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Arnulf: /* Bottom Line */

2009-07-23T08:44:09Z

Bottom Line

Arnulf: added copy to Wiki for easier linking

2009-07-23T08:41:15Z

added copy to Wiki for easier linking

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''This is a verbatim copy of the "Executive Report from the President" published in the [http://www.osgeo.org/annual_report_2008 OSGeo Journal - Volume 5 - OSGeo 2008 Annual Report] with minor corrections and enhanced with a few links and subtitles that did not go into the paper version.''

== From the President ==
During the past year OSGeo has grown and matured. As far as I can tell the past
year was a thorough success. But how can we measure the success of a nonprofit
organization like OSGeo? A good measure is always to compare numbers. For
example the number of graduated projects, the number of subscribers to mailing
lists, the number of public appearances at conferences, in presentations, trade
shows and case studies. Also the number of Wiki edits, software releases, bug
fixes and the evergreen "lines of code". These are only a few quantifiable
indicators that shed some light on the health of OSGeo. And all of them show
steady growth, find out more about the details in [http://www.osgeo.org/annual_report_2008 this Journal].

=== World Economy ===
During the same past year world economy took a hard blow. More and more
financial experts have to admit that there are very concrete limits to growth. A
growing number of financial institutes have already collapsed, large industries
stumble and fall, employees lose their jobs and in the wake of this global
downfall whole economies have come to a painful grinding halt.

=== OSGeo Ecolomy ===
Eventually the growth curve of OSGeo may also flatten out, but not quite yet.
There are still too many people left to teach about the viability of
Open Source Geospatial Software
and there is still too much profit in learning about the opportunities that
arise from having access to free spatial data and educational material. But what
comes to my mind when I look at the quantifiable success of OSGeo is that it
appears to be yet another [[business]] that is driven by
revenue and the need to meet its investors’ expectations. But who are the
employees and who are the investors?

=== OSGeo's Structure ===
First let’s have a look at who "runs" the fundation. It seems obvious when you
have a [http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/board_and_officers.html president]
and [http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/board_and_officers.html board of directors].
These directors decide that something needs to be done,
tells the CEO to do it and then it happens. Unfortunately, it does not work this
way. As the [[Tyler Mitchell | Executive Director]] is our only employee, he has to focus on things
that really need to get done. Beyond that we are dependent entirely on
volunteers. The most the president and directors can often do is politely ask
people whether they would be interested in doing this or that. Some believe we
are just a small and "managed" organisation "run" by a few individuals who have
the power. I can very much assure you that OSGeo does not work this way.

=== Do-ocracy ===
How does it work if everybody has different expectations of what OSGeo is, what
it should be and what it can do. It works because OSGeo is an active community
of people who [[Do-ocracy | '''do''' things]]. Furthermore, OSGeo does not '''''have''''' a community but the
community '''''is''''' OSGeo. The community invents OSGeo as it progresses. That needs
some explaining. Over the past three years OSGeo has developed into a fairly
complex beast. However, it does not exist out of itself
but is just the collective representation of many individual resources. OSGeo is
crowd sourced (and maybe even a bit RESTful) and will also grow and shrink
depending on the interest and availability of its membership.

=== Formal Structure ===
As a legal entitiy OSGeo needs some formal structure. In a nutshell, OSGeo
consists of currently [http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/members/voting_members.html 73 voted charter members] who vote for 9 directors who vote
for one president (currently [[Arnulf Christl | me]]). The board then appoints the Executive Director
([[Tyler Mitchell]]) who takes care of a whole stack of required formalities like
handling finances, signing contracts in the name of OSGeo and communicating with
[http://www.osgeo.org/content/sponsorship/sponsors.html sponsors]. The board has to approve the budget and find ways to actually
fund it, for example by inviting sponsors (the investors) and promoting [[FOSS4G]]
(acquire funding). Formal committees are created to address different topics,
each of them has a list of members who vote for a chair who becomes an officer
and Vice President of OSGeo. Thats it.

=== Volunteers, Commercial Interests and Business ===
All the RESTful action in OSGeo is done by folks who either have a [[Commercial Services | commercial]]
interest or simply find it fun to do things. Some (like me) are in the lucky
situation that they can combine the fun part with the [http://www.wheregroup.com money making bit] and can
thus afford to spend some time on nitty gritty details of "running" OSGeo. If
you are interested and have the capacity to also do this kind of job then please
pay attention to the upcoming [[:Category:Elections | elections]]. Anybody (that includes you) can
nominate Charter Members, this year as every year it will grow by 15
individuals. Then the Charter Members will vote for the board of directors who
will vote for a president. Same story, each year.

=== Bottom Line ===
Please note that the grunt work within OSGeo is done by people who have no
formal role and who couldn’t care less about having one. If you want OSGeo to do
something then you will just have to [[Do-ocracy | '''do''']] it. Want more education? Go teach
people, create training material or design courses. If you want to formally
change something then please join the corresponding [http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Category:Commitees committee]. Think that we
need better spatial data licenses? Go make them. Think we need more [[Case Studies | case
studies]]? Go create them. Can you see it now? OSGeo is nothing without you.
Correction: ...nothing without you doing it.

Thank you for a cool year of "running" the organization.

: Arnulf Christl
: OSGeo President
: Bonn, Germany
: arnulf@osgeo.org

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Executive Report from the President 2009 - Revision history

Neteler: +cat

Arnulf: /* Bottom Line */

Arnulf: added copy to Wiki for easier linking