Thanks for bringing it up Andrew J, it hasn't sat especially well with me either. It was a great event, but it seemed incongruous to have a vendor selling ArcGIS at a booth at a FOSS4G.
On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 at 21:02, Andrew Harvey via Oceania < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Andrew, > > Good on you for speaking up about your concerns! I'm sure you're not the > only one who had this thought. > > Speaking from myself here, as far as I'm aware anyone can support the > conference financially through sponsorship without any other requirements, > but it would be up to the organising committee and board if they did want > to add additional conditions for accepting sponsors. > > However given ESRI's involvement with OpenStreetMap ( > https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Esri), in particular their "Esri > World Imagery" which they provide to OpenStreetMap for tracing features, > and their OpenStreetMap powered basemaps which help make it easier for > people to consume OpenStreetMap data. I would say they are very much a > positive part of the OpenStreetMap community and with FOSS4G SotM Oceania > being a State of the Map conference the more financial support we have from > entities who want to help OpenStreetMap the stronger OSGeo Oceania and the > conference will be. > > Andrew Harvey > > On Wed, 20 Nov 2024, at 10:07 PM, Andrew Jeffrey via Oceania wrote: > > Hi All, > > I hope everyone that was able to attend the FOSS4G SOTM Oceania Hobart > conference had a great time. I'm still very much bummed that I wasn't able > to make it down there and my only start at the OO conference remains > Melbourne in 2018. I plan on improving my numbers as best I can into the > future, but from the outside looking in, it looked like all those that > attended had a blast - well done conference committee and OO board. > > I am writing to the list because I have a question that has been bugging > me ever since I talked to a colleague who attended the event. That question > is "What's the deal with ESRI being a sponsor?". I have genuine > curiosity when it comes to the decision process in having them on board. I > understand these things take money to put on and the conference needs to > turn a profit, a healthy conference makes for a healthy OO which allows the > organisation to do many of the great things that they do. However, I think > this sponsorship from ESRI should be reconsidered in the future. > > Just to be clear, I am not opposed to speakers who work for ESRI coming > and talking, from all reports the keynote from Kate Fickas was amazing (as > were all the keynotes from what I hear) and these are the industry people > that we all crave to hear from - top job in landing that line up! But as > for sponsorship I feel that ESRI is putting their brand on a community that > a lot of us turned to when looking for refuge from them. > > I acknowledge that my opinion on this is biased as a QGIS advocate and > trainer. But something about this just feels off! I don't see what's in it > for the FOSS4G community having ESRI involved in our conferences, to me it > looks more of a cheap way for them to buy some good news without doing > anything to improve the relationship with the FOSS4G community. > > However, I know I wasn't there, and I could be wrong about the whole > thing. Maybe the overwhelming opinion is that it's a good thing and this is > a step in the right direction? I would be interested in hearing what people > think and even hearing from someone on the conference organising committee > that has more knowledge about this. Is this something the conference would > do again? Is there a limit to their involvement? What would have happened > if they were a platinum sponsor and got the primary logo placement + verbal > mention at opening and closing of the event? > > Thanks > Andrew > _______________________________________________ > Oceania mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania > > > _______________________________________________ > Oceania mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania >
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