OSGeo Ambassador

'''This is a draft page and does not represent regular OSGeo policy. Once stabilized it will be proposed for approval by the Board. '''

= Introduction =

OSGeo Advocates are authoritative OSGeo personalities who have volunteered to talk on behalf of the OSGeo foundation. Advocates should be able to speak well, even better if they are entertaining.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of conferences around the world which have an interest in seeing presentations from authoritative speakers, with deep insights into topics related to Open Source Geospatial Software. Luckily, OSGeo is fortunate to draw extensive membership from around the world, and has access to such authoritative figures within most countries.

Understanding OSGeo roles
Below is an explanation of roles which Advocates might have been involved in as part of OSGeo:


 * OSGeo Board Members
 * 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.


 * OSGeo Charter Members
 * Charter membership is obtained through a strongly contested selection 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.


 * Developers and Committee Members
 * This is where the real work gets done developing and coordinating development of OSGeo Software.


 * OSGeo Community Members
 * These people are actively involved in one or more OSGeo communities, acting as users, promoters or supporters of OSGeo software. These people tend to have a practical understanding about how OSGeo software works.

= OSGeo Advocates = This section lists current OSGeo Advocates:

Australia
TBD: Add members profiles here

= Lapsed OSGeo Advocates = This section lists prior listed Advocates who have not recently updated their profiles. These prior Advocates might have refocused their interests in other areas.

= Process for becoming an OSGeo Advocate =


 * Anyone fitting one of the OSGeo Advocate categories, may put themselves forward as an OSGeo Advocate.
 * Each Advocate is expected to create a profile for themselves under the relevant heading on this wiki and include the following fields.


 * FirstName LastName {Mandatory}
 * City, Country of residence {Mandatory}
 * Affiliation: Company you work for {Optional}
 * OSGeo Roles: Current/Previous {OSGeo Board, Charter Member, Committee Chair, Committee Member, Project Project Steering Committee}
 * Phone, Email {Mandatory to have at least an email address.}
 * Photo {Strongly encouraged, but not quite mandatory}
 * OSGeo relevant experience. (~150 words) {Mandatory}
 * Profile last updated: DD MMM YYYY

= Annual Refresh of Advocate list =
 * The list of OSGeo Advocates will be refreshed annually, after the annual voting of OSGeo Charter Members. This will be achieved by removing Lapsed Advocates, then moving all Current Advocates into the Lapsed Advocate section. All Advocates will be invited to update their profile, and move their profile back into the current Advocates section.

= Other Resources = Links to other organizations running a similar process.
 * http://www.ogcnetwork.net/node/1585