Seven of Nine : Resistence is Futile

This is another meta-level blog ... pondering the causes for disappointment - which are invariably expectations. In a way it relates to an earlier blog titled "OSGeo - The Jack of all Trades" where I touch on a selection of expectations people have developed around OSGeo and their inherent potential for disappointment.

To help me explain what I mean I want to fall back to translate "Expectation" and "Disappointment" to the respective German language words "Erwartung" and "Enttäuschung" (which originally had a positive connotation. The German word "Erwartung" originally derived from "warten" which simply means "to wait". German makes a hell of a lot of use of prefixes, in this case the prefix "er-" http://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/er- changes the meaning of the verb "warten" into an active state. "Erwarten" means to "await" something. Now - this is quite a nonsensical term if you really think about it. Imagine you are at a bus stop and wait for a bus. Eventually it will come, or not. But it will surely not be more on time or come more reliably if you actively "await" it. Makes sense? So to "await" something (which is basically the same as having an expectation) is pretty stupid.

Next, in German the suffix "-ung" turns the verb into a noun (this is probably called nominization in English). The noun "Erwartung" (expectation) means to actively await something (external) to happen. What will be the result? Firstly we can obviously never know, but there are chances that the expectation will be frustrated and we are disappointed. In German this is again much more visual: The root of the word "Enttäuschung" (for frustration) is "Täuschung" which means "deception" or "illusion". Adding the German prefix "Ent" as in " Enttäuschung"changes the meaning of the word into "releasing out of illusion". Just like "tarnen" means "to camouflage" and "ent-tarnen" means "to uncover" something. (Nowadays in German the notion is that expectations are absolutely in order and if you are frustrated the reason and culprit is to be found externally – but the original meaning tells this other story). Maybe the (French origin) English terms "illusion" and "delusion" come close to something similar (but English is a bit mushy and soft which makes it great as an adaptive language but takes away a lot of precision).

OK, so what can we learn from this? Very simple: Frustration and Disappointment are good things because when they happen to us it means that we are released from an illusion and are free to stop to expect things that will never work out anyway. It involves some pain but it is good (the other option is to chose the blue pill http://arnulf.us/sevendipity/archives/45-Cause-and-Effect.html) and bide in ignorance.

It is a different thing to be actively deceived and experiencing deception. Then frustration is a natural thing and might result in anger which can (hopefully) be turned into positive energy to change things. But frustration and disappointment resulting from expectations always originate in ourselves and can thus be avoided.

If you want to change things for better, then you must change them yourself. Become part of what you want to change and ask others whether they want to help you do them together. Maybe you can also inspire them to do what you think is good. All else like manipulating people into doing things or forcing them soon becomes ethically questionable – and these options are also much less sustainable and fun. The way forward is to do those things that you deem important and support others who are on the same track.

This is one of the reasons why OSGeo has developed a do-ocracy – and sometimes frustrates (and disappoints) those who had other expectations – but are not active part of the game.

Have fun,
Arnulf

Folks,
I feel the need to clarify something about the OccupyWhatEver movement of the 99%. I agree that things need to change. I agree that occupying public places is a good thing to wake up people and get these things started.

But I object to what most seem to make of this. It does not start with "those up there". Them 1% are not the cause for the mire we are in. They are only the effect. Just like killing the messenger does not help to undo whatever message she had to deliver it does not help to scorn the 1%. The only thing we can do is scorn ourselves - and then change.

The cause is our greed, materialism, lack of spiritual focus and attachement. It will become worse as long as we continue to choose the cheapest deal, accumulate the most for us and deny to care for others. Yes, it is that simple. No strings attached.

What will happen next? The 99% will not change and we will all end unhappy. What can we do about this? Again, this is very simple. Just become part of the 1% of people who understand that greed and materialism and attachement and ignorance will not get us anywhere nice. Go choose the red pill. Choose the red pill. It is a simple truth.

This does not mean that it is simple to implement though, don't get me wrong. It is hard to be different. The only hope we have is to lead by example and inspire the 98% who do not understand.

Chances that we succeed are very low indeed. But whatever happens there will be 1% of happy people and go figure who that will be.



Have fun,
Arnulf

PS: Most typos intended. English is such fun sometimes.

Asia Geospatial Forum has come to an end. It is a pretty large and very well organized event by Geospatial Media (formerly known as GIS Development) with many interesting presentations and an extensive exhibition area. One session was dedicated to Open Source and Cloud Computing (an interesting mix) where I gave the presentation "The OSGeo Foundation: Professionally Leveraging Open Source". It starts with my proven introduction to Free and Open Source software in the geospatial domain and then introduces the OSGeo Foundation – always steadily continuing to spread word and furthering our mission. Over the past years I have given so many talks on the topic that I sometimes wonder whether I am still good at it. (No worries, this is no crisis, just regular quality control). And as if to answer my concerns today I received an award for best presentation. For me this was the first time ever that I received an award for a presentation making me feel honored and happy. As always there were many other presenters who would have deserved this recognition as much as me, but today it was my turn.

To completely make my day Dr. Markus Müller a long time friend who I have not met in person in more than five years also received an award for best presentation. He presented his latest project, a Web GIS for forest protection and monitoring which he built (obviously) using an Open Source stack.
We both studied at the University in Bonn and discovered the beauty of Open Source around the same time (actually he was a little earlier) and also shared interests in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) where he was (now inactive) editor of the SLD SE specification. And if there is any complaint in this blog post then that there are still no Open Source tools to convert ArcSomething cartography to match with Open Source software. Markus now works for GIZ, the recently formed merger of GTZ, DED and Inwent, three German organizations working in development aid for many years.

Markus and I also met with Dr. Shahnawaz, Director (S & SE Asia) for UNIGIS International who manned the UNIGIS booth in the exhibition area of the conference. Markus worked on the UNIGIS module about standards many years ago and I am currently working on the SDI and standards module (still a working title) to reflect recent development in technology. I am really looking forward to bring new technology, standards and also more Open Source content to the UNIGIS courses. Prof Strobl from UNIGIS and the University of Salzburg (and well known for organizing AGIT is already waiting patiently (maybe too patiently) just nudging me every now and then. My temptation is to push it off longer and longer because every day brings more great new stuff which I could use...

Tomorrow I will unfortunately have to work (every now and then this is unavoidable) but will take off Friday to at least take a short tour of Jakarta.

Then I am off to my next mission at the "First High Level Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management". I was invited as OSGeo president to discuss the options in Open Source and will make a pitch for our cause with – well – hopefully open minded high level officials from all around the world. On the next day I will give a presentation at the OGC interoperability day presenting the results of ESDIN and talk about INPIRE.

Later that week on the 28th I will attend the local FOSS4G organized by the Korean Local Chapter of OSGeo who have invited me to deliver a keynote explaining OSGeo's vision and mission to a broader group of interested professionals.

Last but not least I am honored to give the keynote at the 2011 conference of the Korea Spatial Information Society where I will meet with university professors and scientists who have a growing interest in using Open Source technology and joining the community.

This week is definitely one of my busiest trips this year. So busy that I will miss Athina's birthday which is inexcusable! But because I asked her whether it would be OK and she knows that I would have been there if not she was so kind to move her party to the 30th so that I have a real chance to join in (if the connecting flights all work out right and I don't fall asleep right after arriving).

Have fun,
Arnulf

FOSS4G is coming to a close and my mind is grinding to a halt. Too many impressions for one blog for sure. But I did want to say 'Thank you' to all for the great input - both on how to improve FOSS4G and OSGeo and the good feedback for what has already been achieved.

The most confusing aspect to me were the many different and justified takes on what OSGeo and FOSS4G should be. Let me share just a few of them:

• Some said that FOSS4G should focus more on developers - getting the tribes to talk to each other and keep the suits outside.
• Others said that FOSS4G should be more of an outreach event addressing newbies and help them to understand that Open Source is a viable option – or better even – prove that it is ths only option if you want to stay on top of what is going on.
• Others yet commented that we need more spatial diversity and yearly conferences on all continents. One option to achieve this is having a biannual global FOSS4G and regional ones every other year.
• Yet others suggested that we should start to have a regular OSGeo conference - for users and to generate revenue, and a FOSS4G meeting of the tribes - free to attend for developers and more in the style of an unconference & code sprint.
• Some felt excluded because they are not part of the C-tribe which they felt dominated the conference. But then the Sol Katz award went to "Dr. JTS" Martin Davis.
• Others felt that some businesses dominated the show by giving too many talks.
• One big topic of discussion was the increasing presence of esri and what this meant to FOSS4G. Well, what does it mean? Simple, they gave us money. And it shows that Open Source is being taken seriously by the legacy GIS world.
• It was also suggested to fork OSGeo (as in start a new foundation) to go right back to the roots of the mission "...to support and build the highest-quality open source geospatial software." and be done with all the business blabla that gets in the way of getting things done in the code.
• Someone even suggested to get rid of the current Board of Directors and replace it by the chairs of the OSGeo Local Chapters.
• Some suggested that all projects should be presented at the OSGeo booth, while others said that it should better serve as a meeting place and charging station. Charging station both for emptied batteries and eager minds who want to learn about Free and Open Source geospatial software.
• Some complained that the sessions were too developer focused and others said that the talks were incomprehensible for the regular users - and thus inclined to shy them away.

So what do I think? Due to my personality type I tend to not think much at all (15% when I am lucky), but I do feel that this FOSS4G was a great event worth every minute of being there. And therefore I want to extend my thanks to all who made it possible, coupled with high respect for all the many hours of volunteer time that went into it!

But invariably the most common aspect of all talks, sessions and projects was to not forget about having fun doing IT.

Cheers,
Arnulf

If you ever receive an email saying something like "somebody should do this and that", think to yourself: Is my name Somebody? Probably not. If you have an intuition and come to believe that the culprit of this mistaken phrasing explicitly mistakes you for Somebody then make sure that you make absolutely clear to the confused mind that either: you have a name / or that you are not going to do whatever is being asked for. If you actually want to do what is being asked for then make clear that YOU are going to do this, but surely not Somebody (or else every next Somebody call will end up naturally on your plate).

To help solve this type of issue generically we have developed simple rules for email addressing. If an email is explicitly and directly addressed to you (To: ) then you have to react, no matter what it says. If you appear in the carbon copy (CC: ) only, then you may just ignore things. But things obviously become more complicated... An example: If there are more folks in the To: address line and "Somebody" is supposed to be doing something in the body text, then you are allowed to ridicule the sender by immediately sending back "Nobody is the big brother of Somebody" or similar.

Have fun,
Arnulf.