[OSGeo-UK] Thoughts for OSGeo UK pot of resource

[Ian Mayo]

At the AGM Stephen invited suggestions regarding use of the OSGeo UK funds.

This coincided with thoughts from earlier presentations regarding gaps in
the FOSS4G toolchain.  It further coincided with observations in Suchith's
Open Principles presentation.

FOSS4G has some strong member projects, who provide support within their
stovepipe, and conduct "Open Source Marketing" around their application.
I'm not aware of an organisation that considers the overall FOSS4G
tool-chain, whether that be producing web-maps from a desktop application,
or an overall FOSS4G tool stack.

When a proprietary vendor provides such a stack they have a clear strategic
objective for promoting that stack:
* easy access to/installation of the stack
* getting started guides
* happy-ending case studies

But, this cross-cutting interest seems missing from the FOSS4G community.

So, I believe there may be value in using the pot-of-resource in this
direction, maybe:
* sponsor a review of the FOSS4G adoption process, from the mindset of a
Local Government Agency - to produce a gap analysis that can then be
addressed as appropriate
* provide some targeted packages of work that improve the glue between
tools in the stack/chain (though I'd hope Open Standards would prevent most
such problems).
* sponsor some business analysis / authoring on successful case studies.
We've seen a few such cases at FOSS41G16, it's just a matter of presenting
them in a format suitable for the Internet (case studies).  Then the
subsequent hosting of and/or exploiting of these materials
* invest effort in lowering the cost of running a pilot project.   Maybe
this would just be one or more Virtual Machines running a FOSS4G stack,
then a cookbook of solving typical Local Government problems using it.
Such a capability could then be advertised within suitable forums - go to
where the potential users are, rather than pull them to OSGeo.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, or teaching granny to suck eggs....

Regards,
Ian
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