Promotion and Visibility Committee

(NOTE: The following is all for discussion purposes, and not firmly established yet)

The Promotion Committee will help produce input to be published by the Web Site Committee. Publishing, controlling and adoption as stable documents is probably done by the latter.

To spread word and build a strong recognition of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, foundation projects and the use of open source in geospatial applications in general every major event should be covered professionally. Smaller events and local conventions in many cases already get covered by associated members (friends of the foundation).

Committee Website
The official committee web site is https://visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org/. For the time being it seems as if this Wiki is more flexible. Once stable documents are available they will move to the official committee web site.

Committee Meetings

 * First_VisCom_Meeting (was March 23rd, 2006)


 * Second_VisCom_Meeting (will be April 27th, 2006)
 * 8am PST (worldclock link)

Tasks
Several levels of activity should be addressed to support advertising the OSGeo Foundation depending on the character of the event to take place.
 * Web site linking Website Committee
 * Create and provide paperwork (ads, flyers, posters, information brochures)
 * Giveaways (focused on larger events with special OS affinity)
 * Operate OSGeo Booth (large events)

Our scratchpad is currently located at the VisComTODO page.

Committee Members
Potential Members:
 * Jason Birch (jasonbirch@osgeo.org)
 * Arnulf Christl (Chair)
 * Michael Gerlek (mpg@osgeo.org)
 * Dave McIlhagga (dmcilhagga@dmsolutions.ca)
 * Tyler Mitchell (pending)
 * Markus Neteler (pending)
 * Sean Sternfeldt (Sean.Sternfeldt@autodesk.com)
 * Mark Lucas (mlucas17@mac.com)

Linking
Links to the OSGeo Foundation web site should be related to the primary context of fostering Free and Open Source Software projects, availability of Public Geospatial Data Project and Free Geospatial Data. Both International Outreach and Like Minded Regional Organizations will establish an efficient network.

Press Releases
Due to the possibility of a Slashdot affect, CollabNet operations needs to be notified 24 hours in advance of press releases whenever possible. Please email Daniel Brookshier and Michael Lavoie at the following addresses as soon as you have an aproximate time and date: dbrookshier@collab.net, mlavoie@collab.net

First Press Release published 6 March 2006

Where to Send Press Releases
The following are addresses to send press releases:
 * submit.news@consortiuminfo.org (see: http://www.consortiuminfo.org/bulletins/ ).
 * DirectionsMag online
 * Slashgeo online
 * GeoPlace.com online

Presentations
Presentations, promotion and dissemination of the OSGeo Foundation principles and ideas:
 * Give talks and Presentations at conferences
 * Hold workshops at conventions
 * Operate OSGeo Booth at exhibitions, conventions, user meetings

Presentation Material
A central document directory should feature Presentations about the OSGeo. Presentations should eventually be managed in the SVN repository of the Promotion and Visibility Project. Externals who need to get the FOSSGIS idea across can use material from this repository to build their own presentations. The material will be appropriately licensed with a free non-software license (e.g., Creative Commons licenses).

At a later stage Posters, Give Aways, Flyers, live-CD, etc. can be added (see also Fundraising).

Formats, Copyright, License of Documents
The preferred format would probably be HTML, making it easy to create links and make it searchable using the OSGeo (CN) infrastructure. (Initial discussion and collaborative editing can be done in the Wiki). Please refrain from creating PPTs, PDFs or other closed formats while OpenDocument format will be appropriate for slides. Presentations would preferably be licensed as GNU FDL, CC (or appropriate alternative) to ensure that they are freely available (please use the discussion page registered at the top of this page).

Sticker, Caps, Promotion Stuff
We will want to think up some stuff to give away. This could be mugs, caps, t-shirts, etc. Probably will have to wait until the logo is done. Some slogan (slogans?) (all by Jody Garnett):
 * Built on OSGeo
 * OSGeo - Think way outside the box
 * OSGeo: It's a Spheroid get over it
 * OSGeo.org : Spatialize your mind (Alain Grignon)