[TOSprint] Final word on the IslandWood sprint

[Michael P. Gerlek]

[sent to the tosprint mailing list and BCC'd to all attendees and sponsors]

The 2012 North American OSGeo codesprint is now over, and I wanted to offer one final thank you to both the sponsors and the attendees.

The venue for this year's event was quite different than we've had in previous years, but all seemed to agree that IslandWood provided a great venue for a four day retreat -- the room was good, the wifi network held up, the food was excellent, and the Seattle winter weather even cooperated for a couple days.  And with the generosity of the sponsors and the attendees both, we wound up with a surplus in the budget which we've agreed to carry over to assist the 2013 sprint in getting started.

A lot of software work was accomplished last week, of course, but I realized also this year just how important the social aspect of this annual event is.  The OSGeo developers collaborate extensively throughout the year, and yet most rarely if ever have the chance to meet each other face to face.  Giving them some time to meet and know each other as people, not just email addresses and IRC nicks, is critical to the success of the open source development model and indeed what the OSGeo community is all about.

So thank you all again, and I look forward to seeing you in Boston in 2013.

-mpg

Michael P. Gerlek
Flaxen Consulting LLC
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
mpg at flaxen.com
206-595-2567