Board Member Nominations 2011

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The following nominations have been received for the OSGeo Board in 2011 through the Election 2011 process. The end of Sunday, August 7th 2011 is the latest that new nominations, sent to cro@osgeo.org and the discuss list, will be accepted.

This list is presented in the order nominations were received.

Incumbent board members are marked with an asterisk (*).

Candidate statements, if they have been provided, are indented and provided immediately after the candidate name.

Peter Batty

I nominate Peter Batty for a position on the OSGeo Board. I've worked closely with Peter in a variety of situations - his focus and experience would serve OSGeo well as a director. As Chair of the FOSS4G 2011 event he has shown a willingness to stick his neck out for FOSS4G and OSGeo - taking on the challenge of balancing the demands of the community at large and running a large event. He is well connected but has his feet on the ground, with many ideas for how to get things done, e.g. raising sponsorship, next steps for growth, etc. I've appreciated the insights he's shared at open source speaking tracks that I've been part of, he presents OSGeo very well. He's no stranger to the boardroom table and I hope we can put that experience to work for OSGeo.


More from Peter's bio page or his blog: http://geothought.blogspot.com/

I have worked in the geospatial industry for 25 years. I am currently a co-founder and VP of geospatial technology at Ubisense, where I am leading the development of a product called Ubisense myWorld, which is focused on simple to use mapping for utilities and telcos, and makes use of several open source geospatial products including PostGIS, MapFish and OpenLayers. Previously I have been CTO of two of the top three (closed source) geospatial software companies (and two of the world's top 200 software companies) Intergraph, and Smallworld (now part of GE). I am chair of the FOSS4G 2011 conference in Denver.

I have contributed to several industry open data standards including the Open Geospatial Consortium in its formative years, and IEC TC57 Working Group 14 (for exchange of electric utility data). I am an active participant in and advocate for OpenStreetMap. I was a member of the Board of GITA (the Geospatial Information and Technology Association) for 5 years, from 2004 through 2008, and am again in 2011. I have been a member of the GeoWorld magazine Editorial Advisory Board since 1996, have published many articles and spoken at many conferences around the world, and write a blog called geothought.

I'm an active advocate for open source geospatial software. I speak regularly about open source at conferences. I have helped organize local events for FRUGOS, the Front Range Users of Geospatial Open Source, in Colorado. I was an organizer of the WhereCamp5280 event in Denver in 2009 and 2010.

-- From: Tyler Mitchell

Charlie Schweik

I nominate Charlie Schweik for a position on the OSGeo Board. Charlie Schweik is chair of the OSGEO education committee and an effective advocate for the use of open source geospatial software in academia. He is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment shared between the Department of Natural Resources Conservation and the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is also the Associate Director of the National Center for Digital Government, and an affiliated researcher with the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

His research focuses on environmental management and policy, public-sector information technology, and the intersection of those domains. His recent peer-reviewed publications focus on free and open source software and the social frameworks and institutions that drive their development and use. With his colleague Robert English, he has just completed a 5-year National Science Foundation funded study on open source collaboration resulting in a book manuscript entitled “Successful Internet Collaboration: A Study of Open Source Software Commons” (forthcoming, June 2012, MIT Press). One chapter in this book analyzes OSGeo as a case study (thanks to interviews with OSGeo members a few years ago). Charlie has regularly taught an Introduction to Spatial Technologies course to undergraduate students using OSGeo-related technologies. He also just completed teaching a course to high school teachers using QGIS.

It was through Charlie's hard work and persistence that OSGeo first created a web-based educational content inventory system. He is now trying to work with other OSGeo affiliated academics (especially Suchith Anand at the University of Nottingham) to build a network of OSGeo-affiliated academic institutions and move OSGeo education toward a new derivative work system. He is particularly interested in focusing some of this effort on how local governments might move toward or become interested in open source geospatial technologies and believes it is critical for OSGeo to promote affiliated projects more in the government space.

Charlie's formal training and experience as a computer programmer with academic interests in studying the open source movement and promoting the use of open source geospatial tools makes him well qualified to be a board member of OSGEO.

-- From: Ned Horning

Eduardo Patto Kanegae

I would like to nominate Eduardo Patto Kanegae for the board for he is a power F4G user and advocate in Brazil since 2001. He had contributed with brazilian users with forum replies, weblog articles, MapServer/GIS trainings ( author of 'Introdução ao MapServer' MS4W package at http://www.maptools.org/ms4w/index.phtml?page=downloads.html), translations and documentations such as ShapeLib Tools User Guide as well. Hi is currently preparing his new site/blog at http://www.webmapit.com. He would be a plus in the board, representing South American inspirations e expectations regarding F4G.

-- From: Rafael Medeiros Sperb

Jo Cook

I would like to nominate Jo Cook to the OSGeo Board of Directors. Jo has been the OSGeo representative in the UK for a number of years, both formally and in practical terms as our public face, organiser, and advocate. She has ensured that OSGeo has steadily increased in strength over the past three years, with a growing mailing list, and visibility at major conferences and events, including leading well-attended workshops at the OS GIS UK conferences and elsewhere. Jo has also ensured an effective online presence for OSGeo through the OSGeo UK pages of the website, including the recent addition of a number of case studies to the site in a standardised OSGeo format, and through her blog and Twitter feed. On a personal level, speaking as someone who first started working in GIS three years ago, Jo has given me significant support and encouragement in the open source field. I am sure that Jo would be able to bring great strengths and energy to the board.

-- From: Antony Scott

I would like to nominate Jo Cook for the OSGeo Board of Directors. She is very committed to Free and Open Source Software. Her contribution to OSGeo:UK chapter has been immense. She, with help of others has managed to raise awareness about open source GIS in UK, where no one was willing to talk about it!

-- From: Saber Razmjooei

Jeff McKenna *

I would like to nominate Jeff McKenna to the OSGeo Board of Directors. Jeff has been an OSGeo Board member, a founding member of OSGeo, OSGeo Conference Committee chair, MapServer PSC member, FOSS4g Workshop Committee member and founding co-chair of the OSGeo Ottawa chapter. Jeff is very active in the MapServer, GDAL, FOSS4G, and OSGeo communities. He is responsible for running the ever popular WMS Benchmarking effort. Jeff is a tireless advocate for open source, open collaboration and is a big (ha!) welcoming presences in the OSGeo community for many first-timers. Jeff is responsible for the very popular MS4W Mapserver distribution, which is a mainstay for windows users of MapServer. Jeff is a graduate of the prestigious COGS (http://www.cogs.ns.ca/) and is the president of Gateway Geomatics. He has worked extensively with many international OSGeo chapters over the years. And he is a damn nice guy.

-- From: Michael Smith

Michael Gerlek

I would like to take this opportunity to nominate Michael Gerlek for the OSGeo Board. Michael (known to many as MPG) has been an active member of the OSGeo community from the very first planning meetings in 2006. He has been a Charter member of OSGeo since 2006 and has actively participated in many functions of OSGeo including leading the Visibility committee. Michael also co-founded CUGOS, the regional OSGeo chapter in the Pacific Northwest. He is actively involved in many open source GIS projects, and now dedicates himself to full time consulting work in the open source GIS space through his company Flaxen Geo Consulting. He has a long history in participating with the OGC and could bring unique experience in that arena to the board. Most importantly his participation in the OSGeo board would bring great industry insight, leadership experience, and a true dedication to furthering the OSGeo mission. I strongly encourage the OSGeo community to consider Michael as a valuable addition to the board and the OSGeo family.

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Mpg

Thanks for your consideration.

--From: Aaron Racicot

Thierry Badard

I nominate Thierry Badard to serve on the OSGeo Board of Directors.

His involvement in OSGeo to date shows an encouraging commitment to advancing OSGeo's mission on many fronts. While primarily focused on the academic side through Laval University, he is also active with the OSGeo Francophone chapter and with several software projects (most notable GeoKettle).

The combination of his global outlook, educational experience and, lately, with business exposure through his work with Spatialytics gives him a powerful perspective on bringing many groups of people together. I've met Thierry several times and had encouraging discussions about how to grow the organisation and continue supporting people and projects that are connecting through OSGeo. He also worked for IGN France, so has some inside understanding of a national mapping agency, which I believe, is an increasingly important part of OSGeo's user base.

More from his Linkedin Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/thierrybadard

Dr. Thierry Badard is professor in geoinformatics at the Department of geomatics sciences of Laval University in Quebec City (Canada). He heads the GeoSOA research group and is a full time researcher of the Centre for Research in Geomatics (CRG). Former member of the steering committee of the CRG, he is also a regular researcher of the GEOIDE Network of Centres of Excellence in geomatics. He has more than 15 years of experience and he has been involved and has led national and international R&D projects of importance. His research interest deals with geospatial (Web) Services Oriented Architectures (SOA), location-based and context-aware web services and apps, geospatial Business Intelligence (GeoBI) and geo-analytical tools and the design of intelligent mobile applications for better decision support. He acts as a chair, editor and reviewer for numerous international journals and scientific conferences and has already an important record of scientific contributions. Dr. Thierry Badard is also actively involved in the geospatial free and open source community. He is developer, administrator and project coordinator of the GeoKettle (http://www.geokettle.org), GeoMondrian (http://www.geo-mondrian.org), SOLAPLayers (http://www.solaplayers.org) and GeOxygene (http://oxygene-project.sourceforge.net), open source projects. He is an OSGeo charter member and acts as a member of the OSGeo conference committee and a reviewer for the OSGeo Journal. Till last year, he was in charge of the free software commission in the OSGeo Francophone local chapter. He is a founding co-chairs the OSGeo Quebec local chapter and a founding co-chair of the ICA (International Cartographic Association) commission on open source geospatial technologies (http://ica-opensource.scg.ulaval.ca). He has also recently co-founded Spatialytics, a new company specialised in open source GeoBI where he acts as CTO. For further details, please visit http://www.spatialytics.com and http://geosoa.scg.ulaval.ca.

-- From: Tyler Mitchell

Mark Lucas

I nominate Mark Lucas for the OSGeo Board of Directors. With over 25 years experience in the geospatial and remote sensing fields, he has lots to offer, especially his enthusiasm for OSGeo and helping teams work together. He works as Principal Scientist for http://www.radiantblue.com/ where OSSIM and open source geospatial are an increasingly important component.

Mark is no stranger to both OSGeo and the Board, having helped found OSGeo at the first meeting and serving a term as a Director early in the life of the organisation. He oversees the OSSIM project and actively helps integrate open source within government. His perspective on gov't systems and open source adoption is the clearest pictures we can get. He has been crucial in writing reports and recommendations that have led to further adoption of open source within the U.S. defense and intelligence sector. His involvement in the geospatial business sphere provides good insight into where the industry is heading and how OSGeo can help encourage further uptake of our projects. I've spent enjoyable hours brainstorming with and working alongside Mark and think he is an excellent fit to help for another term on the Board. He also works with the Open Source Software Institute and more. I'm sure his skills at coordinating the launch of Titan rockets will help propel OSGeo forward too!

His profile on linkedin.com includes many telling recommendations, including Gary's encouraging comment about his previous term:

"Mark showed a capacity for collaboration and creating an environment for it with the founding of OSGeo that was crucial to getting the foundation running. He was one of the most active people involved, and without his positive energy we would not have accomplished as much as a team in creating that groundbreaking organization."

His nomination from 2006 holds true today: http://www.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2006-March/000205.html

-- From: Tyler Mitchell

Andrew Ross

I would like to nominate Andrew Ross for a position on the OSGeo Board.

Andrew brings a balanced mix of valuable technical and business skills which make him a great choice to become an OSGeo board member. His experience spans private, public, and academic organizations. He has been involved with OSGeo for five years, and has been a charter member of OSGeo for the past 3 years. In this time he has demonstrated considerable commitment to OSGeo, its projects, and organizations in the OSGeo ecosystem.

This list represents some of Andrew's experience and qualifications and experience relevant to his nomination:

  • Founder of FOSSLC (http://fosslc.org) - a non-profit organization dedicated to education and business development with open source technologies
  • Director of Ecosystems at the Eclipse Foundation
  • Ingres' Director of Engineering (& Geospatial Technology)
    • The development team at Ingres under his leadership contributed to OSGeo projects including GEOS, GDAL/OGR, Proj.4, and others.
    • He arranged considerable financial support for OSGeo from Ingres, both direct (cash & code contributions) and indirect (contracting people to make contributions to OSGeo projects).
  • Project founder, committer/architect for the open source video recording & streaming suite called Freeseer
  • Organized multiple OSGeo related events including Geocamp 2008, Summercamp 2009, and a number of bootcamps.
  • Organized teams to record videos for past OSGeo events including FOSS4G2009, Rendez-Vous OSGeo Quebec, and more.
  • Mentor for dozens of programming interns as part of the Google Summer of Code, Talent First Network, UCOSP, and other student programs.
  • Teaching Programming using open source technologies at Carleton University since 2006
  • 7 years experience as an architect and software developer at Nortel creating carrier grade products and services based on open source code
  • Very active member of the Ottawa OSGeo Chapter

In addition to his considerable personal experience, Andrew's work with the Eclipse Foundation, FOSSLC, and other organizations provides access to an enormous amount of experience, specialized skills, and a wealth of contacts. His addition to the board would create even more opportunities for technology sharing/development and valuable business development.

-- From: David McIlhagga

Regina Obe

I nominate Regina Obe for the OSGeo Board of Directors. Regina is a member of the PostGIS steering Committee and has been an OSGeo Charter Member since 2009. Regina has a particular strength that is very rare in the Open Source world and that is her dedication to making open source software and programming accessible to the often non-technical savvy GIS user. Regina (along with her husband Leo) have maintained the BostonGIS blog and the Postgres Online Journal for many years providing quick and understandable tutorials, guides, and cheat sheets for various projects with a particular focus on PostgreSQL/PostGIS, much of this has culminated in the recent publication of Postgis in Action. While Regina has a very strong technical background, I believe that Regina could help drive a focus on the usability and accessibility of OSGeo projects.

-- From: David William Bitner

David Bitner

David has been an active part of the Open Source Geospatial community for many years since helping to plan the 2005 MapServer Users meeting and helping to start the Twin Cities Mapserver Users Group (Now Twin Cities, MN OSGeo local chapter). David has been an active user and has helped to support the MapServer, PostGIS, OpenLayers, and GeoExt projects. David brings additional Board experience through serving on the Board of Directors of the Sahana Software Foundation which supports software (much of which leverages OSGeo software) used in emergency management and response.

-- From: Perry Nacionales

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