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<div dir="ltr"><b id="docs-internal-guid-1bf6b836-759b-2ee0-7f96-e605cecac905" style="font-weight:normal">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">Hi,</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">I'm Tim-Hinnerk Heuer, a geo web developer
working at Landcare Research in Palmerston North. The Informatics group at Landcare Research has been using open source geo-software for quite a while and we know there are other people in the local region with an interest in such software.
</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">We have come up with the idea of forming
an informal group in Palmerston North - or more specifically the lower North Island - to exchange ideas and encourage collaboration on geospatial data and geospatial open source software. One possibility is that this group becomes an OSGeo chapter (see
</span><a href="http://www.osgeo.org/" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; background-color:transparent; text-decoration:underline; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">http://www.osgeo.org/</span></a><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">).</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">At the moment, this initiative is driven
by myself and my colleague Pierre Roudier, who is working on soil data using open source software (R, GDAL/OGR, QGIS, GRASS GIS). Anybody wanting to join the effort is obviously more than welcome!</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">We are planning a meeting to gauge interest
in forming such a group. It is set to take place at the Village Inn Kitchen in Hokowhitu, Palmerston North, from 5.30pm onwards, on Wednesday 28st August. (We chose this venue because it has high-speed Internet access and one idea we have is to invite people
from around New Zealand or even the world to join us via video conference to talk about their software and/or how they are using open source geospatial software).</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">A couple of us are attending FOSS4G 2013
in the UK in mid September and, if there is support for the idea of forming a chapter, we would raise it with the OSGeo Board then.
</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">We are looking forward to seeing you at the
Village Inn Kitchen in Hokowhitu, Palmerston North on the 28th August. Drop us an email if you think you will come so we can get an idea of numbers.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">Kind regards,</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap"></span>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px; font-family:Arial; color:rgb(0,0,0); background-color:transparent; vertical-align:baseline; white-space:pre-wrap">Tim</span></p>
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-- <br>
Tim-Hinnerk Heuer
<div><br>
<div>Web Developer</div>
<div>Landcare Research (<a href="http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz" target="_blank">http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz</a>)</div>
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<div>Informatics (<a href="http://wiki.zen.landcareresearch.co.nz" target="_blank">http://wiki.zen.landcareresearch.co.nz</a>)</div>
<div>Ph: +64 6 353 4872</div>
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