<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body><div>I was not at the bof unfortunately but following the discussion between osgeo-fr, osgeo-be and osfeo-nl last day I am in favour of such local chapter to improve collaboration between local chapter.</div><div><br></div><div>So this is my +1.</div><div><br></div><div>Y.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div id="composer_signature"><div style="font-size:85%;color:#575757" dir="auto">Envoyé depuis mon smartphone Samsung Galaxy.</div></div><div><br></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><!-- originalMessage --><div>-------- Message d'origine --------</div><div>De : Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne@geosparc.com> </div><div>Date : 21/07/2017 16:43 (GMT+01:00) </div><div>À : board@lists.osgeo.org </div><div>Objet : [Board] Fwd: Official expression of interest forming a European Chapter </div><div><br></div></div>Following the BOF of 19 July 2017, we decided to resend our officially<br>express of interest to form a European Local Chapter.<br><br><br>-------- Forwarded Message --------<br>Subject: Official expression of interest forming a European Chapter<br>Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2016 15:33:24 +0200<br>From: Dirk Frigne <dirk.frigne@geosparc.com><br>Reply-To: dirk.frigne@geosparc.com<br>Organization: Geosparc<br>To: board@lists.osgeo.org <board@lists.osgeo.org><br><br>Dear OSGeo Board,<br><br>Reason for my mail is to officially express our interest to form a<br>European local chapter of OSGeo.<br><br>1. self-organise<br><br>Since the conference in Bremen in 2013, thoughts and ideas where<br>exchanged to organise OSGeo more on a European basis. The Industry group<br>was started, a platform of people supporting the idea arose, but there<br>was no real initiative for action.<br><br>This year we (OSGeoEU in formation[1) have the ambition to organise a<br>legal entity OSGEO-EU to create a stronger software group in Europe to<br>defend the rights of open source from the perspective of the<br>Geo-ecosystem. We want to announce this chapter on the FOSS4G 2016<br>conference [2].<br><br>In preparation for this official expression of interest, a couple of<br>meetings have already taken place. A physical BOF @FOSS4G 2014 in<br>Bremen, several mails and discussions, a BOF @FOSS4G 2015 in Como and<br>physical meetings (last one at the GWF 2016 conference).<br>An extract of the meeting report of this last meeting, written by Till<br>Adams and send to all the local chapter representatives of Europe:<br><br>"Marc Vloemans, Gert-Jan van der Wejden (both from local dutch chapter),<br>Dirk Frigne (from local chapter Belgium and OSGeo board member) and<br>me-myself-and-I, Till Adams (from german speaking local chapter FOSSGIS<br>e.V.) met end of May after Geospatial World Forum in Rotterdam. We<br>discussed about the potential and the need to have an European local<br>OSGeo chapter, which is not "above" the local chapters and which does<br>not overtake tasks, that are already well covered by OSGeo.org, but that<br>overtakes different, special European-related tasks and challenges, that<br>aren't already covered by local chapters or by OSGeo.org itself. "<br><br><br>In the past there where already some OSGeo EU activities, organised as<br>European FOSS4G conferences, and further specific activities are planned<br>(f.i. the Topic talk at the FOSS4G 2016 conference: "become INSPIRE'd by<br>OSGeo" about the opportunities the INSPIRE directive can bring to OSGeo<br>members and the organisation of community effort around specific EU needs.)<br><br>Please find our ideas and plans in the OSGeo WIKI [1].<br><br><br>2. mission objectives<br><br>After discussion amongst the active local chapter members we come to the<br>following list of mission objectives:<br><br> * Community-building and networking around specific European themes<br><br> * support the European OSGeo members using FOSS4G software, help<br>them to organise and bring into contact with governmental agencies and<br>research institutes. Help them with European funded projects.<br><br> * encourage interoperability in European projects<br><br> * support European open standards and European directives such as<br>INSPIRE<br><br> * provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via<br>European curriculum development, outreach, and capacity building<br><br> * to encourage communication between the different European local<br>chapters<br><br> * to encourage different communities to work together where relevant<br><br> * Organisation of events<br><br> * Networking with other typically European organisations and groups<br>(notably OSM, JRC, European projects, FIWARE, EUROGI, SMESpire, ... )<br><br>4. List of initial members:<br><br>The European OSGeo Chapter has the support of the following initial<br>founding members (alphabetic - first name):<br><br> Dirk Frigne - Vice president<br> Vasile Crăciunescu - board member<br> Jáchym Čepický - Secretary of OSGeo<br> Stephan Meißl - charter member<br> Till Adams - charter member<br> Marc Vloemans - Charter member<br> Markus Neteler - Charter member<br> Jorge Gustavo Rocha - Charter member<br><br>5. May I kindly ask the OSGeo Board to consider passing a motion forming<br>the European chapter, and designating Dirk Frigne as the liason officer.<br><br><br>[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Europe<br>[2] http://2016.foss4g.org<br><br>-- <br>Yours sincerely,<br><br><br>ir. Dirk Frigne<br>CEO @geosparc<br><br>Geosparc n.v.<br>Brugsesteenweg 587<br>B-9030 Ghent<br>Tel: +32 9 236 60 18<br>GSM: +32 495 508 799<br><br>http://www.geomajas.org<br>http://www.geosparc.com<br><br>@DFrigne<br>be.linkedin.com/in/frigne<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Board mailing list<br>Board@lists.osgeo.org<br>https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board</body></html>