Monthly Archives: January 2015

Entrepreneurial spirit

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Just a small thought snippet about a blog I've read ….

I Founded a couple of companies, I bought a couple of companies, Merged a couple of companies – and I even sold one. Still surviving and happy with the things I’m doing.
The good thing is, I learned a lot from these experiences.

As reaction on the blog of Bruno Segers  he mention's from his experience the 5 basic principles for his new venture:
1. Not working on a payroll
2. Don't take the lead of a multinational organisation
3. Don't take the lead of a stock listed company
4. No company where unions are too strong represented
5. No politics.

Well I think I've done all that and the strange thing is. I don't see myself as a serial entrepreneur. I see myself as somebody who want to change the world (even glad with small mini-mini-mini- things I can contribute) and make other people happy. Doing small things, trying to create some impact.
This makes me happy and gives me a lot of energy.

No multinational organisations, but working with companies in other countries.
No payroll for those who take ownership and responsability
No Public listed stocks, but stakeholders you can talk to and give you the power and energy to go on
No unions, but people you can talk to as your own family, and empower them to believe in the story you have to tell
and of course – be open – be honest and respectful – no politics

The company I started with DFC Software Engineering 21 years ago still exists and is super valuable as a bespoke software specialist.

Also The spin-out I created from DFC (Geosparc) is even more valuable, and is after 6 years already bigger than DFC. Generating global revenue but with a strong focus on the European market.

Maybe we should spin-out a third company out of Geosparc Which will grow in 3 years towards a bigger company than Geosparc… 🙂

D.

Dreiging van het klimaat / climate change hazard

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[Ned] We zijn in de ban van de angst. De terreurdreiging heeft wereldwijd een enorme impact. Mag ik u er echter op wijzen dat de dreiging van het klimaat duizend keer ernstiger is? De opwarming van ons klimaat mag dan geen vuurwapen dragen, het is een enorm explosieve situatie. Eenmaal die 'bom' ontploft, is er geen weg terug. We zitten nu al op de limit, laten we er niet over gaan. Wees niet blind voor de grote uitdaging waarvoor we allen staan. De politici wereldwijd, maar ook u en ik, moeten dringend werk maken van de dreiging die onze hele maatschappij van de kaart kan vegen. Neen, ik heb niet niet over terroristen.

[Eng] We're paralysed by fear. The threat of terrorism has made a huge impact, worldwide. I wish to inform you that the threat of the climate change is a million times more pressing. Global warming might not carry a firearm, it's an enormous explosive situation nonetheless. Once that bomb drops, there's no way back. We're already at the limit, let's not push it anymore. Don't be blind for the big challenge we're all facing. Politicians worldwide, but also you and I, have to put the climate at the top of our agenda. We have to fight this threat that can wipe civilisation off the face of the planet. No, I'm not talking about terrorists.

– Jonas Van Maldeghem

How Open Source and INSPIRE can be used as a tactical weapon for economical growth in Europe

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What My presentation on INSPIRE-Geospatial World Forum 2015

When  25-29 May 2015, in Lisbon Congress Center, Portugal

Co-Authors

Torsten Friebe (LatLon)

Giacomo Martirano (Epsilon-Italia)

Abstract

Europe is well known for its broad network of SME's. In fact, more than 99% of all European businesses are SME's. The recognition that SME's are important for the successful deployment of a platform like INSPIRE is proven by projects such as SMESpire  and programs such as ARE3NA. This paper builds on the observation of Torsten Friebe (member of the technical commitee of the deegree project) and other OSGeo community members saying that still a lot of inefficiencies exist between the different projects from various administrations in different countries. Often the consequence of a “not invented here” syndrome. Currently there is no OSGeo project which provides a full INSPIRE compliant stack consisting out of INSPIRE View (INSPIRE VS TG WMS Profil und INSPIRE), Download (direct access WFS 2.0.0) and Discovery Service (CSW 2.0.2 ISO AP) implementations. On the other hand we challenge the experience of Giacomo Martirano, the project lead of the SMESpire project, an initiative to create a community of SME's building INSPIRE related solutions. During this presentation, Dirk Frigne (founder and spiritual father of the geomajas project  will combine these observations and lessons learned to point out some ideas and possibilities how to launch an ambitious initiative where Europe and here SME's can form a strong player on the global market to offer solutions for business needs world wide and to support tackling the ever increasing environmental challenges. These ideas are based on Dirk’s passion to create a great European software industry and his experience of founding an open source community and contributing to other technology projects with strong impact on the INSPIRE needs. As the hands-on person he is, the idea's presented here will be supported by first hand experience of setting up such an initiative, based on the co-operation of open source communities and a part of the SMESpire network.

Tree hits car @ linux hotel

My Toyota is fantastic

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Being on a hacking event in Essen at the Linux hotel (fossgis) to work on OSGeo open source and preparing the next FOSSGIS conference, I put my luggage in my car at 9:01 exactly. I remember the exact time, because somebody called me at that right moment on my cell when he saw me walking with my luggage from within the hotel. I decided to leave my coat also in the car, since it wasn't raining anymore and there was no wind (like the night before).

After breakfast, the meeting started (foto).  Suddenly, people went into the room telling a tree has fallen down and one car was severely damaged. I am very lucky I was not in the car when it happened. It was as if the tree was waiting for the right moment to fall.

tree was not very good attached to the ground

 

 

 

Examining the tree, it seems that he was not very deeply attached into the soil. Only a small root into the ground for the stability. The tree was very old and I suppose rotten. (foto)

Unluckily, the tree had chosen my car as a target, right in the middle.

A branch of the tree pierced the front window, through the drivers seat, just to the bottom of the car.

 

Parking "nur für gäste" ….

The next tree

After removing the fallen tree, 2 other trees needed to be removed also.

After some hours I'm trying to have myself organized again and to get my mobility back, as I have a busy agenda next week.

Charlie Hebdo est mort

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Today, January 7th, France is shocked about a terroristic attack in Paris against Charlie Hebdo.
He died because he protected one of the most important assets we have:
Our freedom of speech.

I suggest to change the open source licenses in such a way, that the software under those licenses may never be used to support terroristic activities. (@: EUPL, GPL, AGPL, Apache, BSD, MIT, Mozilla, …)

A happy 2015

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As every new year, we start with good intentions. As in every year, these good intentions are not always realized.
My good intention is to write something I want to share on this Blog, at least once a month. So for this month I realized already my quorum.

This said, there are some other things I want to realize this year.
I want to work further at a networked organization, that is able to bring solutions to the market, based on open source technology, being supported by open source communities and working together as a virtual organisation under one umbrella.
I want to try and test if this model is an interesting business model for a region as Europe is, with all the different cultures, languages and entrepreneurs.

Of course I want to start this within the OSGeo community using GIS as a common technology.

Please feel free to comment on this post if you want to join this experiment.

Happy new year!