Dear marketing committee,
I like Daniel Morissette’s summary I think it makes it easier to understand and keeps things clear. Senior Ambassador and General Ambassador. I also agree that they should be voted on instead of appointed.
Daniele
Sent from my Commodore 64.
On May 11, 2012, at 13:00, marketing-request@lists.osgeo.org wrote:
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than “Re: Contents of Marketing digest…”Today’s Topics:
- Re: Re: [Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Defining an OSGeo
Ambassador role (Cameron Shorter)- Re: Re: [Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Defining an OSGeo
Ambassador role (Daniel Morissette)
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 21:13:16 +1000
From: Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Marketing] Re: [Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Defining an
OSGeo Ambassador role
To: marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Cc: OSGeo-Board <board@lists.osgeo.org>
Message-ID: <4FACF44C.2060403@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowedI can see that there are at least 2 interpretations of “Ambassador”
which seems to be clouding the issue. It might help if we refined as:Senior Ambassador:
- Someone with extensive OSGeo qualifications, probably a board member,
or ex board member, but might be extended to a select few others.
Ideally will have excellent communication and presentation skills.- This role will keynote conferences, and negotiate on behalf of OSGeo
(eg for a MOU).General Ambassador:
- One of the thousands of OSGeo leaders, developers and users who are
passionate about Geospatial Open Source, who wishes to promote OSGeo- These people will present on behalf of OSGeo at one of the hundreds of
relevant conferences and workshops around the world.- Selection of this role could be anyone who applies, or could be
limited to a voted group, such as Charter members.On 11/05/2012 12:16 PM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
I think it’s a good idea to try to better define the role but I have
no clue how to do it right. FWIW here is what I wrote about this
question during the board meeting:
"i think for the ambassador label to have some value then it needs to
not be too inclusive otherwise if anyone can name themselves an
ambassador then we’ll need to create a new label for the real higher
profile “ambassadors” that event organizers will want to go after"
"for the time being [i.e. until a better mechanism can be defined],
I’m happy with ambassador being someone appointed by the board to
represent OSGeo at an official function or event, with or without
funding. The first examples that come to mind are Arnulf’s various
ambassadorship duties, and MPG’s upcoming meeting with Eclipse"
Daniel
On 12-05-10 7:05 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
As per Board logs discussing Ambassador role:
17:51:48 archaeogeek: We need to go back to Cameron too- but not be too
discouraging…
17:52:08 darkblue_b: it seems Cameron is following the Board list
Yes, I did catch up on the board IRC logs as have been monitoring the
board email list. (Meeting at is 3am, which doesn’t work well for me).
Re discussion around definition of the Ambassador role, I’m more than
happy to see the role being completely redefined from my original
proposal.
From logs, I’m hearing what people don’t want from the Ambassador role,
but I don’t think someone has clearly defined what is wanted.
Regarding funding, I think that by default, we should assume that no
travel funds are allocated to Ambassadors. This will result in either:
- Conferences paying for highly experienced ambassadors as keynotes
- Conference attendees, who are already ambassadors (and usually local)
acting as presenters
- In special cases, such as sending someone to set up an Eclipse MOU,
the board may approve one of the highly qualified ambassadors (a board
member, or maybe a charter member)
With regards to setting up a process for selecting quality ambassadors,
the tricky part is in setting a criteria for which we exclude people.
There will always be volunteers wishing to be an ambassador, who is
going to say someone is not qualified?
Do we introduce the overhead of another annual vote, getting the
community to vote for the 10 best ambassadors?
Do we ask the board to approve or not approve applications from
individuals to become ambassadors? It could be politically very
alienating for individuals to be rejected by the board for such
requests.
We then need to work out how Ambassadors are refreshed or retired. I
propose that every year Ambassadors are removed, from our list. If
Ambassadors still consider themselves active, they may update their
profile, and re-introduce themselves into our Ambassador wiki.
Working around these limitations was what drove the proposal of:
- Allow any volunteer to become an Ambassador
- However, support categorisation by voted OSGeo categories (Board,
Charter, OSGeo PSC, etc). We could introduce another category of
“Entertaining Speaker” or similar, with some associated criteria.
- Force a refresh of Ambassador roles every year, and get Ambassadors to
update their profile if they are still interested.
If someone can suggest a better, more practical idea, then I’d be keen
to hear it.
On 9/05/2012 6:10 PM, Seven (aka Arnulf) wrote:
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Board,
in preparation for tomorrow’s meeting please read through the mail
that Cameron sent wrt defining the Ambassador role:
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2012-May/010296.html
At first my impression was that this is complicating things a bit (my
thoughts were more like: anyone can become an ambassador). But the
discussion on the lists confirmed that this looks like a good way
forward and addresses most issues brought up. I also like the idea
that Marketing runs with it once the board has decided that the
general direction is in line with our mission and policies.
So far we should be 6 out of 8 directors at the meeting tomorrow
meaning that we have quorum. But even if more drop out we can still
vote via mail which worked quite well over the past few meetings.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Thanks,
Arnulf
On 05.05.2012 07:33, Cameron Shorter wrote:
Following on from ideas from this previous email thread, and in
particular picking up on Stefano’s ideas, I’d like to make the
following proposal:
I suggest that we define an OSGeo Ambassador role very widely, but
also have different levels of Ambassador - so that conference
organisors can still feel like they are getting someone
distinguished and pick someone exclusive.
The OSGeo Ambassador categories would be:
- OSGeo Board Member 2. Ex OSGeo Board Member These are the elite
of the OSGeo community. We only have 8 active board members in the
world, which have been peer selected based upon their outstanding
leadership in the greater OSGeo community.
- Charter member Charter membership is obtained through a strongly
contested selective process. Members tend to be developers and
leaders in one or more OSGeo projects, and/or OSGeo business
leaders, and have a deep understanding in many of the OSGeo
projects and principles of Open Source.
- Voted position in an OSGeo community These people hold a
position of responsibility within one of the OSGeo sub-communities.
This may be a chair of an OSGeo Regional Chapter, or as a member of
a project’s Project Steering Committee.
- OSGeo community member These people are actively involved in one
or more OSGeo communities, acting as a developer, user or supporter
of OSGeo software.
Anyone fitting one of the above categories, may put themselves
forward as an OSGeo Ambassador. Each ambassador would be expected
to create a profile for themselves on an OSGeo Ambassador wiki
page, which includes:
- Name * City and Country of residence * Phone, Email * Photo *
OSGeo relevant experience. (~150 words)
I also propose that the OSGeo Marketing committee would be
responsible for overseeing the Ambassador wiki page, once the
guidelines have been put into place.
I welcome feedback from all, and call upon the board to make a
final vote on whether this proposal (or a variant) should be put
into action.
On 21/04/12 20:47, Stefano Costa wrote:
Il 21/04/2012 12:28, Jody Garnett ha scritto:
I would hope that our charter members (who have been through a
public nomination process in part for their involvement) are
already acting in the capacity of “Ambassador” for OSGeo.
I totally agree on this point. The fact that charter members
only official role is to nominate new charter members and the
Board is IMHO a weakness. Their role as OSGeo champions (and
“Ambassadors” if there’s consensus on that) should be emphasised.
Quick ideas:
- personal pages on osgeo.org (osgeo.org/members/johndoe) -
@osgeo.org e-mail address (even an alias is fine) to be used as
their primary address - interviews on the main blog - a track
record of their public activity wrt OSGeo promotion, software
development, management, documentation and what else
In this way the charter members could gain a higher visibility in
the wider geospatial community and be recognised as official
representatives.
Ciao steko
BTW is there any process in place to “remove” charter members if
they become inactive, move to another planet or are deemed unfit
for the purpose by the community?
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing
On 20/04/12 07:24, Cameron Shorter wrote:
On 20/04/2012 4:06 AM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
Do we have any policies and cost structures for the Ambassador
function yet?
I’ve seen a few people talking about creating an OSGeo
Ambassador role. Arnulf I think might have been the first to
mention it, and I think it is an excellent idea. I’m also aware
that the OGC are considering developing OGC ambassadors too.
So I’d like to open the floor and see what people think an
ambassador’s role could involve, which leads into the qualities
we would wish our ambassador’s to have, which leads into the ways
we may select an ambassador.
Let me start by noting some of the driving factors: 1. Arnulf has
noted that as OSGeo president, he has spent a significant amount
of time on areoplanes travelling around the world to talk on
behalf of OSGeo. He has suggested that this role should be
shared. Conference organisors, who have a primary goal of
attracting attendees, look for authoritative figureheads to talk
at conferences. They are expected to have a deep insight into a
specific domain, such as OSGeo. They should also speak well, even
better if they are entertaining.
- OSGeo is a sexy topic has many conferences, and there are
hundreds, if not thousands of conferences around the world which
would like to see an OSGeo presence.
- OSGeo is fortunate to draw membership from around the world,
including boasting a number of very healthy local chapters. As
such, we are likely to have potential ambassadors in most
counties. (We might be a bit short in Antarctica)
- There are times when negotiating MOUs or similar with other
countries, it would be useful to have someone local speak with
authority on behalf of OSGeo.
- Note that there are conflicting interests here of wanting to
open up the role for anyone who volunteers, verses maintaining a
selectiveness and prestige for the role which is the key
selection criteria for conferences asking for an ambassador.
As such, I think it important that ambassadors can only be voted
into the position, and not handed out to anyone. We already vote
for a board, and charter members. I think board members should be
considered ambassadors by default. Should charter members be
considered ambassadors? Charter members only get this role after
demonstrating a commitment to OSGeo, so will likely have a
reasonable depth of OSGeo knowledge. Maybe we should ask for a
history of speaking well (as demonstrated at conferences), to the
ambassador criteria.
Then lastly, do we wish to invite ambassadors from a greater
circle? At this point, I’d probably err on saying no, as if the
entry bar to becoming an ambassador is too easy, then the mystic
of the role will be lost.
- – Exploring Space, Time and Mind
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–
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 10:45:02 -0400
From: Daniel Morissette <dmorissette@mapgears.com>
Subject: Re: [Marketing] Re: [Board] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Defining an
OSGeo Ambassador role
To: marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>, OSGeo-Board
<board@lists.osgeo.org>
Message-ID: <4FAD25EE.2060906@mapgears.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowedOn 12-05-11 7:13 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
I can see that there are at least 2 interpretations of “Ambassador”
which seems to be clouding the issue. It might help if we refined as:
Senior Ambassador:
- Someone with extensive OSGeo qualifications, probably a board member,
or ex board member, but might be extended to a select few others.
Ideally will have excellent communication and presentation skills.
- This role will keynote conferences, and negotiate on behalf of OSGeo
(eg for a MOU).
General Ambassador:
- One of the thousands of OSGeo leaders, developers and users who are
passionate about Geospatial Open Source, who wishes to promote OSGeo
- These people will present on behalf of OSGeo at one of the hundreds of
relevant conferences and workshops around the world.
- Selection of this role could be anyone who applies, or could be
limited to a voted group, such as Charter members.
That sounds like a good summary/starting point to me. However multiple
classes of “ambassadors” may be a bit confusing so we may just want to
use different words/names for both categories to avoid confusion.–
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000
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