Election 2024 Candidate Manifestos

A space for the candidates for election to the Board to share some information about themselves, their aspirations for OSGeo, what they would like to change, improve or introduce and what role they would like to play on the board.
You are welcome to follow the template, and add further relevant info as you need: 
== Michael Smith - United States (OSGeo profile) ==
=== About me ===
For those of you that don't know me, I'm Michael Smith, a physical scientist at the US Army Corps of Engineers. I've been involved with the MapServer community since 2001 and OSGeo since its inception. For the last 10 years, I've been honored to be a OSGeo Board member and the OSGeo treasurer. It’s been quite a learning experience and I greatly thank Daniel Morissette, the previous OSGeo treasurer for so much support in handling the transition.
=== My vision ===
In my time on the board and as treasurer, my focus has been on encouraging governments (in general) and the US in particular, especially the Department of Defense which, personally I know makes extensive use of OSGeo projects, to more actively participate is OSGeo and the projects beyond just use and occasional commits. Long term, we do need to work on the sustainability of the OSGeo Foundation financial health.
=== What you have done within the community in the past ===
In general, I work a lot with the project managers of the various OSGeo projects as well as the Code Sprint and Event coordinators.
=== What your interests are in terms of the board ===
If reelected, I plan to continue as OSGeo Treasurer. It's been a bit of a learning experience handling the funds from OSGeo, learning how to do the non profit tax filings for the US Government (where OSGeo is incorporated) and handling distributions of funds to Code Sprints and Events. It has also been a lot of fun to work directly with groups and individuals all over the world with OSGeo. Its been a very rewarding experience.
=== Any things that you would like to change or introduce ===
The next board will begin to look at how other foundations approach their long term sustainability and look to work closer with the regional events and our sponsors. 
=== What role you would wish to fulfill on the board (if any) ===
If reelected, I plan to continue as OSGeo Treasurer.
It’s really wonderful to see a great group of new candidates to the board. It is wonderful to see the diversity and multiple regions of the world represented in the candidates. Thank you for the nomination, OSGeo Community!
== Tom Kralidis, Canada (OSGeo profile) ==
=== About me ===
* https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkralidis
* https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Tomkralidis
* https://github.com/tomkralidis
* https://noc.social/@tomkralidis
I've been involved in FOSS4G since the 1990s. Starting as a user with
no open source or development experience, I was drawn to the principles and inclusiveness of
FOSS and the rest (as they say) is history. I develop, use and advocate for
FOSS4G/OSGeo tools both in a volunteer capacity as well as my role at the
Meteorological Service of Canada as a Senior Geospatial Architect.
Best of luck to all candidates! It is an honour and a privilege to be nominated again for the Board. Thank you!
=== My vision ===
For Geospatial Open Source to always be a strong viable option for implementation
by anyone, anywhere, anytime. FOSS4G is neither too big or too small for any requirement,
project or activity.
This is realized by a balanced, interoperable, sustainable and healthy OSGeo.
=== What you have done within the community in the past ===
* OSGeo member since inception
* Board member 2018-present. Contributions include:
** OGC MoU renewal (2022)
** Chair of OSGeo Standards Committee (2022)
** Update of policies and procedures (budget, bylaws)
** Helping onboard numerous new community projects
** Creation of Board member onboarding checklist
** Charter member onboarding
** Sponsorship communications
** OSGeo Annual Budget and Money guidance for projects, committees, initiatives and events
** OGC coordination
*** OSGeo / OGC code sprints cross pollination
*** OGC Compliance Certification Services (CITE, SAC infra)
*** OSGeo Certification services for OGC compliance
*** OGC/W3C Web mapping workshop program committee and "Open Source for Web Mapping" panel moderator
** ISO TC211 liaison setup
* long term dedicated effort on user, development and advocacy of FOSS4G / OSGeo in support of interoperability
* Charter member since 2007
* user training and workshops
* Incubation Committee
* Project mentor for OSGeo incubation of PyWPS (graduated 2018)
* Project mentor for OSGeo incubation of ZOO-Project (graduated 2023)
 Software leadership
project 	core committer	PSC membership	Founder
pygeoapi 	x 	Chair 	x
pycsw 	x 	Chair 	x
MapServer 	x 	x 	
QGIS 	x 	x 	
GeoHealthCheck	x 	 	x
PyWPS 	x 	 	
MapProxy 	 	x 	
GeoNode 	x 	 	
pygeometa 	x 	 	x
OWSLib 	x 	 	
* contributor: OSGeo-Live, numerous others
* helped organize the first ever OSGeo C tribe code sprint (Toronto, Canada) in 2009
* code sprints attendance (2009, 2011, 2014 [FOSS4G-PDX], 2017-present)
=== What your interests are in terms of the Board ===
During my time with the Board thus far I have been lucky to work with a strong and diverse team
and was exposed to many facets of OSGeo. I also realized the significant part that
standards play in numerous OSGeo projects. As a firm believer of do-ocracy and
collaboration, if re-elected I will continue to advocate on lowering the barrier to
geospatial tools for anyone across numerous organizations and jurisdictions. This
includes strengthening our position on standards requirements and implementation (OGC, ISO).
=== Any things that you would like to change or introduce ===
Recent activities at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have resulted in a new frontier: a WMO position and framework of Free and Open Source Software. If re-elected, as Chair of the new WMO Task Team on Open Source Software, my goal is to help build the relationship between WMO and OSGeo to help cross pollination (MOUs, code sprints, etc.), and to help solidify open source geospatial and open standards in support of weather/climate/water data.
 
As well, if re-elected, with the OSGeo/OGC MoU having been renewed in 2022, as well as the creation of the OSGeo Standards Committee, I look forward to continuing to help shape OSGeo's story for OGC collaboration.
Since 2018, the OGC has embarked on significant efforts on modernizing their API
suite of standards via OGC API. The OGC API movement
is proving to lower the barrier to implementation more than ever before. This,
combined with OSGeo's TC211 liaison membership in 2020, provides our community a
huge opportunity to lead and direct the future of international standards, either
by providing requirements/feedback, writing software as well as providing reference
implementations. OSGeo's standards efforts need to undergo a similar review and
renewal activity so we can participate more efficiently, have our voice heard
and have FOSS4G projects be a key contributor and option to users.
This will not happen by accident. Continuous improvement on our Certification
services, OSGeo participation in OGC events, CITE compliance and infrastructure,
and OGC threads at OSGeo sprints will all contribute to adding value for FOSS4G as
the best option for standards based implementations.
=== What role you would wish to fulfill on the board (if any) ===
To continue as a trusted voice as part of a strong leadership team and community to help steer OSGeo in achieving its goals for the long term.
== Joana Simoes (She/Her), Portugal (OSGeo profile) ==
=== About me ===
I am a Portuguese/Spanish data engineer and data scientist, who fell in love with programming with a ZX Spectrum 128k. After acquiring a PhD in Geographic Information Systems at the University College of London, my drive to solve real-world problems has taken me to SMEs, a UN agency, a research foundation and a start-up, across three different European countries (UK, Italy, Spain).
I have been very involved in the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community, in particular in what concerns geospatial technologies, standards and data. This has led me to become a charter member of the Open Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) in 2017, and the vice-president of the Portuguese chapter of OSGeo. During 2017 I also took a leading role at the board of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association (GSDI), as a board director of the Industry Advisory Council.
Currently I lead developer relations at the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and run ByteRoad, an R&D company in the field of Spatial Data Infrastructures. I am also a reviewer for the European Commission, and have been deeply involved in education, teaching the next generation of full-stack developers and data scientists at CodeOp and Barcelona Technology School.
* https://doublebyte.net/
* https://github.com/doublebyte1/
* https://noc.social/@doublebyte
=== My vision ===
Geospatial information is already ubiquitous, and a growing number of users want to be able to consume it. I envision a world where geospatial information is a first class citizen in mainstream tech, and spatial functionality is no longer a niche, but native in most applications. In order to achieve that, we need to be able to establish alliances with other communities and to increase the overall visibility of OSGeo projects within the wider software community, including Startups.
I also think that the growing interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) highlights the need of F.A.I.R data; I am deeply committed to making geospatial information, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and reusable, and avoid the growing of data swamps or data silos. Increasing the interoperability of OSGeo projects and encouraging the creation of Standards based metadata are important steps towards that goal.
=== What you have done within the community in the past ===
* Contributed to different Free and Open Source projects, like: pygeoapi, geonetwork, GDAL, QGIS and docker.
* Attended several OSGeo project code sprints (QGIS, pygeoapi, GeoNetwork).
* Participated in several FOSS4G regional and World conferences and presented keynotes at FOSS4G UK 2018 and FOSS4G Thailand 2022.
* Participated in the organization of FOSS4G- Europe 2018 in Guimaraes as marketing lead.
* Participated in the Portuguese and Spanish chapters of OSGeo.
* Joined the OSGeo Standards Committee and co organized the Joint OGC-OSGeo-ASF Code Sprints in 2022, 2023, 2024.
* Contact person at OGC for the OSGeo and OGC Memorum of Understanding (MoU).
* Regular guest at the Podcast of the Portuguese Ubuntu Community.
=== What your interests are in terms of the board ===
* Increase diversity and inclusion within OSGeo.
* Increase collaboration/alliances with other Free and Open Software communities like Apache or Ubuntu.
* Increase the uptake of geospatial Standards within OSGeo projects and increase OSGeo participation within OGC.
* Bring the point of view of industry, in particular of SMEs that are part of the FOSS ecosystem.
=== Any things that you would like to change or introduce ===
If I am elected, I would like to introduce concrete actions that would drive us to achieve the goals layed out on the previous point.
 Proposals
Interests 	Proposed changes
Diversity and Inclusion	Promote events in parts of the world that currently have less coverage, due to language barriers, financial constraints, or others; organise more birds of a feather events for groups that are currently less represented or less visible within OSGeo; review the gender diversity of software projects, in particular in what regards technical tasks, which can inform an action plan.
Collaboration/alliances	Organise OSGeo sessions within other FOSS events like FOSSDEM, or Festa do Software Livre; organise more joint code sprints/hackathons with organisations like the Apache Software Foundation, the Ubuntu or the makers community.
Geospatial Standards 	Bring more OSGeo projects to the OGC Code Sprints; encourage more OSGeo charter members to get involved in the development of Standards and keep track of their activities through the OSGeo Standards committee; promote the participation of an OSGeo consortium in OGC Testbeds and pilots.
=== What role you would wish to fulfill on the board (if any) ===
I would be hnoured to take any role that is assigned to me, although I would prefer to not be the treasurer.
== Angelos Tzotsos, Greece (OSGeo profile) ==
=== About me ===
My name is Angelos Tzotsos. I am a remote sensing scientist/researcher and have been a FOSS developer for more than half of my life. I wrote my first program at the age of 11 and installed my first GNU/Linux distribution in 1997. I started working with Free and Open Source Software as an undergraduate student in engineering. I was very excited with the quality of the code and got determined to contribute back and help the community. I am very proud to be a member of the OSGeo community and honored to be nominated again for a position at the Board of Directors.
=== My vision ===
My vision is to inspire young people to join our community (or any other FOSS community) and discover the technical and ethical revolution of Free and Open Source Software, the way I did. In the last few years, while being also active on the business side, I have realized the need for a sustainable future for our FOSS4G projects and the need to keep promoting open source solutions to governments, organizations, universities, research institutions, private companies, users and decision-makers. I also see the need to continue reaching out to other communities and organizations.
=== What you have done within the community in the past ===
* OSGeo President since 2020
* OSGeo Board member 2016-2024. Participated in all board meetings.
* OSGeo Vice-President 2017-2019.
* OSGeo charter member since 2011. 
* Chair of the OSGeoLive PSC and core developer.
* OSGeo Project Officer for pycsw and OSGeoLive.
* Core developer and contributor of many projects like pycsw, GeoNode, pygeoapi, ZOO-Project, OTB (more contribution details can be found on my wiki page https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Angelos_Tzotsos). 
* Maintainer of UbuntuGIS.
* Maintainer of openSUSE Geo.
=== What your interests are in terms of the board ===
My first priority is keeping a healthy and viable OSGeo community. We need to inspire new and older members to become active within the organization, projects and committees.
I am also convinced that we need to apply changes in the way OSGeo is funded to continue our work. We need to revisit sponsorship, infrastructure, FOSS4G planning. 
During the last years we were able to strengthen our relationship with external partners with more MOUs and collaborations (ESA, OGC, HOT and more). I plan to keep working towards this direction.
A critical priority of the board is to ensure that our graduated and incubated projects are sustainable: as a board member I focused on monitoring our projects' status and asking their officers and PSCs to report to the board regularly.
I also wish to be one of the voices in the board that remind all of us of our Free Software roots (Free is part of FOSS4G, even if not reflected in the OSGeo name), avoiding proprietary systems as much as possible.
Once again, I thank you for giving me the chance to represent you and will try my best if you keep trusting in me.
=== Any things that you would like to change or introduce ===
I would like to work towards expanding our community and try to attract a new generation of contributors both for our projects and the organization.
=== What role you would wish to fulfill on the board (if any) ===
I would be happy to serve the OSGeo Board in any role I am assigned.
== Ariel Anthieni - Argentina (OSGeo profile) ==
=== About me ===
He was the chair of FOSS4G Argentina 2016 and has participated in the organization of the following editions: 2017, 2019. He also was part of the organization of SOTM Argentina 2017 and SOTM LATAM 2018. In 2018 he was part of the foundation of the Geolibres Association (https://geolibres.org.ar/ ), which supports the geospatial communities of Argentina (Geolibres Argentina, Openstreetmap Argentina, QGIS Argentina, Geochicas). He started as the treasurer and is currently President of the Association. Ariel was one of the main organizers of the FOSS4G 2021 Buenos Aires and FOSS4G  2024 Belém and coordinator of the LOC,  marking a integration of OsGeo in other regions of the world. He has actively participated with talks at FOSS4G 2018 Bucharest, FOSS4G 2022 Firenze and FOSS4G 2023 Kosovo about new technologies with the aim of bringing Open Source technologies closer to Spanish-speakers. He is the manager of the local OSM and QGIS Chapters in Argentina and regional communicator in open source events and applications in cadastre, urban management, Smart City and Digital Twins technology.
As part of his work, he is also a very active advocate for FOSS technologies in the geospatial world.
From 2012 to 2018, he was the coordinator of the metadata group of the SDI of Argentina (IDERA). Ariel is currently a speaker in lectures and workshops about open source tools and technologies in the annual conferences of the national SDI.
In 2021 he founded and became CEO of Kan Territory & IT, one of the companies in the region that implements Open Source technologies in the ECLAC, with integration projects of the geographic statistical framework in 8 Latin American countries or also the migration of the cadastre of Mexico City to open source technologies such as QGIS, postGIS, and postgres. They also participated in the implementation of the America SDI.
He is currently the chair of OsGeo’s UN committee where he has been generating different integration spaces with UNGGIM and UN Open GIS to position Open Source in the use by the member countries.
=== My vision ===
My vision is to promote the adoption and implementation of open source solutions worldwide, with a strong emphasis on Latin America. This includes fostering access to technology and information in native languages, ensuring inclusivity and equal opportunities for all. I aim to create a bridge between the free software industry and various stakeholders, breaking down misconceptions about the reliability and security of open source software. Additionally, I envision a future where regional integration and collaboration among participating countries drive innovation, knowledge sharing, and the development of sustainable digital ecosystems that benefit communities globally.
=== What you have done within the community in the past ===
* Member the Geospatial Societies network of UNGGIM in representation OSGeo
* Chair UN Committe of OSGeo
* VP of OSGeo for LATAM 
* OSGeo Board Member 2023 - 2024
* Organizer of the FOSS4G Belém 2024 (International)
* Chair of the FOSS4G Argentina 2016
* Organizer of the FOSS4G Argentina 2017
* Organizer of the FOSS4G Argentina 2019
* Organizer of the SOTM Argentina 2017 
* Organizer of the SOTM LATAM 2018.
* Coordinator of LOC the FOSS4G Buenos Aires 2021 (International)
* Founder Member of Geoinquietos Argentina
* Founder of the Geolibres Argentina
* President of the Geolibres Argentina
* Responsible for the Local Chapter OSM Argentina
* Responsible for the Local Chapter QGIS Argentina
* Member of the SDI of Argentina since 2012 
* Chair of Metadata Working Group of SDI of Argentina, IDERA (2012 - 2020)
* Participation in software development Geonetwork, Geonode and transation a spanish for help 
=== What your interests are in terms of the board ===
My goal in seeking an additional term on the Board is to continue building bridges between OSGeo and global organizations, including the United Nations and other institutions, to amplify the adoption and impact of free and open source software worldwide. Over the past term, I have focused on strengthening the connection between Latin America and the global open source community by promoting projects with documentation in Spanish and creating opportunities for the adoption of open source technologies across the region. Moving forward, I aim to deepen these efforts by fostering collaboration at an international level, driving a paradigm shift toward recognizing free software as a reliable and sustainable alternative for solving global challenges.
=== Any things that you would like to change or introduce ===
I would like the board to focus on achieving a greater reach in Latin America, building on the momentum of recent events like FOSS4G 2024, which demonstrated the region’s growing interest and potential in open source geospatial solutions. This includes not only organizing more events in Latin America but also prioritizing the translation of documentation and support materials into Spanish. By doing so, we can enhance accessibility and adoption of open source technologies in the region, fostering deeper connections between local communities and the global OSGeo ecosystem.
=== What role you would wish to fulfill on the board (if any) ===
I would like to continue serving as Vice President for Latin America in the upcoming term to further support the region.
== Name - Country (OSGeo profile) ==
=== About me ===
=== My vision ===
=== What you have done within the community in the past ===
=== What your interests are in terms of the board ===
=== Any things that you would like to change or introduce ===
=== What role you would wish to fulfill on the board (if any) ===
Category:Elections 
Category:Election 2024