[Ottawa_users] Proposal to expand Chapter

Frank Warmerdam warmerdam at pobox.com
Tue Oct 9 10:25:01 EDT 2007


Kralidis,Tom [Burlington] wrote:
> Thanks Debbie; correct, I've been working on creating a GTA chapter in
> recent weeks.  I agree with J.F. here, there would be pros and cons here
> to starting a Canadian chapter.
> 
> I would see a Canadian chapter to be of value to those in a Canadian
> locale who do not have a chapter (which, currently, is everyone not in
> Ottawa).

Tom,

What value do you see a Canadian chapter having for these people?  If
it is for support, I'm not sure why Canadian's wouldn't just participate
directly in project and international mailing lists.  To me a Canadian
chapter is primarily of utility to pursue "Canada specific" objectives
such as promotion or influencing public policy.

But from a practical point of view, not that many people are interested
in such objectives.

In my humble opinion the reason we don't have active Canadian, US or
UK chapters of OSGeo is because they would be too broad for really
local organizing, and yet artificially narrow when we can participate
directly in the English language activities of OSGeo and the projects
at the global level.

Many national chapters really exist primarily as a language based
support group for those who find it somewhat difficult to participate
in the global English mailing lists.  We don't need that, which (I think)
has limited interest in a national chapter.

> On the other hand, putting things "national" could (could) cause an
> oversight into recognizing / dealing with local issues.
> 
> What about having a Canadian chapter with branches?  This way, anyone
> across Canada can participate, and those with a critical mass can call
> themselves a branch.  The bottom line IMHO is being as inclusive as
> possible.

Why not just have Canadian's participate directly in OSGeo?

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org



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