Thank you to Johan for mentioning this. I agree that it is a good time
for Board candidates to speak and explain their vision/plans.
I would like to explain my vision, status, and plans through the
following sections:
President
---------
I was initially named as President of OSGeo in December 2012. I do plan
to re-stand for another term as President. It is an honour to represent
OSGeo, and I take this position very seriously. Although our foundation
is filled with thousands of active and superbly bright members, there is
sometimes a very important need to be the face of the foundation.
Besides the obvious visible role at events, and giving the foundation
stability and dependable leadership, as President I also handle concerns
and challenges occurring throughout the foundation, often this means
just listening closely, and then bringing the issue forward through
appropriate methods.
Over time I have also come to realize my own strengths and limits, and
this is a very important part of being the President of OSGeo -
leveraging the community (committees, local chapters, project leads) to
get things done, and not get tangled into tasks. As an example, I do
still poke my head into FOSS4G committees occasionally, but mostly to
guide the progress or report challenges brought to me through the
community. It is thanks to this realization that I am enthusiastic and
energized to represent this great community as President again.
Community
---------
As a current Board member, and potential future Board member, I feel I
bring a strong sense of community to the Board. It is no secret that
for a long time now I have focused on building the community of OSGeo.
I once heard an interview with a legendary lead singer of a band[1], who
said his goal each concert was to make the kid sitting in the very back
row to feel like he's as much a part of the concert as the kid sitting
in the front row, and this is exactly how I focus my community work for
OSGeo. I try to make the shy new developer or student, just newly
looking into Open Geospatial, looking to hopefully join or form a local
chapter in a remote country, feel as part of the community of OSGeo as
everyone else does. A result of doing that, is that like that singer, I
feel that the OSGeo world is very small and very connected (one moment I
am talking with an OSGeo-Argentina community member, the next moment I
am talking with an OSGeo-Sri Lanka community member). I see the world
as very small and very connected.
Education / Training
--------------------
The stability of our foundation and its software projects, means that
there is now a huge demand on training in the education system. I feel
it is very important to help promote Open Geospatial in universities and
schools, and I am very happy to continue working with Suchith and other
academic leaders through the Geo for All initiative. On a recent trip I
made sure to meet with fellow ICA and ISPRS presidents to continue the
great momentum developed by Suchith, Maria, and others.
I should also point out that it is important to support OSGeo's Google
Summer of Code students, led by the wonderful work and leadership of
Anne, and I make a point of promoting her great work publicly whenever I
can.
Building an "Ecosystem"/Network
-------------------------------
It is obvious to me, thanks to leaders like Dirk who champion this, that
OSGeo's relationships with geospatial communities (such as OGC, ICA,
ISPRS, LocationTech, etc.) and also the professional service providers
supporting our projects, are very important for our future as a
foundation. A lot of work must be done soon to manage this so that we
can continue to grow and thrive in today's industry, and I realize this
will be a team effort.
Infrastructure
--------------
In the past year the foundation went through some challenges with
servers, I just want to make sure we acknowledge this, and as a Board
member I will support the SAC committee to make sure we can give them
what they need.
Supporting the Tribe
--------------------
The core of OSGeo depends on grassroots events like code sprints and
smaller local FOSS4G events and "townhall" meetings, and as a Board
member I will make sure we do support the tribe through these events
whenever possible.
Charter Members
---------------
Several community leaders, the most prominent being Venka, have
expressed their desires to leverage our Charter Members more in the
growth of the foundation. I plan to work with Venka and the 244 Charter
Members and the Board to see how we can involve the members more in
important decisions.
Financial
---------
I would like to see a clear picture of our financial outlook presented
to the Board regularly, and therefore relayed to the whole community.
I realize the foundation struggles at gaining sponsors, but I think the
first step in getting on track with that is a clear 'look in the mirror'
each month or so. I will encourage the Board and the Treasurer to have
monthly or bi-monthly financial updates done.
I would like to thank Daniel here for his hard work on following through
with the 501(c)(4) Tax Exempt Status for the foundation. I will do
whatever is needed to support him and the next Treasurer with that.
FOSS4G
------
It is no secret to most of my passion for FOSS4G, tracing all the way
back to lively talks with Markus and Venka 10 years ago. I went on to
put a lot of focus into the main event, many years of just doing the
little things behind the scenes, often nothing more than 'picking up a
dropped ball' over and over. Today I put a lot of my focus in the
smaller FOSS4G events, not necessarily doing the work but instead
helping promote them, small hints of guidance when necessary, making
their event feel/be as important as any FOSS4G event.
It is all that history that gives me a unique perspective of the FOSS4G
community. Having been vocal for many years on the need for resources
for the continuity and management of the main FOSS4G event, I hear those
demands strongly again from others recently, and realize that we will
have to deal with that as a Board and through the Conference Committee.
The FOSS4G brand is very important to OSGeo.
In Conclusion
-------------
The OSGeo community is very important to me. It will take all of the
community to make all of the above happen, not just one or a few people.
But I am so happy to be here, to be potentially on the OSGeo Board again
and President, singing to that kid in the back of the concert, singing
about the great community of OSGeo. :)
Sincerely yours,
-jeff
[1] Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jeff_McKenna
On 2014-08-20 5:41 PM, Johan Van de Wauw wrote:
Hello everyone,
I'm relatively new to OSGeo (at least the organisational part), but
I'm a bit surprised by the board elections.
I'm seeing two phases: a nomination phase and a voting phase. I double
checked and last year it was the same. In my opinion we are missing
the most important step: a "campaigning period". I'd like to know what
each candidate would like to do, how they see the future of OSGeo,...
Now - don't get me wrong- we have (up to now) 7 excellent candidates
for 5 positions, and probably many other charter members have done so
much for the community that they deserve to be on the board. But as
much as I would like to thank all of them, I would like to use
different criteria for selecting board members.What are your vision
and goals? Where should OSGeo head to? What about the financial
situation? I'd like to know each candidate's vision before voting.
Actually, all other volunteer run organisations where I've been
involved have such a phase. Usually it happens "offline" during
general assemblies, but at least for debian they are online [1]. The
actual examples from debian are for choosing the project leader and
are way too long, but I'd definitively like to read a paragraph or two
which vision each candidate has on OSGeo.
So here is my proposal:
For next year:
- Make something like a "campaining period" a part of the election.
Give candidates an official time to explain their plans and have room
for discussion afterwards. I actually think this would be a better
place for "endorsements" than the nomination phase. Endorsing a
candidate for his/her future plans based on his/her current
achievement is imho a stronger signal than some of the endorsements we
saw on the list before.
For this year:
- Even if there is no official period, I'd still love to see the
vision/answers to the above questions from the candidates.
Johan
[1] https://www.debian.org/vote/2013/platforms/
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