[Marketing] [OSGeo-Discuss] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Committees Marketing
1

I like your language that our open source projects are much more than proprietary software - it is this reason we are focusing on a team photo for each page (rather than a screen shot of the software).

The original bug report reported a direct link to ESRI which was fixed, this is where the “advertising” came in - which was never the original intention and was fixed.

The “Migrate from: ArcMap, MapInfo” idea looks like it does a way better job of communicating and is a positive result of this discussion.

  • This information is mission critical for outreach and driving adoption of open source, the top question this website and those new to open source ask is “I am using XXX, what is available?”

  • In many cases I do not know the proprietary software and a link to wikipedia article would give a visitor like me useful context (of course we can remove the link and just have text because the website is not for me).

  • It also occurs to me to be respectful of trademark; listing competitors is a good practice but it can be done with respect.

Maria of course no offence is intended to volunteers (myself) included. Thanks for participating in this discussion.

···

On 20 September 2017 at 10:29, Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it> wrote:

Jody, I see very difficult the existence of a vast majority of GIS industry that has honestly not heard about open source yet. Anyway I refuse the idea of “similar proprietary software” because our projects are much more than pieces of code. Behind our software there are communities and limiting our projects to pieces of code is offensive and insulting for the volunteers behind them. We are more and diverse. This is the reason why there are not “similar proprietary software”.
Thanks for removing the links.
Best

Maria

Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung

-------- Messaggio originale --------
Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com>
Data: 20/09/17 18:53 (GMT+01:00)
A: Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it>
Cc: Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de>, OSGeo Discussions <discuss@lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>

Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Thanks Maria,

I reject the idea that we are advertising proprietary software, so each time it is phrased that way of course everyone well say “no”.

I want to help our software reach visitors that feel locked into proprietary software, please recognize this goal and how “migrate from” can help.

–
Jody Garnett

–
Jody Garnett

On 20 September 2017 at 09:49, Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it> wrote:

Dear Jody
Personally I agree with Helmut and I don’t see any necessity of putting “similar proprietary software” on our web pages. I don’t think proprietary software need to be advertized. We are a Foundation about Open Software and I want to see the open source projects on the website that we have been paying as OSGeo.
I ask please to remove the “similar proprietary software” and the related links.
Many thanks
Best,
Maria

Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung

-------- Messaggio originale --------
Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com>
Data: 20/09/17 14:45 (GMT+01:00)
A: Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de>
Cc: OSGeo Discussions <discuss@lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Thanks for the discussion on the bug report. Please keep in mind that this website is written by us, but it is not intended for us - it is intended for the vast majority of the GIS industry that has honestly not heard about open source yet.

These sections are optional, if one of our open source projects has a particular target market in mind filling in this information would really help! Indeed when I go to a normal GIS conference this is the top question - since I have not had a chance to use the proprietary software it is not one I can easily answer.

In the above bug report I would like to change the heading from “Similar Proprietary Products” to “Migrate From”, but perhaps that is too confrontational? I would also like to avoid advertising proprietary software, linking to the associated wikipedia entry if appropriate.

I am not interested in reciprocity, I am interested in OSGeo projects taking competition to the GIS industry which as been missing.

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 5:09 AM Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 11:41 AM, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de> wrote:

Dear OSGeo community

I want to bring you a discussion on a github ticket about linking to “similar proprietary products” [1] to your attention.

My comment there:

"I support and concur with Venka that the item “Similar Proprietary Products” should be removed. There isn’t only one proprietary GIS software out there, there are several others. IMHO such comparisons may be part of e.g. a reviewed scientific paper/elaboration, where our OSGeo projects - if they want to - may link to. I see no added value for OSGeo to serve such links. As already elsewhere mentioned by me, reciprocity is the key if such items are listed, but I can’t see this happen. "

I agree. I don’t understand it either.

I’m pretty much convinced that more effort to help our OSGeo projects improving on every level (e.g. documentation, reach out, testing, etc) is the key rather than linking to proprietary software. One of such opportunities may be the upcoming Google Code In (GCI) 2017 e.g. to produce nice screenshots for documentation, produce some fancy videos etc. based on tiny little tasks for students aged 13 to 17. A good invest in the young who will be our OSGeo’s future.

Thanks for mentioning that, Helli. May I add that suitable tasks for students may include design of web pages and / or promotional material, see for example https://codein.withgoogle.com/archive/2015/organization/4777925899452416/task/5259692246827008/
I take the liberty of cc’ing the marketing committee, because it would be nice to see some members joining the code-in mentors pool. Let us know that you want to join, writing an email to gsoc-admin@osgeo.org and I’ll send you the subscription form.
Hoping that I didn’t go much off topic respect to the original meaning of this email

Thank you

–

Margherita Di Leo

2

Maria your request is at odds with the goal of this website.

Already I have private chats about participants being discouraged. I do not think that using the board to control the process is a productive or respectful of those working on the project.

Please reconsider how to interactive positively with the community.

···

–
Jody Garnett

On 20 September 2017 at 10:29, Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it> wrote:

Jody, I see very difficult the existence of a vast majority of GIS industry that has honestly not heard about open source yet. Anyway I refuse the idea of “similar proprietary software” because our projects are much more than pieces of code. Behind our software there are communities and limiting our projects to pieces of code is offensive and insulting for the volunteers behind them. We are more and diverse. This is the reason why there are not “similar proprietary software”.
Thanks for removing the links.
Best

Maria

Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung

-------- Messaggio originale --------
Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com>
Data: 20/09/17 18:53 (GMT+01:00)
A: Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it>
Cc: Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de>, OSGeo Discussions <discuss@lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>

Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Thanks Maria,

I reject the idea that we are advertising proprietary software, so each time it is phrased that way of course everyone well say “no”.

I want to help our software reach visitors that feel locked into proprietary software, please recognize this goal and how “migrate from” can help.

–
Jody Garnett

On 20 September 2017 at 09:49, Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it> wrote:

Dear Jody
Personally I agree with Helmut and I don’t see any necessity of putting “similar proprietary software” on our web pages. I don’t think proprietary software need to be advertized. We are a Foundation about Open Software and I want to see the open source projects on the website that we have been paying as OSGeo.
I ask please to remove the “similar proprietary software” and the related links.
Many thanks
Best,
Maria

Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung

-------- Messaggio originale --------
Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com>
Data: 20/09/17 14:45 (GMT+01:00)
A: Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de>
Cc: OSGeo Discussions <discuss@lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Thanks for the discussion on the bug report. Please keep in mind that this website is written by us, but it is not intended for us - it is intended for the vast majority of the GIS industry that has honestly not heard about open source yet.

These sections are optional, if one of our open source projects has a particular target market in mind filling in this information would really help! Indeed when I go to a normal GIS conference this is the top question - since I have not had a chance to use the proprietary software it is not one I can easily answer.

In the above bug report I would like to change the heading from “Similar Proprietary Products” to “Migrate From”, but perhaps that is too confrontational? I would also like to avoid advertising proprietary software, linking to the associated wikipedia entry if appropriate.

I am not interested in reciprocity, I am interested in OSGeo projects taking competition to the GIS industry which as been missing.

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 5:09 AM Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 11:41 AM, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de> wrote:

Dear OSGeo community

I want to bring you a discussion on a github ticket about linking to “similar proprietary products” [1] to your attention.

My comment there:

"I support and concur with Venka that the item “Similar Proprietary Products” should be removed. There isn’t only one proprietary GIS software out there, there are several others. IMHO such comparisons may be part of e.g. a reviewed scientific paper/elaboration, where our OSGeo projects - if they want to - may link to. I see no added value for OSGeo to serve such links. As already elsewhere mentioned by me, reciprocity is the key if such items are listed, but I can’t see this happen. "

I agree. I don’t understand it either.

I’m pretty much convinced that more effort to help our OSGeo projects improving on every level (e.g. documentation, reach out, testing, etc) is the key rather than linking to proprietary software. One of such opportunities may be the upcoming Google Code In (GCI) 2017 e.g. to produce nice screenshots for documentation, produce some fancy videos etc. based on tiny little tasks for students aged 13 to 17. A good invest in the young who will be our OSGeo’s future.

Thanks for mentioning that, Helli. May I add that suitable tasks for students may include design of web pages and / or promotional material, see for example https://codein.withgoogle.com/archive/2015/organization/4777925899452416/task/5259692246827008/
I take the liberty of cc’ing the marketing committee, because it would be nice to see some members joining the code-in mentors pool. Let us know that you want to join, writing an email to gsoc-admin@osgeo.org and I’ll send you the subscription form.
Hoping that I didn’t go much off topic respect to the original meaning of this email

Thank you

–

Margherita Di Leo

–
Jody Garnett

3

On 20 September 2017 at 12:44, Maria Antonia Brovelli <
maria.brovelli@polimi.it> wrote:

Jody this is not respectful of me and the community. Might I know why the
people working for the project want ABSOLUTELY to keep the names and links
to proprietary software on our open source software website?

I feel a bit of pressure to express myself exactly correctly on this
outreach topic; or risk people missing the point ... The outreach approach
was determined months ago when going over our target audience (literally
what the website is for). Te website was defined with these visitor
journey's in mind...

The primary audience for the website is non-community members:
- ESRI GIS Professional (GISP), IT Professionals, Academic Faculty, Academic
Students, Science and Research, Influencers & Decision makers, Software
Developers
- the communication goal is to promote awareness - asking non-community
members to consider and evaluate
- the next goal is adoption - assisting non-community members in adopting
open source
- the final foal is impress - having non-community members be enthusiastic
and advocate open source

The secondary audience is community members:
- osgeo members, partners, service providers, sponsors, contributors
- the steps awarness, adoption, impress reflect contributing to open source
- many of the community member activities are taking place on the wiki and
are happy to remain there.

With this approach in mind the website is explicitly trying help
non-community members. Our goal as an organization is to promote open
source; and making this website to reach out to non-community members is
the best way to do so.

The reason I want to keep the names (don't care about the links) is address
the needs of non-commuity website visitors. To answer the question "I use
XXX, how can you help me?"

For your two questions:
- Maria as a GeoServer lead I would like to offer "Migrate from: ArcGIS
Server", I expect other projects may (or may not) want to offer similar
guidence for non-community members.
- As for the links ... they are to wikipedia - but we can remove them or
not use them if you like.

Aside: *Yes the original bug report showed that the QGIS page had been
filled out incorrectly; I hope we can review these pages and make sure each
project team can edit once the website is hosted on OSGeo hardware.*

Anyhow, I think that the Board can express ourselves about this point. I

remember you that we were voted and that the people who voted me don't
want those names and links. I'm speaking on behalf of many. In case, we
will ask the whole community to express ourselves about that.

We have a balanced board, and do indeed try and provide discussion based on
the members who voted for us. Much like social pressure I do not find
pulling rank to be constructive Maria.

I would much rather we both stand down and respect the wishes of the
projects being represented (they can provide as much or as little
information on these pages as they like), and the marketing committee
performing outreach.

I want to apologise with the people working at the website if my tone
could have seen as rude. Who knows me, knows that I'm not a native speaker
and sometimes my words seem to be worse than what I have in mind. I want to
claridy that I appreciate a lot their work ( I suppose they appreciate my
work all the same) and I thank them with all my hearth. But absolutely I
don't agree with this choice and I explained you also the reasons.

Thanks Maria I am sorry if we are having communication challenge based on
difference in language (and I am sorry for getting upset). As you know I
enjoy working with you on many of our joint activities as board members and
we have done some great things together this year.

I find the discussion productive when focus on what we want the website to
say. It will be a more effective tool as a result.

What would really help is if the board could help SAC make a decision so
this website can be deployed and everyone can work on it again. It seems
very sad to focus on one line on the project pages when the entire thing is
stalled and in danger.
--
Jody

4

As an occasional contributor to SAC, marketing and various OSGeo projects, who also deploys many of the software components with clients, this is definitely something comes up during that process.

While clients may ask me to perform the actual deployment, it is hugely beneficial when advocating for OSGeo for those companies to be able to find the analogous projects on their own. A client who wants to replace ArcGIS desktop for mapping frequently isn’t even aware that they can also replace Arc Server with Geoserver or SQL Server Spatial with PostGIS.

Unless they tell us they’re using those things, we have no way to know, so giving them a pathway to discover that kind of information independently can be the difference between them deploying more OSS software and engaging with the community, versus just having us do a one-off project.

For what it’s worth, as a member of the community, I think this piece is crucial. I’m sure that many revisions to content will occur over time, so it seems like we are better served moving forward, even if our message is slightly muddled at the moment. We always have the ability to change things based on feedback from the board, member projects and the community at large.

Harrison

···

Jody this is not respectful of me and the community. Might I know why the people working for the project want ABSOLUTELY to keep the names and links to proprietary software on our open source software website?

I feel a bit of pressure to express myself exactly correctly on this outreach topic; or risk people missing the point … The outreach approach was determined months ago when going over our target audience (literally what the website is for). Te website was defined with these visitor journey’s in mind…

The primary audience for the website is non-community members:

  • ESRI GIS Professional (GISP), IT Professionals, Academic Faculty, Academic Students, Science and Research, Influencers & Decision makers, Software Developers
  • the communication goal is to promote awareness - asking non-community members to consider and evaluate
  • the next goal is adoption - assisting non-community members in adopting open source
  • the final foal is impress - having non-community members be enthusiastic and advocate open source

The secondary audience is community members:

  • osgeo members, partners, service providers, sponsors, contributors
  • the steps awarness, adoption, impress reflect contributing to open source
  • many of the community member activities are taking place on the wiki and are happy to remain there.

With this approach in mind the website is explicitly trying help non-community members. Our goal as an organization is to promote open source; and making this website to reach out to non-community members is the best way to do so.

The reason I want to keep the names (don’t care about the links) is address the needs of non-commuity website visitors. To answer the question “I use XXX, how can you help me?”

For your two questions:

  • Maria as a GeoServer lead I would like to offer “Migrate from: ArcGIS Server”, I expect other projects may (or may not) want to offer similar guidence for non-community members.
  • As for the links … they are to wikipedia - but we can remove them or not use them if you like.

Aside: Yes the original bug report showed that the QGIS page had been filled out incorrectly; I hope we can review these pages and make sure each project team can edit once the website is hosted on OSGeo hardware.

Anyhow, I think that the Board can express ourselves about this point. I remember you that we were voted and that the people who voted me don’t want those names and links. I’m speaking on behalf of many. In case, we will ask the whole community to express ourselves about that.

We have a balanced board, and do indeed try and provide discussion based on the members who voted for us. Much like social pressure I do not find pulling rank to be constructive Maria.

I would much rather we both stand down and respect the wishes of the projects being represented (they can provide as much or as little information on these pages as they like), and the marketing committee performing outreach.

I want to apologise with the people working at the website if my tone could have seen as rude. Who knows me, knows that I’m not a native speaker and sometimes my words seem to be worse than what I have in mind. I want to claridy that I appreciate a lot their work ( I suppose they appreciate my work all the same) and I thank them with all my hearth. But absolutely I don’t agree with this choice and I explained you also the reasons.

Thanks Maria I am sorry if we are having communication challenge based on difference in language (and I am sorry for getting upset). As you know I enjoy working with you on many of our joint activities as board members and we have done some great things together this year.

I find the discussion productive when focus on what we want the website to say. It will be a more effective tool as a result.

What would really help is if the board could help SAC make a decision so this website can be deployed and everyone can work on it again. It seems very sad to focus on one line on the project pages when the entire thing is stalled and in danger.

5

Maria

It appears that there is a misunderstanding (at best) about the target audiences of the web site. Our primary objective is to use the new web site as a tool for outreach to people who are not already committed to using open source geo. Hence the focus on enabling/encouraging/informing ‘migration’

You may believe that you are representing the views of people who voted for you but you should also recognise that there are others within the community who may or may not have voted for you who hold equally strong but opposing views. The community does not speak with one voice nor does it currently have a mechanism to poll opinion on detailed topics such as this. I think it would be a mistake for board members to seek to impose their views on the marketing (or any other committee).

Best

Steven

On 20 Sep 2017, at 21:19, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com> wrote:

Jody this is not respectful of me and the community. Might I know why the people working for the project want ABSOLUTELY to keep the names and links to proprietary software on our open source software website?

Anyhow, I think that the Board can express ourselves about this point. I remember you that we were voted and that the people who voted me don’t want those names and links. I’m speaking on behalf of many. In case, we will ask the whole community to express ourselves about that.
I want to apologise with the people working at the website if my tone could have seen as rude. Who knows me, knows that I’m not a native speaker and sometimes my words seem to be worse than what I have in mind. I want to claridy that I appreciate a lot their work ( I suppose they appreciate my work all the same) and I thank them with all my hearth. But absolutely I don’t agree with this choice and I explained you also the reasons.
Best
Maria

Inviato dal mio dispositivo Samsung

-------- Messaggio originale --------
Da: Jody Garnett <jody.garnett@gmail.com>
Data: 20/09/17 21:24 (GMT+01:00)
A: Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it>
Cc: Margherita Di Leo <diregola@gmail.com>, Helmut Kudrnovsky <hellik@web.de>, OSGeo Discussions <discuss@lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Oggetto: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

Maria your request is at odds with the goal of this website.

Already I have private chats about participants being discouraged. I do not think that using the board to control the process is a productive or respectful of those working on the project.

Please reconsider how to interactive positively with the community.

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 12:10 PM Maria Antonia Brovelli <maria.brovelli@polimi.it> wrote:

If somebody is interested in knowing more about foss4g, we are here. If somebody, using whichever proprietary software, wants to have more pieces of information they can contact us and we will provide them with all the information they need.
Contacting and working with us is a definitely different attitude than simply downloading and using. And we are interested in the first type of people because we want our community growing.
Therefore no needs at all to put the names and links to proprietary software.
Please again remote them.
I’ll open a loomio vote of the Board about that.
Have a good evening

Maria

6

That can work Sandro, and thanks for participating on the ticket.

I do find value in listing those keywords (under an appropriate heading) to reassure people they have found what they are looking for. Indeed I hope these pages will be shared as a link when people ask “You are still using MapInfo?
Try this …” (but that is step 3 “enthuse”).

How much of your initial concern was providing a link? Or is it just displaying the name (switching to MapInfo for the example here). It would be kind of nice if the it behaved like a keyword, and linked to the project page short listing all the projects that one can migrate to from MapInfo.

···

On 20 September 2017 at 14:33, Sandro Santilli <strk@kbt.io> wrote:

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 01:19:48PM -0700, Jody Garnett wrote:

The reason I want to keep the names (don’t care about the links) is address
the needs of non-commuity website visitors. To answer the question “I use
XXX, how can you help me?”

As I wrote on the ticket already, I like the idea of answering such
question, but having the XXX name on each page does not answer it
because it would require people to know the answer before asking the
question.

How hard would it be to turn those XXX into keywords so that the
a search for “XXX” returns related project pages ?

–strk;

–
Jody Garnett

7

Hi,
My 2 cents…

Why not just make a section for migrate from and put there a number of solutions for migration. There’s not only one solution to arcgis and maybe not just a single software but a combination of free software.

Aside of a project put a link to that section, to drive the users to all the options OSGeo propose…

This is more fare and neutral… From my point of view.

Maxi

···

Il 21 set 2017 10:28 AM, “Sanghee Shin” <shshin@gaia3d.com> ha scritto:

Hi all,

Let’s go back to the legal issues. ESRI provides its clear guidelines about how to use its products name, web link and logo here: http://www.esri.com/legal/weblink-logoagreement. Please read through the license agreement. I don’t think we can meet all the terms and conditions provided by ESRI.

Cheers,

신상희

Shin, Sanghee
Gaia3D, Inc. - The GeoSpatial Company
www.gaia3d.com

보낸 사람: Sandro Santilli
보낸 날짜: 2017년 9월 21일 목요일 오후 5:19
받는 사람: Jody Garnett
참조: OSGeo Discussions; Helmut Kudrnovsky; OSGeo-Marketing
제목: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Marketing] Proprietary GIS on our OSGeo website

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 08:33:05PM -0700, Jody Garnett wrote:

How much of your initial concern was providing a link? Or is it just

displaying the name (switching to MapInfo for the example here). It would

be kind of nice if the it behaved like a keyword, and linked to the project

page short listing all the projects that one can migrate to from MapInfo.

It’s different degrees of annoyance. I guess a brand-less and

link-less list of names of proprietary products would not be too

“offensive” for me (assuming spam filtering lets it pass) but I’d

still prefer an hidden keyword. Something that you never see written

but is recognized by the search engine to give you back a similar

software: you search for you get .

The “like Photoshop, only better” motto I like even when it contains

the name because it explicitly bashes it :slight_smile:

–strk;

Discuss mailing list

Discuss@lists.osgeo.org

https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

8

All,

I’ve been following this thread and this does seem like a good way to address most if not all the thoughts.

Another side to this would be in the ability to let the user(s) add to the keyword list of “other” geo products out there, whether FOSS or Prop. It would allow for a useability matrix to build up over time as well, maybe even going so far as to grab a capabilities list of some sort from the users and consequently a mechanism for targeting new cabailities in the software being developed under the OSGeo banner based on these user capabilities/needs and a derived capability matrix.

bobb

On Sep 21, 2017, at 4:04 AM, Venkatesh Raghavan <raghavan@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> wrote:

Dear All,

If the aim is only to help new users who are not aware of
Free and Open Source Geospatial Software, it could be
better to have a dedicated page which allows new user
to input keywords (e.g. the present software they are using,
of the OGC standards compliance they are looking for etc.)
and returning the results pointing to appropriate OSGeo
software).

If I understood correctly, I think this is what Sandro has been
suggesting and I like this approach.

As I already commented on the github ticket 1], I do not think
it is necessary to have an item such as “similar proprietary software”
or “Migrate From XXX” (also, we should rather propose “Migration form YYY to Free and Open Source
tool”, where YYY would be the user input keyword).

Also, some of the names of Proprietary products are registered as trademarks,
and it could be better to avoid using these names directly on the OSGeo website.

Best

Venka

[1] https://github.com/OSGeo/osgeo/issues/100

On 9/21/2017 5:15 PM, Sandro Santilli wrote:

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 08:33:05PM -0700, Jody Garnett wrote:

How much of your initial concern was providing a link? Or is it just
displaying the name (switching to MapInfo for the example here). It would
be kind of nice if the it behaved like a keyword, and linked to the project
page short listing all the projects that one can migrate to from MapInfo.

It’s different degrees of annoyance. I guess a brand-less and
link-less list of names of proprietary products would not be too
“offensive” for me (assuming spam filtering lets it pass) but I’d
still prefer an hidden keyword. Something that you never see written
but is recognized by the search engine to give you back a similar
software: you search for you get .

The “like Photoshop, only better” motto I like even when it contains
the name because it explicitly bashes it :slight_smile:

–strk;

Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry