[OSGeo Oceania] FOSS4G Hobart - Elephant in the room ESRI

[Violaine]

Hi,

My quick 2 cents : I felt it weird too, and bring an unconfortable 
feeling. (It doesnt question the capacity to organize a great event thought)

Have a lovely day all


Le 20/11/2024 à 03:23, John Bryant via Oceania a écrit :
> Thanks for bringing it up Andrew J, it hasn't sat especially well with 
> me either. It was a great event, but it seemed incongruous to have a 
> vendor selling ArcGIS at a booth at a FOSS4G.
>
>
>
> On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 at 21:02, Andrew Harvey via Oceania 
> <oceania at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>
>     Hi Andrew,
>
>     Good on you for speaking up about your concerns! I'm sure you're
>     not the only one who had this thought.
>
>     Speaking from myself here, as far as I'm aware anyone can support
>     the conference financially through sponsorship without any other
>     requirements, but it would be up to the organising committee and
>     board if they did want to add additional conditions for accepting
>     sponsors.
>
>     However given ESRI's involvement with OpenStreetMap
>     (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Esri), in particular their
>     "Esri World Imagery" which they provide to OpenStreetMap for
>     tracing features, and their OpenStreetMap powered basemaps which
>     help make it easier for people to consume OpenStreetMap data. I
>     would say they are very much a positive part of the OpenStreetMap
>     community and with FOSS4G SotM Oceania being a State of the Map
>     conference the more financial support we have from entities who
>     want to help OpenStreetMap the stronger OSGeo Oceania and the
>     conference will be.
>
>     Andrew Harvey
>
>     On Wed, 20 Nov 2024, at 10:07 PM, Andrew Jeffrey via Oceania wrote:
>>     Hi All,
>>
>>     I hope everyone that was able to attend the FOSS4G SOTM Oceania
>>     Hobart conference had a great time. I'm still very much bummed
>>     that I wasn't able to make it down there and my only start at the
>>     OO conference remains Melbourne in 2018. I plan on improving my
>>     numbers as best I can into the future, but from the outside
>>     looking in, it looked like all those that attended had a blast -
>>     well done conference committee and OO board.
>>
>>     I am writing to the list because I have a question that has been
>>     bugging me ever since I talked to a colleague who attended the
>>     event. That question is "What's the deal with ESRI being
>>     a sponsor?". I have genuine curiosity when it comes to the
>>     decision process in having them on board. I understand these
>>     things take money to put on and the conference needs to turn a
>>     profit, a healthy conference makes for a healthy OO which allows
>>     the organisation to do many of the great things that they do.
>>     However, I think this sponsorship from ESRI should be
>>     reconsidered in the future.
>>
>>     Just to be clear, I am not opposed to speakers who work for ESRI
>>     coming and talking, from all reports the keynote from Kate Fickas
>>     was amazing (as were all the keynotes from what I hear) and these
>>     are the industry people that we all crave to hear from - top job
>>     in landing that line up! But as for sponsorship I feel that ESRI
>>     is putting their brand on a community that a lot of us turned to
>>     when looking for refuge from them.
>>
>>     I acknowledge that my opinion on this is biased as a QGIS
>>     advocate and trainer. But something about this just feels off! I
>>     don't see what's in it for the FOSS4G community having ESRI
>>     involved in our conferences, to me it looks more of a cheap way
>>     for them to buy some good news without doing anything to improve
>>     the relationship with the FOSS4G community.
>>
>>     However, I know I wasn't there, and I could be wrong about the
>>     whole thing. Maybe the overwhelming opinion is that it's a good
>>     thing and this is a step in the right direction? I would be
>>     interested in hearing what people think and even hearing from
>>     someone on the conference organising committee that has more
>>     knowledge about this. Is this something the conference would do
>>     again? Is there a limit to their involvement? What would have
>>     happened if they were a platinum sponsor and got the primary logo
>>     placement + verbal mention at opening and closing of the event?
>>
>>     Thanks
>>     Andrew
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>>
>
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