Board Member Nominations 2011 - Revision history

Wiki-Aross: /* Andrew Ross */

2011-08-12T07:36:23Z

Andrew Ross

Wiki-Aross: /* Andrew Ross */

2011-08-12T07:35:55Z

Andrew Ross

Wiki-Mpg: /* Michael Gerlek */

2011-08-11T17:25:37Z

Michael Gerlek

Wiki-Mpg: /* Michael Gerlek */

2011-08-11T17:17:14Z

Michael Gerlek

Wiki-Mpg: /* Michael Gerlek */

2011-08-11T16:28:51Z

Michael Gerlek

Jocook: /* Jo Cook */

2011-08-11T08:05:12Z

Jo Cook

Wiki-Epk: link fix

2011-08-10T21:41:02Z

link fix

Tmitchell: /* Regina Obe */ added text that she has "withdrawn" her nomination

2011-08-10T20:19:51Z

Regina Obe: added text that she has "withdrawn" her nomination

Wiki-Bitner: /* David Bitner */

2011-08-10T15:07:44Z

David Bitner

Wiki-Pmbatty: /* Peter Batty */

2011-08-10T03:51:00Z

Peter Batty

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:36, 12 August 2011
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	''-- From: David McIlhagga''		''-- From: David McIlhagga''
		+
		+	Candidate Statement:

	Thank you Dave for the nomination.		Thank you Dave for the nomination.

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:35, 12 August 2011
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	''-- From: David McIlhagga''		''-- From: David McIlhagga''
		+
		+	Thank you Dave for the nomination.
		+
		+	As an OSGeo board member, I would work diligently to contribute where I can. I have considerable experience with open source projects, open source development, event planning, and business leadership.
		+
		+	OSGeo is at an important crossroads and facing a burning issue. We must pay more attention to business value for organizations to support OSGeo. Concrete business value to these firms and diversity is crucial. The good news is the prosperous future that might be. Comparing the companies supporting the OGC vs. those supporting OSGeo and it should become clear there is tremendous opportunity for OSGeo. As you know, there are many more companies beyond these lists. With business/financial success, OSGeo will thrive and create opportunities for not only the people involved today, but many more people in the future. Those opportunities are broad spectrum - quality education, gainful employment, outstanding events, innovative development, bold partnerships, and more. I encourage you to look at OSGeo's finances to see how urgent this is. If something isn't done quickly, OSGeo will be forced to change dramatically and not necessarily for the better. There are various governance models and approaches that have been demonstrated to work to achieve diverse and lasting business success in open source. With your vote, I will work diligently with other board members and the community at large towards helping us achieve this success as quickly as possible.
		+
		+	Thank you for taking the time to read my nomination and statement, and considering voting for me. Please feel free to contact me any time if you would like to discuss. You can reach me at: fosslc at gmail dot com or andrew dot ross at eclipse dot org

	== WITHDRAWN (<s>Regina Obe</s>) ==		== WITHDRAWN (<s>Regina Obe</s>) ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:25, 11 August 2011
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	* In many organizations, the title of "Board Member" can be used for fairly high-level leverage and influence. I know that some of us in the past -- and also Tyler, with an equivalent title of "Executive Director" -- have indeed tried to take advantage of those opportunities. OSGeo should expect all its board members to similarly try to use their positions to advance our mission, such as in meetings with industry leaders, in talks with media outlets, in getting speaking slots at conferences, and so on.		* In many organizations, the title of "Board Member" can be used for fairly high-level leverage and influence. I know that some of us in the past -- and also Tyler, with an equivalent title of "Executive Director" -- have indeed tried to take advantage of those opportunities. OSGeo should expect all its board members to similarly try to use their positions to advance our mission, such as in meetings with industry leaders, in talks with media outlets, in getting speaking slots at conferences, and so on.
		+
		+	* There are still a number of open source projects in the geospatial arena which aren't associated with OSGeo. I've spoken with a couple myself, project leads who don't quite see what OSGeo membership would get them or how to get involved. And while I do recognize that not every project wants or needs to be a formal, official OSGeo project, we do need to do a better job of reaching out to those projects to see how we can help them.

	My five years associated with OSGeo have been great for me both personally and professionally, and I would love to have the opportunity to give something back by being on the board and advocating for pragmatic use of the open source model in our industry. Thanks for considering me for the board!		My five years associated with OSGeo have been great for me both personally and professionally, and I would love to have the opportunity to give something back by being on the board and advocating for pragmatic use of the open source model in our industry. Thanks for considering me for the board!

@@ Line 147: / Line 147: @@
 ''--From: Aaron Racicot''
-Thank you to Aaron for the nomination.  It's a privilege to be nominated, and doubly so to be in company of so many other nominees.
+Thank you to Aaron for the nomination.  It's a privilege to be nominated, and doubly so to be in company of so many other excellent nominees!
-In addition to the stuff Aaron listed above, I'm working with Howard Butler the PDAL (nee libLAS) project for lidar and point cloud support.  It's not a formal OSGeo project today, but as it matures it will hopefully become one someday.
+I have been a user, developer, and advocate for open source for over two decades now, the past ten years in the geospatial world.  My OSGeo-related open source experience includes:
-I also worked at LizardTech for a decade, where I championed LizardTech's open source initiatives, including bringing open source libraries into their projects, financially sponsoring OSGeo annually, and rewriting the licenses for their closed-source libraries to be freely distributable within the open source world.
+* I have been active member of the OSGeo community since the kickoff meeting five years ago.  I also ran the Visibility committee for the first couple years or so.
-I know of nothing seriously "broken" within OSGeo today that I want to charge right in and start fixing.  Tyler and the board members have done well over the past five years.  However, there are two areas I’d like to focus on...
+* I was employed at LizardTech for ten years, where I championed LizardTech's open source initiatives, including: brought the user of open source libraries into their projects, arranged for annual financial sponsorship of OSGeo, rewrote the licenses for their closed-source libraries to be freely distributable within the open source world (e.g. for GDAL and MapServer), and arranged a number of contracts with open source developers for bug fixes and new features.
-* First, as Aaron notes below, I'm one of the folks who runs our local chapter.  We've got a great group that meets monthly, and we've been able to put on some great activities -- such as arranging to give talks and panels at local conferences, and putting on our own day-long workshop/conference/sprint at a local university that was attended by many, many people.  I'd like to see the board be proactive in getting more local chapters organized and running, as this sort of grass roots work at the individual level is often the best way to introduce people to open source and open data.  I've got some ideas on how we could help jump-start things.
+* I'm currently working with Howard Butler on the PDAL (nee libLAS) project for lidar and point cloud support.  It's not a formal OSGeo project today, but as it matures it will hopefully become one someday.
-* Second, I had the good fortune to serve as editor for the "Open Sources" column in GeoConnexions magazine.  We produced two dozen columns over two years, all contributed by members of the OSGeo community, covering everything from libraries and apps to open data and open curricula.  I have also just started a smaller, similar column for the Lidar News magazine.  OSGeo should work with the media in our industry to identify more opportunities like this.  Publishers always want quality content, it's something we can provide for little direct financial cost, and it is a good way to get our message out and seed development of other marketing-like content.
+* I am one of the founders of CUGOS, the Seattle-area OSGeo chapter, where we have monthly meetings with regularly 10-20 attendees.
-Thanks for considering me for the board!
+* I served as the editor for the "Open Sources" column in GeoConnexions magazine.  We produced two dozen columns over two years, all contributed by members of the OSGeo community, covering everything from libraries and apps to open data and open curricula.  I have also just started a smaller, similar column for the Lidar News magazine.
 ''--From: Michael P. Gerlek (mpg)''

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:28, 11 August 2011
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	''--From: Aaron Racicot''		''--From: Aaron Racicot''
		+
		+	Thank you to Aaron for the nomination. It's a privilege to be nominated, and doubly so to be in company of so many other nominees.
		+
		+	In addition to the stuff Aaron listed above, I'm working with Howard Butler the PDAL (nee libLAS) project for lidar and point cloud support. It's not a formal OSGeo project today, but as it matures it will hopefully become one someday.
		+
		+	I also worked at LizardTech for a decade, where I championed LizardTech's open source initiatives, including bringing open source libraries into their projects, financially sponsoring OSGeo annually, and rewriting the licenses for their closed-source libraries to be freely distributable within the open source world.
		+
		+	I know of nothing seriously "broken" within OSGeo today that I want to charge right in and start fixing. Tyler and the board members have done well over the past five years. However, there are two areas I’d like to focus on...
		+
		+	* First, as Aaron notes below, I'm one of the folks who runs our local chapter. We've got a great group that meets monthly, and we've been able to put on some great activities -- such as arranging to give talks and panels at local conferences, and putting on our own day-long workshop/conference/sprint at a local university that was attended by many, many people. I'd like to see the board be proactive in getting more local chapters organized and running, as this sort of grass roots work at the individual level is often the best way to introduce people to open source and open data. I've got some ideas on how we could help jump-start things.
		+
		+	* Second, I had the good fortune to serve as editor for the "Open Sources" column in GeoConnexions magazine. We produced two dozen columns over two years, all contributed by members of the OSGeo community, covering everything from libraries and apps to open data and open curricula. I have also just started a smaller, similar column for the Lidar News magazine. OSGeo should work with the media in our industry to identify more opportunities like this. Publishers always want quality content, it's something we can provide for little direct financial cost, and it is a good way to get our message out and seed development of other marketing-like content.
		+
		+	Thanks for considering me for the board!
		+
		+	''--From: Michael P. Gerlek (mpg)''

	== Thierry Badard ==		== Thierry Badard ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:05, 11 August 2011
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	''-- From: Saber Razmjooei''		''-- From: Saber Razmjooei''
		+
		+	Firstly, it's an honour to be even nominated, so many thanks to Antony and Saber for that!
		+
		+	I recently heard someone say that in terms of the overall information technology "sphere", geospatial is such a small niche part that it's like a pimple on IT's bottom. However, we've all heard the fact about the amount of corporate data with a geospatial component! If you take those two statements together, along with the slightly uncertain financial market at the moment, there's a lot of room for growth for geospatial technology, particularly open source. I think OSGeo should be facilitating that growth, as an enabler for coders and end-users alike.
		+
		+	I think OSGeo does need to grow as an organisation- both in terms of sheer numbers, but also in terms of profile. I would like to get to the point where I don't have to start every discussion about OSGeo with a quick translation of what the name stands for, and what it's all about. I think opportunities at governmental level are being missed, or left to local chapters, whereas high-level involvement by OSGeo globally could be incredibly useful and persuasive. I want people (as individuals, companies, or even governments) to come to OSGeo to find out about good, sustainable, well-managed software, reputable training courses, meet-ups and mailing lists. OSGeo doesn't have to provide all of these things itself, but (at the risk of repeating myself) can act as an enabler- providing the infrastructure and the "brand", drawing people in, to the benefit of everyone involved. We do still (unfortunately) need to prove that open source geospatial software is sustainable and viable- our proprietary friends have not stopped the FUD, and OSGeo is best placed to provide the reassurance that end-users need.
		+
		+	The challenge is, how to do all of this with not a lot of cash! I don't propose any radical changes to how things work- I'd like to see whether there would be some benefit for spreading the pot of money for sponsoring events around a little more to raise the profile of the organisation outside of the US. I'd like to see more infrastructure in place to help local chapters (this is ongoing, so not a criticism), and I'd like to look at whether more can be done to promote company involvement in OSGeo- be that in terms of sponsorship or some other way. I guess these are both the goals I have for the organisation, and the kind of things I'd like to look at if I was elected. I'm not a coder, I'm a facilitator, and I want to make OSGeo a success by contributing in any way I can.
		+
		+	''-- From: Jo''

	== Jeff McKenna * ==		== Jeff McKenna * ==

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 == Eduardo Kanegae ==
-I would like to nominate Eduardo Patto Kanegae for the board for he is a power F4G user and advocate in Brazil since 2001. He had contributed with brazilian users with forum replies, weblog articles, MapServer/GIS trainings ( author of 'Introdução ao MapServer' MS4W package at http://www.maptools.org/ms4w/index.phtml?page=downloads.html), translations and documentations such as ShapeLib Tools User Guide as well. Hi is currently preparing his new site/blog at http://www.webmapit.com. He would be a plus in the board, representing South American inspirations e expectations regarding F4G.
+I would like to nominate Eduardo Patto Kanegae for the board for he is a power F4G user and advocate in Brazil since 2001. He had contributed with brazilian users with forum replies, weblog articles, MapServer/GIS trainings ( author of 'Introdução ao MapServer' MS4W package at http://www.maptools.org/ms4w/index.phtml?page=downloads.html), translations and documentations such as ShapeLib Tools User Guide as well. Hi is currently preparing his new site/blog at [http://www.webmapit.com/about http://www.webmapit.com]. He would be a plus in the board, representing South American inspirations e expectations regarding F4G.
 ''-- From: Rafael Medeiros Sperb''

@@ Line 218: / Line 218: @@
 ''-- From: David McIlhagga''
-== Regina Obe ==
+== WITHDRAWN (<s>Regina Obe</s>) ==
+'''Regina has, regrettably, withdrawn her nomination due to personal time constraints, but is grateful for the nomination.'''
 I nominate Regina Obe for the OSGeo Board of Directors. Regina is a member of the PostGIS steering Committee and has been an OSGeo Charter Member since 2009. Regina has a particular strength that is very rare in the Open Source world and that is her dedication to making open source software and programming accessible to the often non-technical savvy GIS user. Regina (along with her husband Leo) have maintained the BostonGIS blog and the Postgres Online Journal for many years providing quick and understandable tutorials, guides, and cheat sheets for various projects with a particular focus on PostgreSQL/PostGIS, much of this has culminated in the recent publication of Postgis in Action. While Regina has a very strong technical background, I believe that Regina could help drive a focus on the usability and accessibility of OSGeo projects.

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:07, 10 August 2011
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	''-- From: Perry Nacionales''		''-- From: Perry Nacionales''
		+
		+	Candidate Statement:
		+
		+	I have been involved with the community that came to be OSGeo since working on the planning committee for The MapServer Users Meeting in Minnesota in 2005 (the immediate predecessor to the FOSS4G conference) and helping to found the Twin Cities MapServer Users Group (now a local OSGeo chapter) with the others who were involved in planning that conference. I have been the OSGeo Public Geospatial Data Committee chair since 2007. It is my experience with that committee that leads me to want to work more strategically with the OSGeo Board.
		+
		+	The Geospatial Data Committee has been largely ineffective and dormant throughout it's existence. The importance of geodata has always been recognized as a critical part of OSGeo leading to the formation of this committee alongside the founding of OSGeo. There have been a number of false starts at creating a central catalog on OSGeo resources. There have been loosely affiliated efforts such as the FlightGear Scenery Project and Open Aerial Map take 1. The only truly successful geodata project coming directly out of OSGeo has been led not by the Geospatial Data Committee, but by the Education Committee with the set of data pulled together for educational usage. I don't see the inactivity of this group as a failure, but more as a recognition that while an absolutely critical component of using OSGeo products, there simply is not the energy within our organization to tackle everything that we would like.
		+
		+	I have been very excited to see the partnerships and MOUs that have been coming down the pipe recently. One critical way that we can help to prevent spreading our resources too thin that we are ineffective is to work with other like minded groups. The partnerships that we have with the OGC and now in the works with several educational groups is a great way for us to leverage the strengths and particular audiences that these other groups bring in. In particular, I think that there are significant opportunities for OSGeo to support and partner with domain-specific groups. Having worked significantly in the humanitarian/emergency response world through my involvement with the Sahana Software Foundation, OSGeo software is being heavily used throughout this domain by people and projects like Sahana, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, CrisisMappers, and Crisis Commons. By supporting these groups through cooperation we can help more people in this domain become aware of and use OSGeo software (and correspondingly can make more OSGeo folks aware of opportunities that they may have to support these humanitarian efforts). I see additional opportunities in finding ways to work with groups that have traditionally been stovepiped. In particular there is much work being done in domains such as public transportation, aviation noise, city/county public information, large government or organization SDI. Whether through creating MOUs or informal partnerships with groups that are already supporting these domains or extending our local chapter concept to create domain users groups with mailing lists this is the key direction that I would like to push for OSGeo.
		+
		+	Again, thank you very much for your consideration and I look forward to seeing many of you in Denver!
		+
		+	''-- From: David Bitner''

	== Gérald Fenoy ==		== Gérald Fenoy ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:51, 10 August 2011
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	''-- From: Tyler Mitchell''		''-- From: Tyler Mitchell''
		+
		+	I would like to thank Tyler Mitchell for nominating me, and I am honored to be standing with a great group of candidates, all of whom have a longer history of involvement with OSGeo than I do, I think. I have put in a lot of hours as FOSS4G chair over the past year though, so am trying to catch up to some degree!
		+
		+	However, as a relative newcomer to open source geospatial software I feel can bring some different attributes to the board, and I think that having a variety of strengths and perspectives among the members of any board is a good thing. In past lives I have been CTO at two of the top three (closed source) geospatial software companies, Intergraph and Smallworld. This background means that I am pretty well known in the broader geospatial industry, so I often get invitations to do keynote talks at conferences or contribute articles to publications, etc. This gives me a good platform to spread the word about OSGeo, especially to audiences who are often fairly uneducated about open source. My strong background in the closed source world adds credibility when I tell this type of audience that they need to look seriously at open source. This recent blog post is typical of the sort of story I tell this kind of audience about my experience with open source: http://bit.ly/qgI4lE. This post also talks a little more about the work I am currently doing on development of web mapping applications for large enterprises, especially utilities and telecoms, using various open source products including PostGIS, MapFish and OpenLayers.
		+
		+	I already do this kind of outreach and will continue to do so whether or not I'm on the board. But I think that being a board member would help add weight to the story I could tell about open source at events like these. Also as a board member I would like to help expand our outreach activities. At FOSS4G this year we have a one day event for newcomers, and I think that content and ideas from this could be packaged up and re-used elsewhere. Earlier this year I participated with several others in delivering an open source track at the GITA conference in the US, an established geospatial conference that had historically been focused mainly on closed source systems. I think we could get a much greater presence at small and large events around the world by maintaining a set of good quality presentation material, and a list of people interested in speaking, and proactively reaching out to event organizers (who are usually looking for good content).
		+
		+	With my background and good connections in the industry I think I am also in a good position to help attract more sponsorship / funding for OSGeo, to help us maintain and expand our activities. My experience with FOSS4G this year has made me think that there is more that we can and should do to help future organizers avoid reinventing the wheel, and I would be interested in continuing to work with Jeff McKenna, Tyler Mitchell and others on some ideas on this area. One specific idea is to expand the Drupal based web site we have put together for this year's FOSS4G, which with a little more effort could handle the whole abstract submission and selection process in a much more streamlined way than we were able to do it this year, save future organizing teams a lot of effort and cut down the scope for errors in the process. I also think that we should look seriously again at the idea which has been discussed several times of having more regional FOSS4G events in addition to the global one (though there are various things to think through about how best to do this).
		+
		+	I have served on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations, including 6 years on the board of GITA, a North American organization focused on geospatial education and conferences (who are also the conference organizers for FOSS4G). I have also served on the boards or advisory boards of several companies, and think I have a good ability to work with a broad range of people and help get things done.
		+
		+	I appreciate your consideration of me as a candidate, and hope to see many of you at FOSS4G in my adopted home town of Denver (I am from the UK originally).
		+
		+	''-- From: Peter Batty''

	== Charlie Schweik ==		== Charlie Schweik ==