Hello,
Marketing is starting on the development of a communication concept for OSGeo. To do this a proposal was requested from the people who also did the work around GeoNetwork opensource (Birgit and Ines). In the IRC meeting yesterday it was discussed how to follow up:
http://logs.qgis.org/osgeo/%23osgeo.2007-11-21.log (11:01:41 onwards)
I wanted to talk to Birgit Aigner before actually voting for going ahead to find out whether we have had any contact before [0], to explain my globalization related concerns[1] to her and to find out whether I trust them to be able to do it. I do. In short, talking to her convinced me that OSGeo should take the proposed path.
I will meet Birgit in person to start the detailed briefing that she needs to get going. Obviously I will introduce her to what I think is relevant. If you could attend to my FOSS Business Models Talk at FOSS4G you may have an idea of the direction in which this will go. I wrote a mail to Marketing summing up what Jeroen, Michael, Venka, Tyler and many others have brought together wrt to marketing. This will be our starting point. * http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/marketing/2007-November/001582.html
My briefing will also focus on topics related to my lonely advocacy contributions in the Wiki:
* http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Category:Advocacy
I am somewhat uncertain as to whether this is what OSGeo at large wants though. *And* it is the first time that I come into the situation to actually spend money from OSGeo that I have not collected myself. This might also explain part of my reluctance and potentially unexpected formal way of doing things.
By virtue of my role a chair of Marketing I am probably entitled to go ahead without more backing but I would like to get at least five +1 from the Board confirming this - or vetoes and directions on what to do instead. If you need more information before you can do this please ask for it.
Best regards,
--
Arnulf Benno Christl
http://www.osgeo.org
(OSGeo Board Member)
+50.7342N +7.0707E
[0] I never met Birgit before and there have not been any commercial activities between us or companies that any of us are involved with.
[1] as a global corporation we have to carefully balance between cost and quality. A Germany based company will probably have the highest costs and thus also higher prices than any other location in the world. So we wondered whether it is a good idea to do this.