OSGeo Mission

Mission 2008 and Beyond

This topic was created so that members in the community can help develop an improved mission statement for OSGeo

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 the new Mission could include

New Proposals

One

To promote freely available geodata - Free Software is useless without data.

Two

To provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via curriculum development, outreach, and support.

Three

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.

Vision

To be the global reference of high quality Geospatial Software and provide transparent geospatial information to foster the development of worldwide communities.

Definition

Vision Statements define the organizations purpose. It communicates both the purpose and values of the organization. The vision must be encompassed by OSGeo's beliefs.

   * meet OSGeo's organizational goals as well as community goals.
   * are a 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.

Values

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

Values represent:

   * key priorities in the OSGeo’s culture
   * what drives the members
   * four to six core values from which OSGeo would like to operate 
   * values of users, developers and the community
   * Notice any differences between OSGeo’s preferred values and its true values