Board Meeting 2008 06 06

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This board meeting has been scheduled for the 6th of June 2008 at 15:00 UTC (fixedtime), by phone and IRC (#osgeo) at the same time.

Communication will use the Conference Call facilities.

Agenda

Minutes

[08:15am] Attending: Frank, Tyler, Paul, Bob, Dave, Markus, Arnulf

  • appoint meeting secretary - Tyler
  • Frank adds item to agenda: modification to conflict of interest policy: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Talk:Conflict_Of_Interest_Policy
  • Review previous meeting minutes: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Thirty_Sixth_Board_Meeting
    • Jeroen moves to accept, Bob seconds, all were in favour
  • Discuss need for US Export Restrictions / regulations policy similar to Apaches Policy
    • See: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/US_Export_Restrictions and http://www.apache.org/licenses/exports/
    • discussed what it means to enforce restrictions
    • general agreement that OSGeo should not explicitly encourage policies contrary to export restrictions
    • GRASS mirrors, etc. help to keep access open
    • recognised that more follow up and advice needed, but looking for useful help e.g. discuss with apache foundation
    • discussed roles of local chapters and how they relate back to OSGeo
    • ACTION: Tyler follow up with gvSIG, Apache foundation - to get more info, and also with OSSI and Ball aerospace to see how they went through opening up their software
  • New Item: Frank proposed change will be: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Talk:Conflict_Of_Interest_Policy
    • change so interested persons don't have to 'leave the room' - e.g. leave board meeting
    • change so they can still vote and contribute to discussion, but can only 'abstain', so vote can meet quorum
    • MOTION: adopted proposed changes http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Talk:Conflict_Of_Interest_Policy
    • Frank moved to adopt the changes on that URL, seconded by Arnulf, all were in favour
  • Review proposal for Teach In workshop activity.
    • Frank and Paul expressed personal conflict in the proposal
    • Arnulf giving summary of his concerns, also wondering why proposed format, rather than a wider more general approach
    • Paul summarise need/demand and interest in such a format
    • Question of conflicting with other companies business providing similar teaching.
    • Markus main concern is with developing policy for future application of branded teaching. Not against proposal, but want to develop at least a draft policy for helping make the decision/choice more transparent.
    • Discussing how to develop policy to ensure quality
    • Note sponsors currently have no special ability to use the OSGeo brand in their own marketing.. they can only state they are an "OSGeo Sponsor"
    • Arnulf: teach in ideas brings a lot of attention to osgeo, etc. but do they help the projects? specifically those projects not represented
    • jmckenna: every year at foss4g many projects are not accepted for workshops
    • Arnulf also states a personal conflict and will abstain
    • Abstaining from voting on the proposal: Frank, Paul, Dave, Jeroen, Bob
    • Arnulf is not sure. Markus discussed next steps.
    • MOTION: Markus moves to develop a policy for handling teaching events and to request the conference committee to prepare a draft for submission to the board
    • Does not relate to accepting the teach-in proposal, so abstainings do not apply.
    • Arnulf seconded, all were in favour.
    • danmo wonders if the policy should also extend to any event of similar type that would like to use the brand and not just teaching e.g. conferences organized by local chapters
    • most specifically focused on commercial events where osgeo brand is being tied to it for marketing purposes.
    • danmo: is a local chapter 2-days conference charging 200$/attendee a commercial event?
    • Paul/Jeff's proposal will likely not be able to wait for such a policy to be developed and put in place
    • ACTION: Tyler will draft up request from this motion and describe question, passing by board for verfication, pass on to Jeff/Conference committee
      • Paul follow-up directly with Conference committee
    • danmo: my take on Paul/Jeff's proposal (as an observer with no voting rights) is that I much welcome their initiative, I think it will fill a real need and I don't fear the impact on the international OSGeo ... however I do fear that opening the door to uncontrolled use of the brand by events on which OSGeo has no control involves a high risk of tarnishing the brand if one of those events screws up ... I trust Paul/Jeff to do an awesome job in this case b
    • I meant "... I don't fear the impact on the international OSGeo conference..."
  • Proposed general OSGeo Membership process with user pages and discuss OSGeo member mashup (Arnulf)
    • wiki is not integrated with LDAP, so promoting this process beforehand could be poor
    • ACTION: Frank looking at LDAP side of wiki integration
    • ACTION: Tyler making a membership sign up app a priority, to show at next meeting
  • Update on FOSS4G 2008
    • Markus: submitted reviewers and they have been asked to help review scientific/academic papers.. review is underway
    • good batch of proposals received
    • Tyler has been helping export and tweak website for organisers to get access to paper lists, etc. for preparing voting on submissions
    • jmckenna: re:2009: I attended a conference call last night to review the PCO contract (for Tour Hosts) for 2009...one question is regarding payments of fees...specifically if OSGeo can provide bridge funding for things like marketing before the initial sponsorship revenues begin. Tour hosts requires a payment in august 2008...which is the issue (for 2009)...that's the issue
  • Update from Tyler - will email out summary to board list
    • Conference question - Tyler's involvement... Frank suggests spending 5-10% of time to support conference committee.
    • discussed conference system choice and issues
    • would be ideal to have conference committee help somehow over time, with system... Tyler will discuss with Jeff
  • Frank moves to close, Markus seconds, meeting closed
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