[OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory

[Jason Birch]

The main business need I see is the case where a user is waylaid by OSGeo and somehow decides that they want to persue open source (joke - no lynching) but doesn't know who to talk to.
 
If we're acting as a marketing organisation (and I think that's squarely in our mandate), we also need to be able to follow through on that marketing.  Quite a few intial users (speaking from experience) would daunted by the task of looking for consultants across multiple projects when they haven't even figured out what software they want yet.  I think that offering this service at the umbrella level will reduce duplicated effort, and will make it easier for users to transition into Open Source.
 
Another concern is that if we don't do it, I don't know if individual projects will.  Which will leave the majority of new users going to a high-profile consultant (such as DMSG) because they don't know that there may be someone close to them that speaks their language.  Either that, or our email lists being flooded with consultant requests :)
 
Jason

________________________________

From: Jo Walsh [mailto:jo at frot.org]
Sent: Thu 2006-09-28 2:23 PM
To: Jason Birch
Cc: Dave McIlhagga; Tyler Mitchell; dev at webcommittee.osgeo.org; OSGeo-Board
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Board] Service Provider Directory



dear Jason, all, I am just catching up on the week's worth of email
backlong and perhaps this discussion has gone long beyond here by now.

On Tue, Sep 26, 2006 at 02:40:23PM -0700, Jason Birch wrote:
> We would police reactively.  If the community notices a provider that
> does not actually offer the services stated, we'd take care of them
> (euphemism?).

Freenetworks.org maintains a local service directory pro-actively -
people submit their networks, details about what they do and then it
is the responsibility of a human to doublecheck they are on the level
- then sites can be retroactively weeded later.

I am ambivalent about the Foundation Per Se offering such a directory
service. If it's something that is being often asked for: why not let
projects and local chapters run directories (which are likely to be
more relevant - who works with project X / who works nearby me) and
have the main OSGeo site just collect them? One level of indirection
= less accountability but same outcome = not always a bad thing?

cheers, and now to read the rest of this thread and realise that i am
just talking into the ether,


jo