I don't see what can be considered as "hippy" in the Barcelona touristic guide which was the main part of the elected proposal. +100 € rooms ? I think the Denver LOC was GREAT, and I would have loved to join to a conference organized by such people. Instead I will have to drive 300 km away from home to get a GvSIG demo. Crap.
Regards Guillaume Sean Gillies a écrit : > Maybe bloggers and GITA aren't all that impressive to the folks who > voted. I was frankly appalled that GITA was going to be involved. I've > been to GIS in the Rockies and seen no evidence that GITA can run an > open source conference or even "gets it". Perhaps the voters were overly > sentimental freetard hippies who still remember the early conferences, > like me. > > Cheers, > Sean > > On Dec 20, 2008, at 10:35 PM, michael gould wrote: > >> Or maybe Barcelona is a just nice place to run a conference!! And to >> eat and go out… >> >> ______________________________________________ >> Michael Gould >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> *De:* [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]> >> [mailto:[email protected]] *En nombre de *Eric Wolf >> *Enviado el:* domingo, 21 de diciembre de 2008 5:47 >> *Para:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> *Asunto:* [Geowanking] Wanking on about FOSS4G 2010 >> >> I wrote this last night after mulling over the Denver LOC's loss in >> bidding for FOSS4G 2010: >> >> An interesting thing happened today. The proposal from Barcelona, >> Spain for hosting the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial in >> 2010 won the committees vote. Right before the election, Peter Batty >> and I were attempting to understand what factors might impact the vote. >> >> But first, a little background. Peter and I lead a group (the Denver >> Local Organizing Committee – or LOC) that put together a competing >> proposal to host the conference in Denver. We put together an all-star >> LOC from North American geospatial bloggers, experienced industry >> leaders, significant FOSS contributors, US Government researchers and >> academics. We teamed up with the Geospatial Information Technology >> Association (GITA) who would manage the logistics of hosting, what we >> estimated, would be a 1000+ attendee conference. >> >> In addition to our proposal and the winning proposal from Barcelona, >> submissions were made from Beijing, China and Utrecht, The >> Netherlands. We had a great deal of confidence going into the vote. >> Our proposal was very professional and extremely well organized and >> directly addressed the issues mentioned in the RFP. This was born out >> in the fact that we had less than half the number of questions posed >> to the other bidding groups in the first round of questions and >> significantly less time was spent discussing issues with our proposal >> in the final IRC discussion. >> >> We had a fantastic proposal, a great organizing committee and the >> support of a well-respected organization handling the logistics. So, >> what happened? >> >> Like so many coincidences in life, I happen to be preparing for my >> comprehensive exams. One of the three areas I am being tested over is >> "Critical Cartography". So I've been reading lots of Denis Wood, J. >> Brian Harley, Denis Cosgrove, Gunar Olsson, Jeremy Crampton, etc., >> etc. This reading guided part of the discussion with Peter as the >> votes were being tallied. >> >> One way to look at FOSS4G is as a resistance response to the power of >> commercial software, especially ESRI's ArcGIS. Much of Harley's >> conception of the map, historically, was through a Foucauldian >> discourse of power. Maps reflect a position of power. Maps, >> historically, have been used to define boundaries and guide wars. But, >> in accordance with Foucault, power cannot truly exist without >> resistance. If we grant ESRI the same position of power as Harley >> grants maps and cartography, then the resistance to that power is FOSS4G. >> >> In the US, we specifically value capitalism and commercialism. We >> admire, as heroes, men like Bill Gates and Jack Dangermond. Open >> Source software consistently struggles against the Fear, Uncertainty >> and Doubt generated by the commercial software developers. We feel the >> need for support structures of technical support and legal entities to >> sue. Consider the roe against Dell when they outsourced their customer >> service to India. Americans would get irate if they heard someone with >> a foreign accent on the end of the line. But for the rest of the >> world, commercial support ALWAYS has a foreign accent – an American >> accent! Americans like power – and they mistake it for security. No >> one ever got fired for buying IBM. And no one ever will get fired for >> buying ESRI. >> >> The Denver LOC proposed a large, commercially-focused FOSS4G 2010 >> conference. This proposal very much reflected the American values. >> Let's find a way to marry open source with commercial interests! We'll >> have over a thousand participants… and skiing! >> >> It's my belief that the vote worked out to a debate over whether OSGeo >> wanted the conference to become just another part of the American >> power structure or to use it to grow the resistance where it is >> strongest. Even the choice of Barcelona over Utrecht seems to support >> his argument. Utrecht's proposal, like the Denver proposal, was very >> thorough and well supported by both commercial and non-commercial >> interests. While Utrecht would have kept the conference in Europe, it >> wouldn't have fostered resistance to Western, capitalist values and >> the power represented by ESRI to the same degree as much as Barcelona. >> >> It is important to note that the Beijing organizing committee >> challenges with language barriers. Further, they estimated that only >> 10% of the attendees would be international. So their proposal looked >> much more like a regional conference and less like the international >> conference OSGeo was looking for. >> >> The resistance to American commercial power in geospatial software is >> created through the efforts of individuals and organizations. The >> resistance is frequently due economic exclusion from the power of ESRI >> software. But even in many corners of American academics, we see this >> resistance, usually due to Redmond's inability to respond to their >> needs. It is appropriate that OSGeo chose to keep FOSS4G out of >> America. The resistance needs to build. >> >> So, how do we reconcile the power and resistance? Maybe America can >> help the world understand the value of Free Geospatial Data while >> starting to listen to the rest of the world (or even the local voices) >> about the utility of FOSS4G. Maybe Americans can begin to understand >> that an investment in FOSS improves the quality and capability. >> Perhaps FOSS does entail hiring more intelligent IT people – but that >> investment pays off in the long run. >> >> Just some thoughts… See you in Sydney in 2009 and Barcelona in 2010! >> -=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=- >> Eric B. Wolf 720-209-6818 >> USGS Geographer >> Center of Excellence in GIScience >> PhD Student >> CU-Boulder - Geography >> _______________________________________________ >> Geowanking mailing list >> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >> http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Geowanking mailing list > [email protected] > http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
