[Marketing] Re: [Foss4g2008loc] Integration showcase: Feedback

Committees Marketing
1

I have experienced some very successful interoperability (geospatial) workshops

Important features
- the OGC (greg buehler) organized them, this makes the workshop to be perceived as non-denominational
- they focussed on open standards (wms, wfs, gml)
- there were ~10 vendors involved, at FOSS4G I would suggest encouraging ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo and other closed source vendors to participate, I expect that Autodesk would want to participate and focus on FDO
- participation was organized in advance, greg put a lot of effort into signing up vendors and ensuring there were enough servers and clients from different vendors to make it interesting
- primarily technical people from the vendors were involved
- it was a mainstage event, so it got a lot of attention
- there were significant publicity benefits to the participants, not participating was a negative
- there was a scenario around a disaster management theme that made it very clear to the audience and participants how important interoperability is in the real world

Geoff

geospatial.blogs.com

----- Original Message -----
From: marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org <marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org>
To: marketing@lists.osgeo.org <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Fri Sep 19 23:50:40 2008
Subject: [Marketing] Re: [Foss4g2008loc] Integration showcase: Feedback

Tim,
I think these are very good questions. In case you don't get many answers
right now due to people being busy with other stuff you might want to add
it to the Conference and/or Marketing Committee agenda so we don't loose
sight of it again.

Best regards,
Arnulf.

On Sat, September 20, 2008 06:44, Tim Bowden wrote:

Hi all,

I'm looking for feedback on how the integration showcase has gone so
far. From what I understand, not many sponsors have been overly
interested. If so, this seems to be the same as Victoria last year. Given
I'm helping the Sydney bid, and we're planning one, I'd like to
get some ideas as to what works and doesn't.

1. Is it a case of not selling the showcase aggressively enough?

2. Has it been too hard for sponsors to understand how to use it or what
they can do with it?

3. Do the sponsors just not see it as adding value for them? From a
FOSS pov, it's clear the value that integration between different
ecosystems brings for us, but perhaps that same value proposition isn't
there for vendors. Thoughts?

4. Is there anything that could be done to increase the value
proposition for sponsors?

I understand things are a little busy right now, so if this is best left
on the back burner till later, that's fine.

Regards,
Tim Bowden
--
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
when you make it again.

_______________________________________________
FOSS4G2008LOC mailing list
FOSS4G2008LOC@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2008loc

--
Arnulf Christl
http://www.wheregroup.com

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

2

Thanks Geoff,

looks like we need to significantly rejig our integration showcase
efforts for Sydney. I believe if we do no more than duplicate what's
already been done it will be a failure otherwise. Your insights are
valuable in helping us plan this. Assuming we take Geoff's advice wrt
the OGC, who would like to take the lead in getting them involved for
Sydney?

Issues: Getting OSGeo projects to involve at the same level of
participation at the proprietary vendors would require considerable
resources for each project. Perhaps each project would need a
commercial sponsor or co-sponsors (ie, Refractions sponsors
PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Lisasoft Geoserver, DM Solutions Mapserver, Autodesk
(or local reseller?) Mapguide OS etc). This way each would have the
ability to maximise the marketing potential of the exercise. Without
that, I suspect it is much harder for a project to find the resources to
fully participate. Maybe this, and lack of a credible event scenario
has been part of the problem to date?

If we go down this route, can we get the OGC to bend their minds this
way quickly enough to announce their in principle support in time for
the Cape Town closing plenary Sydney sales slot? Probably not, which is
a pity.

Regards,
Tim Bowden

On Sat, 2008-09-20 at 11:52 -0700, Geoff Zeiss wrote:

I have experienced some very successful interoperability (geospatial)
workshops

Important features - the OGC (greg buehler) organized them, this makes
the workshop to be perceived as non-denominational - they focussed on
open standards (wms, wfs, gml) - there were ~10 vendors involved, at
FOSS4G I would suggest encouraging ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo and other
closed source vendors to participate, I expect that Autodesk would
want to participate and focus on FDO - participation was organized in
advance, greg put a lot of effort into signing up vendors and ensuring
there were enough servers and clients from different vendors to make
it interesting - primarily technical people from the vendors were
involved - it was a mainstage event, so it got a lot of attention -
there were significant publicity benefits to the participants, not
participating was a negative - there was a scenario around a disaster
management theme that made it very clear to the audience and
participants how important interoperability is in the real world

Geoff

geospatial.blogs.com

----- Original Message -----
From: marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org <marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org>
To: marketing@lists.osgeo.org <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Fri Sep 19 23:50:40 2008
Subject: [Marketing] Re: [Foss4g2008loc] Integration showcase: Feedback

Tim,
I think these are very good questions. In case you don't get many answers
right now due to people being busy with other stuff you might want to add
it to the Conference and/or Marketing Committee agenda so we don't loose
sight of it again.

Best regards,
Arnulf.

On Sat, September 20, 2008 06:44, Tim Bowden wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> I'm looking for feedback on how the integration showcase has gone so
> far. From what I understand, not many sponsors have been overly
> interested. If so, this seems to be the same as Victoria last year. Given
> I'm helping the Sydney bid, and we're planning one, I'd like to
> get some ideas as to what works and doesn't.
>
> 1. Is it a case of not selling the showcase aggressively enough?
>
>
> 2. Has it been too hard for sponsors to understand how to use it or what
> they can do with it?
>
> 3. Do the sponsors just not see it as adding value for them? From a
> FOSS pov, it's clear the value that integration between different
> ecosystems brings for us, but perhaps that same value proposition isn't
> there for vendors. Thoughts?
>
> 4. Is there anything that could be done to increase the value
> proposition for sponsors?
>
> I understand things are a little busy right now, so if this is best left
> on the back burner till later, that's fine.
>
> Regards,
> Tim Bowden
> --
> Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
> when you make it again.
>
> _______________________________________________
> FOSS4G2008LOC mailing list
> FOSS4G2008LOC@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2008loc
>
>

--
Arnulf Christl
http://www.wheregroup.com

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

--
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
when you make it again.

3

Thanks for your thoughts Geoff,
I'm listening closely to your thoughts about what worked with the OGC integration showcase and I'd like to see the OGC play a central role in coordinating the showcase. (I've already heard some very positive noises from the OGC about getting involved).

Raj, Carl,
Are you in a position to commit the OGC to the FOSS4G2009 Integration Showcase now, so that we can advertise this at the upcoming 2008 FOSS4G?

For those who haven't seen it, the wiki tracking the showcase is at:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geospatial_Integration_Showcase

Tim Bowden wrote:

Thanks Geoff,

looks like we need to significantly rejig our integration showcase
efforts for Sydney. I believe if we do no more than duplicate what's
already been done it will be a failure otherwise. Your insights are
valuable in helping us plan this. Assuming we take Geoff's advice wrt
the OGC, who would like to take the lead in getting them involved for
Sydney?

Issues: Getting OSGeo projects to involve at the same level of
participation at the proprietary vendors would require considerable
resources for each project. Perhaps each project would need a
commercial sponsor or co-sponsors (ie, Refractions sponsors
PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Lisasoft Geoserver, DM Solutions Mapserver, Autodesk
(or local reseller?) Mapguide OS etc). This way each would have the
ability to maximise the marketing potential of the exercise. Without
that, I suspect it is much harder for a project to find the resources to
fully participate. Maybe this, and lack of a credible event scenario
has been part of the problem to date?

If we go down this route, can we get the OGC to bend their minds this
way quickly enough to announce their in principle support in time for
the Cape Town closing plenary Sydney sales slot? Probably not, which is
a pity.

Regards,
Tim Bowden

On Sat, 2008-09-20 at 11:52 -0700, Geoff Zeiss wrote:
  

I have experienced some very successful interoperability (geospatial)
workshops

Important features - the OGC (greg buehler) organized them, this makes
the workshop to be perceived as non-denominational - they focussed on
open standards (wms, wfs, gml) - there were ~10 vendors involved, at
FOSS4G I would suggest encouraging ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo and other
closed source vendors to participate, I expect that Autodesk would
want to participate and focus on FDO - participation was organized in
advance, greg put a lot of effort into signing up vendors and ensuring
there were enough servers and clients from different vendors to make
it interesting - primarily technical people from the vendors were
involved - it was a mainstage event, so it got a lot of attention -
there were significant publicity benefits to the participants, not
participating was a negative - there was a scenario around a disaster
management theme that made it very clear to the audience and
participants how important interoperability is in the real world

Geoff

geospatial.blogs.com

----- Original Message -----
From: marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org <marketing-bounces@lists.osgeo.org>
To: marketing@lists.osgeo.org <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Fri Sep 19 23:50:40 2008
Subject: [Marketing] Re: [Foss4g2008loc] Integration showcase: Feedback

Tim,
I think these are very good questions. In case you don't get many answers
right now due to people being busy with other stuff you might want to add
it to the Conference and/or Marketing Committee agenda so we don't loose
sight of it again.

Best regards,
Arnulf.

On Sat, September 20, 2008 06:44, Tim Bowden wrote:
    

Hi all,

I'm looking for feedback on how the integration showcase has gone so
far. From what I understand, not many sponsors have been overly
interested. If so, this seems to be the same as Victoria last year. Given
I'm helping the Sydney bid, and we're planning one, I'd like to
get some ideas as to what works and doesn't.

1. Is it a case of not selling the showcase aggressively enough?

2. Has it been too hard for sponsors to understand how to use it or what
they can do with it?

3. Do the sponsors just not see it as adding value for them? From a
FOSS pov, it's clear the value that integration between different
ecosystems brings for us, but perhaps that same value proposition isn't
there for vendors. Thoughts?

4. Is there anything that could be done to increase the value
proposition for sponsors?

I understand things are a little busy right now, so if this is best left
on the back burner till later, that's fine.

Regards,
Tim Bowden
--
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
when you make it again.

_______________________________________________
FOSS4G2008LOC mailing list
FOSS4G2008LOC@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2008loc

--
Arnulf Christl
http://www.wheregroup.com

_______________________________________________
Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
_______________________________________________
Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing
    
--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Systems Architect
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
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