this? I don’t want to rule local
> devs out of working on this because they belong to the group, but we also
> don’t want to become the entry point to company XYZ.
>
> Thanks for the feedback.
>
> Andrew
>
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 7:35 AM Adam Steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey Andrew and all the QGIS SIG proposers
>>
>> Thanks, I think this is a perfect use of OSGeo Oceania as a backing
>> organisation :)
>>
>> My only reservation with any SIG proposal is that effort isn't
>> duplicated about events and marketing, and also that a funding from a
>> small pool of interested parties (relative to other parts of the
>> world) is able to be effectively spread among the whole community. For
>> an example it would be a bit awry to see a SIG gather a heap of
>> funding at the expense of conference sponsorships. I guess in that
>> case the SIG could also sponsor conferences? This goes the other way
>> too - the existence of a well connected SIG makes it easier for OO to
>> fund a QGIS feature (for example) if it decides to do so.
>>
>> I think clear, constant and open communication between OO and the SIG
>> will make those concerns go away.
>>
>> In writing this I did work my thoughts through to  a serious question:
>> How will the SIG deal with conflicts of interest? A stated aim of the
>> SIG is to fund development, what will the SIG do if all the key QGIS
>> developers in the region are also in the group of people making
>> decisions about buying developer time?
>>
>> My only comment on the charter itself is that if you want, you can
>> link to the existing Berlin Code of Conduct:
>> https://berlincodeofconduct.org/ - with which the upcoming OO CoC
>> should be 100% compatible.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 26 Nov 2020 at 04:37, Andrew Jeffrey <aljeffrey83 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi All,
>> >
>> > The OSGeo Oceania board has approved an initiative for members to form
>> Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the OO community.
>> >
>> > A SIG is a way for community members to collaborate around common
>> interests which in this case is QGIS.
>> >
>> > In establishing a SIG, the OO board requires that the group proposing
>> the SIG put forward a charter which outlines the Aim and Scope under which
>> the SIG will operate.
>> >
>> > Myself, Emma Hain, John Bryant, Nathan Woodrow and Nyall Dawson would
>> like to start a QGIS SIG which can be used to benefit QGIS users in our
>> community. To get things started we have come up with a charter that we
>> would like to make available for community consultation. As this charter
>> currently reflects our input we would like to put this out for discussion
>> to see if what we are proposing is on the right path for the community. At
>> the moment everyone with the link below has "comment" permissions, but
>> "edit" permissions can be granted on request if you would like to get more
>> involved and you're welcome to do so.
>> >
>> >
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lrewntrC0N1r6mfZdo1AdPhe2qTEaN5hDA2pcL0mrvI/edit?usp=sharing
>> >
>> > I also just want to be upfront that this SIG is proposing that there be
>> a membership fee associated with the group. The funds raised by the
>> membership will be stored with the OO org and then used by the SIG on items
>> as scoped out in the charter. The idea with the membership is not to "make
>> money" but to pool our small contributions to give us better "buying power"
>> for lack of a better term. As a SIG within the OO org we can participate in
>> crowdfunding campaigns, engage a dev to develop a feature important to us
>> but might not be recognised as important to the larger QGIS project, or
>> engage a trainer to provide professional development via Zoom, the types of
>> things that are hard to do as individuals or as a user group with no funds
>> etc. The membership arrangement also allows us to offer membership to
>> organisations which will become a way for them to support QGIS and their
>> local QGIS community. Ideally, this is where a majority of the funds would
>> come from as we don't want an individual to be excluded due to a "fee",
>> which is also covered in the charter. I'm available as I'm sure the other
>> proposers are to discuss the intention of this further and in the open on
>> this list.
>> >
>> > Any questions feel free to ask or if you prefer to comment on the
>> charter that is fine too.
>> >
>> > I look forward to discussing this with you.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> > Andrew
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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