Election 2018 Candidate Manifestos

A space for the candidates for election to the Board to share some information about themselves, their aspirations for OSGeo, what they would like to change, improve or introduce and what role they would like to play on the board.

Steven Feldman
My OSGeo Member Profile

About me
I'm passionate about tech, geography, everything open and communities. I have worked in commercial and leadership roles in geo for over 20 years and for the last 10 years have been active in open data and open source. I am an advisor, mentor and investor in tech businesses (usually with a location focus) and a volunteer.

You might want to look at my blog where I have been writing about geo and open for over a decade: KnowWhere Consulting

I also recently started a site to share fun images of Maps in the Wild called Mappery

My vision
I want to ensure that there is a long term sustainable future for OSGeo to support and grow the use of Open Source geo.

What you have done within the community in the past
I first became involved in OSGeo in 2012 when I was invited to chair FOSS4G in Nottingham by the UK chapter. Since then I have been elected as a Charter Member, a former chair and now active member of the Conference Committee, vice chair of FOSS4G UK and Treasurer of the OSGeo:UK chapter.

I have helped to update the process for selecting the LOC to run FOSS4G global and I helped initiate and lead 2 Travel Grant Programmes (2017 & 2018). I'm an enthusiastic and at times noisy advocate for OSGeo.

What your interests are in terms of the board
I would like to play a role in the development of a medium term strategic direction for OSGeo that identifies our vision, objectives and most importantly the actions that we need to take.

Any things that you would like to change or introduce

 * As part of a strategic review I would like to consider whether our current governance structures are the ones that we need for the future. Put simply, if we were starting OSGeo today would we structure it the way it is? (I don't have a preconceived view on this but I do think it is worth consulting and considering this topic)
 * We have a lot of charter members and list members but often we struggle to get active volunteers when non-code tasks need undertaking. I would like to explore how we can increase the pool of contributors and activists.

What role you would wish to fulfil on the board (if any)
I believe that I could bring my commercial experience to the board in both strategic planning and by acting as the lead to strengthen OSGeo's relationship with its corporate members and sponsors (extending the initiatives already underway)

About me

 * https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkralidis/
 * https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Tomkralidis
 * https://github.com/tomkralidis
 * https://twitter.com/tomkralidis

I've been involved in FOSS4G efforts since the 1990s. Starting as a user with no open source or development experience, I was drawn to the principles of FOSS and the rest (as they say) is history. I develop, use and advocate for FOSS4G/OSGeo tools both in a volunteer capacity as well as my role at the Meteorological Service of Canada as a Senior Geospatial Architect.

Best of luck to all candidates. It is an honour and a privilege to be nominated for the Board. Thank you!

My vision
For Geospatial Open Source to always be a strong viable option for implementation by anyone, anywhere. This is realized by a balanced, interoperable, sustainable and healthy OSGeo.

What you have done within the community in the past

 * OSGeo member since inception
 * long term dedicated effort on user, development and advocacy of FOSS4G / OSGeo in support of interoperability
 * Charter member since 2007
 * user training and workshops
 * Incubation Committee
 * Project mentor for OSGeo incubation of PyWPS (graduated 2018)
 * PSC memberships: MapServer, pycsw, PyWPS
 * core committer: QGIS, GeoNode, PyWPS, OWSLib
 * founder: pycsw, GeoHealthCheck, pygeoapi, pygeometa
 * contributor: OSGeo-Live, numerous others
 * helped organize the first OSGeo C tribe code sprint (Toronto, Canada)
 * code sprints attendance (2009, 2011, 2014 [FOSS4G-PDX], 2017, 2018)

What your interests are in terms of the board

 * do-ocracy
 * continuous improvement on lowering the barrier to geospatial tools for anyone
 * I regard participating in the Board a continuation of helping OSGeo in any way I can in another capacity. In addition, having a term on the Board will also help infuse new thinking in both day-to-day and strategic issues

Any things that you would like to change or introduce

 * balance of hosted services vs. OSGeo infrastructure to maximize efficiency of our precious resources
 * sandbox infrastructure
 * put forth the concept of an OSGeo registry of resources (datasets, software, applications) that are local to OSGeo or remote
 * increase focus / lower the barrier to OGC implementation given the new direction of OGC service specifications
 * participation in OGC hackathons
 * CITE compliance
 * more sprints ('working sessions', i.e. code, docs, projects, etc.), promote remote sprint concept more
 * harden core packaging efforts (UbuntuGIS, DebianGIS, etc.) to become more sustainable

What role you would wish to fulfil on the board (if any)
A trusted voice as part of a leadership team and community to help steer OSGeo in achieving its goals for the long term.