[UN] Budget proposal 2019

Wed Jan 16 03:48:29 PST 2019

Dear Bruce,

thanks for the constructive comments.

OSGeo is a partner in the UN Open GIS initiative and, as partner, OSGeo has
to support the project. Participation in the initiative is done by
volunteers (from OSGeo) and we can't ask the volunteers to pay with their
money. This is the reason for the first request. OSGeo partnering in the UN
Open GIS initiative should benefit you and all other OSGeo members. Let us
know if there anything that the person travelling to Sudan can do to also
improve your case.

About the development of training material, this raises awareness of open
source software for geospatial and contributes to capacity building in
OSGeo. It is a way to support young OSGeo members. Such challenges are
common place in industry. The mentors are working for OSGeo as volunteers,
increasing the visibility of OSGeo within the UN and beyond.

Regards,
Serena

Serena Coetzee (GPr GISc 1245)

University of Pretoria
Director: Centre for Geoinformation Science
Professor and Head of Department Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology
Geography Building 3-5, Hatfield Campus, Lynnwood Road, Hatfield, 0083,
South Africa
email: serena.coetzee at up.ac.za · Web: www.up.ac.za/ggm · Mobile: +27 82 464
4294 · Tel: +27 12 420 3823

On Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 2:16 AM Bruce Bannerman <
bruce.bannerman.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Maria,
>
> I do appreciate your passion towards this initiative and the outreach work
> that you do.
>
> However, I am very uncomfortable with the approach outlined in the
> proposal below.
>
> The UN should appreciate the value of open source spatial software by now
> and be willing to contribute back to the open source community.
>
> Therefore, I believe that the activities suggested below should be funded
> by the UN and not OSGeo.
>
> Regarding the items in the proposal below:
>
> Item 1)   If this is for a UN Project and they value OSGeo representation,
> then that should be a UN Project cost and not an OSGeo cost.
>
> Item 2)   I’m not sure what this is, but I interpret it to be for the
> preparation of QGIS training material specific for UN staff. If so, then
> again this should be a UN funded activity. The UN may wish to view this as
> a voluntary contribution that they make to the QGIS Community in part
> recognition of the benefit that they are receiving from the use of the QGIS
> Open Source software. This is also an activity that could be undertaken by
> an commercial organisation that specialises in working with this type of
> open source software.
>
> Item 3)  I’m not sure what this is, but it also sounds like an activity
> that would be for UN benefit. If so, then again, they should be paying.
>
> IMO, we need to push back against the expectation that open source is free
> (as in free beer). There is always a cost to produce and maintain open
> source and I would like to see those who benefit from using the software to
> be encouraged to contribute back to the open source communities.
>
> I have been working actively for many years within one of the UN Agencies
> and am making some real headway towards this agency accepting the value of
> an open source approach to a specific problem that they have.  I can’t
> discuss this publicly yet. I’m sure that you’ll appreciate that the wheels
> can move quite slowly at times as people become comfortable with what is in
> reality a new approach for them and they have internal processes that need
> to be followed.
>
> If I have misunderstood the intent of the proposed items in your email,
> then I apologise in advance.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
>
> On 16 Jan 2019, at 06:03, Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli at polimi.it>
> wrote:
>
> Dear All
> it is time to make the proposal to OSGeo Board for the activities of the
> UN Committee in 2019.
> We have the UN Open GIS Initiative entering in its third year of
> activities; many people of the UN staff have been trained in QGIS and
> PostGIS (more than 100) thanks to volunteers of GeoForAll.
> Currently, there is the third edition of QGIS (Victoria Rautenbach
> chairing the initiative; Thomas Mueller and Cameron Green mentoring)and the
> second one of PostGIS (Ivana Ivanova chairing, Paolo Corti, Oliva Martin
> Sanchez, and Gregory Giuliani mentoring).
>
> About UN Open GIS Initiative the request will be:
> 1) support for attending a couple of project meeting and training - (one
> will be probably in South Sudan) 5000$
> 2) one UN OSGeo Challenge (similar to what we organized last year) to
> prepare a new training material course on PostGIS (the one we are using,
> which is a Boundless one, has to be updated and re-built considering the
> experience of the trainees and trainers). The budget for this initiative
> will be 3000 $, the same as the initiatives of last year. In case we got
> financed, Ivana Ivanova and I can be the mentor of the winner of the
> Challenge.
> 3) Moreover, we can ask some budget for another training course about SDGs
> and open data/open software. Last year Codrina Maria Ilie was the winner
> and the training material is almost ready and will be released soon (it is
> about the computation of SDG indicator 9.1.1 using QGIS). The budget can be
> 3000 $, the same as last year and Serena Coetzee and I can be the mentor.
> Obviously if you there is somebody who wants to offer her/himself as a
> mentor, they are more than welcome!
> Please let me know if you have comments. If none, I will proceed with the
> proposal.
> Bets regards,
> Maria
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Please pay attention to these two opportunities:
>
> A new IJGI Special Issue
> "State-of-the-Art in Spatial Information Science"
> (deadline for submissions: 1 may 2019)
>
> http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/ISPRS_2020_Nice
>
> A new Transaction in GIS  Special Issue
> "Open Source Geospatial Science, Software and Education"
> (deadline for abstract submissions: 15 february 2019)
>
> https://wol-prod-cdn.literatumonline.com/pb-assets/assets/14679671/Open%20Geospatial%20Science%20Software%20and%20Education.pdf
>
>
>
> *----------------------------------------------------*
> *Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli*
> Professor of GIS and Digital Mapping
> Politecnico di Milano
>
> P.zza Leonardo da Vinci, 32 - Building 3 - 20133 Milano (Italy)
> Tel. +39-02-23996242 - Mob. +39-328-0023867,   <maria.brovelli at polimi.it>
> maria.brovelli at polimi.it
> https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3161-556
>
>
>
>
>
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