OSGeo Mission

Mission 2008 and Beyond
This topic was created so that members in the community can help develop a Vision and Values Statements and if possible improve the existing Mission Statement for OSGeo

Mission
What the Mission looks like Today

To support the development of open source Geospatial Software, and promote its widespread use.

OSGeo Mission and Goals

Vision
Where do we want to be in the future? - The vision can reflect the optimistic view of the OSGeo's future

What is a Vision?
Vision Statements define our purpose. It will communicate both the purpose and values of OSGeo. The vision must be encompassed by what we believe in. It should include:


 * Meet our goals
 * Statement of OSGeo's values
 * Public/visible declaration of OSGeo's expected outcomes
 * Precise and practical
 * Will guide the actions of all involved
 * Reflect the knowledge, philosophy, and actions of all
 * A key component of strategic planning

Proposals

 * To be the global reference of high quality Geospatial Free and Open Source Software.
 * To exceed Google Maps in terms of popularity (It's a vision)
 * To have the best developers contributing in the projects under the umbrella of OSGeo

What are our Values?

 * What are our key priorities?
 * What drives us to participate?

Things to consider

 * Usually make four to six core values from which OSGeo would like to operate
 * Notice any differences between OSGeo’s preferred values and its true values

Proposals

 * OSGeo believes in the Development through geographical data
 * We believe that "more are smarter than a few" (James Surowiecki,2005) - the power of the communities

Mission Improvement?
Is our mission good? Is there anything to ad?

What the Mission Statement looks like Today
To support the development of open source Geospatial Software, and promote its widespread use.

OSGeo Mission and Goals

What a Mission needs to say
A Mission Statement Defines where the organization is going now, basically describing the purpose, why this organization exists.

Refinement Proposals

 * 1) To promote freely available Geodata - Free Software is useless without data.
 * 2) To provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via curriculum development, outreach, and support.

Goals
The following more detailed goals support the overall mission.


 * To provide resources for foundation projects - eg. infrastructure, funding, legal.
 * To promote freely available geodata - free software is useless without data.
 * To promote the use of open source software in the geospatial industry (not just foundation software) - eg. PR, training, outreach.
 * To encourage the implementation of open standards and standards-based interoperability in foundation projects.
 * To ensure a high degree of quality in foundation projects in order to build and preserve the foundation "brand".
 * To make foundation and related software more accessible to end users - eg. binary "stack" builds, cross package documentation.
 * To provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via curriculum development, outreach, and support.
 * To encourage communication and cooperation between OSGeo communities on different language (eg. Java/C/Python) and operating system (eg. Win32, Unix, MacOS) platforms.
 * To support use and contribution to foundation projects from the worldwide community through internationalization of software and community outreach.
 * To operate an annual OSGeo Conference, possibly in cooperation with related efforts (eg. EOGEO).
 * To award the Sol Katz award for service to the OSGeo community.