Hey All,
some consolidation for the VisCom team and tasks. The membership page currently lists (sorry for strange formatting, it is scraped):
arnulf Arnulf Christl Project Owner
davemac Dave McIlhagga Project Developer
dbrookshier Daniel Brookshier Project Contributor
jasonbirch Jason Birch Project Developer
mlucas17 Mark Lucas Project Contributor
mpg Michael P. Gerlek Project Developer Co-Project Owner
neteler Markus Neteler Co-Project Owner
pnaciona Pericles (Perry) Nacionales Observer
seansternfeldt Sean Sternfeldt Co-Project Owner
tmitchell Tyler Mitchell Co-Project Owner
Jason Birch and Pericles (Perry) Nacionales, have bowed out gracefully as they are already heavily involved in WebCom.
Hi Jason, Perry,
this is just intended as a reminder, you can both stay listed as members if you like, we are happy to have you here as observers and maybe you want to get active when WebCom business slackens.
Currently subscribed to the main list (dev@visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org) are:
<select multiple="multiple" name="unsubscribeList" size="8">
<option value="arnulf.christl@ccgis.de">arnulf.christl@ccgis.de</option>
<option value="dbrookshier@collab.net">dbrookshier@collab.net</option>
<option value="dmcilhagga@dmsolutions.ca">dmcilhagga@dmsolutions.ca</option>
<option value="jason.birch@nanaimo.ca">jason.birch@nanaimo.ca</option>
<option value="mlucas17@mac.com">mlucas17@mac.com</option>
<option value="mpg@lizardtech.com">mpg@lizardtech.com</option>
<option value="pnaciona@gis.umn.edu">pnaciona@gis.umn.edu</option>
<option value="warmerdam@pobox.com">warmerdam@pobox.com</option>
</select>
This means Markus Neteler, Sean Sternfeldt and Tyler Mitchell do not get what is discussed on the list (which is why I added you as CC). If you want to get on the list please subscribe or tell me to add you. And our president listens in but does not appear in the membership list which I guess is just fine.
Any qualms, please discuss here.
== Tasks ==
We will have an inofficial skype conference (no call in, just Skype) to have a chat:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/First_VisCom_Meeting
Please add me as Skype user arnulf_christl, the rest is easy.
This is not to decide anything but rather to get together (find out whether everybody connects with Skype) and discuss what will be the next steps. We will make an official phone conference next week. Please suggest time and date, my last tries were not very fruitful :-/. For me it would be fine in the late evening and deep into the night
== Brainstorm ==
I have several longer term projects up and running (some way before OSGeo founding) regarding conferences and exhibitions in the German language context. With the OSGeo I suggest to continue them as a starter for OSGeo VisCom operations. I hacked some of the events (where preparations are already under way) into the Wiki:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Promotion_and_Visibility_Committee#Future_events_with_OSGeo_Project_and_Foundation_presence
Local events in the vicinity that we can manage with the help from locals, companies and individuals (I guess that those people will in future be called members and friends of OSGeo):
* FOSSGIS 2006 conference - German language Free and Open Source Software GIS conference - 29-30 March 2006 (Bonn, Germany)
* OSGeo booth at the LinuxTag 2006 - 3-6 May 2006 (Wiesbaden, Germany)
* AGIT 2006 GIS convention, conference and exhibition - 5-7 July 2006 (Salzburg, Austria)
* Intergeo 2006 10-12 October 2006 (Munich, Germany)
The first appearance of the OSGeo as hoster of several projects (as far as I can see) will be the LinuxTag:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php?title=LinuxTag_2006
I know that all this is on rather short notice and that I heavily doocratized this. I hope this is not going to be a problem. But anyway, we hope to bootstrap the operation of the OSGeo Booth from this event. Find some initial ideas here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Operate_OSGeo_Booth
i (lower case indicating humbly) suggest that we aim for the Intergeo 2006 (Oct. 2006) as a place to appear as full fledged operative OSGeo FOundation outside of internal events like FOSS4G. OSGeo would then represent the community and provide docking interfaces for OS businesses and interested new users alike. This will involve the presentation of all stable and incubating projects (+ friends?), a Public Geodata information center and sponsors. I imagine that by then we will have the size, capacity and appearance of any of the other major GIS vendors. This is OSSIM - ahm: awsome! Especially regarding that at the last Intergeo none of these projects were able to present themselves out of their own capacity except for those that a company did the funding. Until then we will need support and stable policies from the Fundraising committee and I guess Sean Sternfeldt and Autodesk will really be helpful (at least Gary indicated that).
Finally it will then be possible to point people to a major booth and say: Go there if you need to get information about OSGeo software (MapServer and MapGuide OS and GeoServer and GDAL/OGR and all the other goodies). No more need to mumble - shout out loud.
Best regards,
Arnulf.
PS:
Piitwist again, I am so shy.