Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] OSGeo Board Priorities
On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 7:33 AM, Paolo Cavallini cavall...@faunalia.it wrote: On the other hand, I still have problems with annual FOSS4G, which has a cost that scares away many top developers. IMHO (sorry to insist, I raised this point earlier) the meeting should be free for developers (committers to OSGeo projects), and more expensive for businessman. Its common practice in academic circles to have one price for academics and another for non-academics at workshops and conferences. But then its fairly easy to confirm who is and who isn't an academic (by requesting the info from the academic institution). FOSS4G 2013 in Nottingham will have a number of academic bursaies for students, which is another way to enable access to the conference. The problem with making FOSS4G cheaper (I think free would be too much) for developers would be deciding who was a developer. Now, this could all be done by OSGeo making available a number of developer bursaries. This would nominally come out of the profit margin from the conference, but since it would be paid out by OSGeo it wouldn't affect the local committee's accounting. OSGeo would then be responsible for handling applications and deciding who gets it. Would anyone on the OSGeo board like to think about doing that for FOSS4G 2013? A small number (10) of developer bursaries? The net cash flow should be from business to GFOSS promotion, not drawing from our precious developers. Agreed, but a lot of the developers do now work for businesses! Which is great. We've always known that Open Source is 'Free' as in speech, not Free as in beer, and that conference cost for a developer who works for a business can get passed along to the customers (indirectly, I'm not saying you invoice them for Going To The Very Wonderful FOSS4G Nottingham Conference). Barry ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] OSGeo Board Priorities
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Il 04/03/2013 09:06, Barry Rowlingson ha scritto: The problem with making FOSS4G cheaper (I think free would be too much) why? I do not see an issue here. If I wear my businessman het, I'd be happy to pay also for developers participation (it's meeting real developers that makes the conference so interesting and unique, compared with proprietary stuff). I know for sure many top developers are not coming, and that makes FOSS4G less interesting that it could be. for developers would be deciding who was a developer. easy: regular committers of OSGeo projects. All the best, and thanks for your thoughts. - -- Paolo Cavallini - Faunalia www.faunalia.eu Full contact details at www.faunalia.eu/pc Nuovi corsi QGIS e PostGIS: http://www.faunalia.it/calendario -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAlE0VzsACgkQ/NedwLUzIr6YPgCffLTFdZgsFSRc9398OMN/fwgJ IqoAnRFlAjFGiFTRk8bblq7JRIzMihwC =aG3G -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] OSGeo Board Priorities
Hi, I fully agree, that the costs for individuals or small company are very heigh. I'm aware, you were mentioning this issue already. Since I know, FOSS4G-Global is the main source of income to OSGeo, I did not raise any obligation so far - I have no clue, how to organize this better for the future. Paolo's idea sounds not bad: having some kind of scholarship program, where we could allocate some money for people who can not come but it's valuable to have them there. Do we have some priorities for FOSS4G as well? In general, when I'm discussing this topic with people, general feelings are, that FOSS4G-Global is very developer-oriented meeting, compared e.g. to FOSSGIS (German local conference), which would be more user or business oriented (correct me if I'm wrong, it is a while, I was there). Having priorities of the FOSS4G-global could also point us the the answer, whether we should financially support developers to come or not. Jachym Dne 4.3.2013 08:33, Paolo Cavallini napsal(a): Il 04/03/2013 00:44, Cameron Shorter ha scritto: A productive virtual meeting of the OSGeo Board http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2013-02-26 resulted in general consensus over OSGeo's priorities, which in turn should help the OSGeo Board and OSGeo committees when guiding OSGeo into the future. These principles are: * OSGeo should act as a low capital, volunteer focused organisation. * OSGeo should focus support on OSGeo communities and initiatives which support themselves. Hi all. Thanks for this. I welcome this change, that I think will make OSGeo much more effective in promoting free and open source geospatial software. On the other hand, I still have problems with annual FOSS4G, which has a cost that scares away many top developers. IMHO (sorry to insist, I raised this point earlier) the meeting should be free for developers (committers to OSGeo projects), and more expensive for businessman. The net cash flow should be from business to GFOSS promotion, not drawing from our precious developers. All the best. ___ Board mailing list bo...@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board -- Jachym Cepicky Help Service - Remote Sensing s.r.o. jachym.cepi...@gmail.com HS-RS: jac...@hsrs.cz http://bnhelp.cz http://les-ejk.cz signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] OSGeo Board Priorities
Dear all, I would define me more a user than a developer so my feelings are surely biased toward a more user oriented FOSS4G event. I feel that one of the main aim of FOSS4G, maybe the biggest one, should be the possibility for users to exchange their experiences and learn by looking at what others are doing. I quoted the users word as I would like to use it in the wider sense, i.e. including people developing and custominzing OSGeo sw, using them and or promoting. A too strongly developer oriented event could minimize the impact that FOSS4G event can have on spreading the word of open GIS. It could turn it in an hackfest, that is a very good event but I feel it would atract less people. So I would enjoy an effort form OSGeo to help some important people afford the event but I would also prefer it was not limited to developers. It could be nice if the OSGeo board will define some objectives criteria on which it can select valuable prposal to fund. Kind Regards, Stefano --- 41.95581N 12.52854E http://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanoiacovella http://twitter.com/#!/Iacovellas 2013/3/4 Jachym Cepicky jachym.cepi...@gmail.com: Hi, I fully agree, that the costs for individuals or small company are very heigh. I'm aware, you were mentioning this issue already. Since I know, FOSS4G-Global is the main source of income to OSGeo, I did not raise any obligation so far - I have no clue, how to organize this better for the future. Paolo's idea sounds not bad: having some kind of scholarship program, where we could allocate some money for people who can not come but it's valuable to have them there. Do we have some priorities for FOSS4G as well? In general, when I'm discussing this topic with people, general feelings are, that FOSS4G-Global is very developer-oriented meeting, compared e.g. to FOSSGIS (German local conference), which would be more user or business oriented (correct me if I'm wrong, it is a while, I was there). Having priorities of the FOSS4G-global could also point us the the answer, whether we should financially support developers to come or not. Jachym Dne 4.3.2013 08:33, Paolo Cavallini napsal(a): Il 04/03/2013 00:44, Cameron Shorter ha scritto: A productive virtual meeting of the OSGeo Board http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2013-02-26 resulted in general consensus over OSGeo's priorities, which in turn should help the OSGeo Board and OSGeo committees when guiding OSGeo into the future. These principles are: * OSGeo should act as a low capital, volunteer focused organisation. * OSGeo should focus support on OSGeo communities and initiatives which support themselves. Hi all. Thanks for this. I welcome this change, that I think will make OSGeo much more effective in promoting free and open source geospatial software. On the other hand, I still have problems with annual FOSS4G, which has a cost that scares away many top developers. IMHO (sorry to insist, I raised this point earlier) the meeting should be free for developers (committers to OSGeo projects), and more expensive for businessman. The net cash flow should be from business to GFOSS promotion, not drawing from our precious developers. All the best. ___ Board mailing list bo...@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board -- Jachym Cepicky Help Service - Remote Sensing s.r.o. jachym.cepi...@gmail.com HS-RS: jac...@hsrs.cz http://bnhelp.cz http://les-ejk.cz ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
