I have been musing all week over my response to some questions posted originally by James Fee and answered by Paul Ramsey and Jody Garnett.

The question has become one about the value of OSGeo as a brand- well personally I think the marketing aspects are really important. I’ve stood up and talked about open source GIS an awful lot recently, to a diverse range of people, trying to persuade them that it’s a viable choice for their business. Having OSGeo as an over-reaching network is really important, because it negates the common queries about where to go for support and how to tell if a project is sustainable. It’s a way of getting people to buy into the whole open source GIS concept and community, rather than using a particular programme that just happens to be free to download.

I do think that case studies and project support are incredibly valuable too, don’t get me wrong, but if we think OSGeo has a role in gaining new users for open source GIS, particularly in the business sector, then we need the brand and marketing too.