OSGeo contact to MPG: Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

Committees Marketing
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Hi All,
I would like to contact the initiators of the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities". In your opinion, would this be a task that the VisCom team (https://visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org/) could do on its own, should VisCom check back with the board? Hoe does this work?

How could we word a letter of interest to the mgp (Max Planck-Gesellschaft, not Michael Gerlek... :-).

This does not have to be decided in a hurry, take your time. Again: This would be great for collaborative editing in the Wiki - but in my opinion it possibly should not be that public right from the start.

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mailto:praesident@gv.mpg.de

Dear Praesident, (ok, this should be more formal)
as a representative of the newly formed Open Source Geospatial Foundation (http://www.osgeo.org) I wanted to acquaint you with our initiative. We are aware of and support the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities" (http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html).

As active promoters of free access to Public Geospatial Data we are interested in linking and interacting with your initiative. If this interest is mutual, we would like to fathom possibilities of further cooperation. Please reply to this adress or contact xy@osgeo.org directly for further discussion.

Find some preliminary work in the Wiki: http://www.fossgis.de/osgeo/index.php/Public_Geospatial_Data_Project)
Please observe that any content in this Wiki is regarded as 'work in progress' and does not represent official and stable OSGeo policy.

Best regards,
Arnulf Christl (OSGeo BoD)

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Arnulf Christl wrote:

Hi All,
I would like to contact the initiators of the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities". In your opinion, would this be a task that the VisCom team (https://visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org/) could do on its own, should VisCom check back with the board? Hoe does this work?

How could we word a letter of interest to the mgp (Max Planck-Gesellschaft, not Michael Gerlek... :-).

This does not have to be decided in a hurry, take your time. Again: This would be great for collaborative editing in the Wiki - but in my opinion it possibly should not be that public right from the start.

Arnulf,

It is my opinion that the the Free Geopatial Data Project ought to be
leading such an effort. This raises the issue that the Free Geospatial
Data Project is not yet officially formed. Markus, perhaps you could
table a motion at the next meeting to form this project/committee?

I skimmed the Berlin Declaration and it certainly seems inline without
our own free geodata goals.

I certainly don't see any problem with anyone contacting the (other!) MPG
and establishing informal contact. We should be somewhat cautious in
declarations of official support, referring such things to the board (after
drafting them in committee).

Best regards,
--
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