<div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span>Hello, all,</span><div><br></div><div>I am Ivan, a.k.a. suricactus, you may know me with my contributions in QGIS, QField and QFieldCloud, and the maintainer of [BG] <a href="https://qgis.bg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">https://qgis.bg</a> website.</div><div><br></div><div><span style="scrollbar-width:thin">Not sure if this is the best mailing list to write, but hope you don't mind my message here.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>I always had great experiences at the global and European FOSS4G event, so I was missing this my own country, Bulgaria.</div><div><br></div><div>Last
year with a group of enthusiasts we organized a conference "Open GIS conference" focused on
open source geospatial software and data, we had more than 160 attendees
and 17 speakers and lecturers. It was the first independent event like
this here, and I think it was a great success. You can check the event
page here [BG] <span><a href="https://qgisbg.github.io/docs/events/2024_foss4g_bg/" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://qgisbg.github.io/docs/events/2024_foss4g_bg/</a> and coverage here [BG] <span><a href="https://www.uni-sofia.bg/index.php/novini/novini_i_s_bitiya/otvorena_gis_konferenciya_se_provede_v_sofijskiya_universitet" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.uni-sofia.bg/index.php/novini/novini_i_s_bitiya/otvorena_gis_konferenciya_se_provede_v_sofijskiya_universitet</a> .</span> </span></div><div><br></div><div>This
year we are organizing a similar event on 7th-8th March 2025 with 7th
being the day with workshops and 8th the main conference with talks. As
an organizing committee, we decided we would love to brand it as FOSS4G,
so the official name of the event is <b>FOSS4G:BG: Open GIS conference</b>.The
idea is to raise awareness about the global community around OSGeo.
The local landscape is dominated by some proprietary software companies
and people are not aware about OSGeo and it's mission, the community and how this whole
thing works. We want to keep this even annual with similar name.</div><div><br></div><div>You can check the event's page here [BG] <a href="https://foss4g.qgis.bg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">https://foss4g.qgis.bg/</a> .</div><div><br></div><div>Even
though we already decided to use the FOSS4G in our event, I feel
obliged to inform you this event is happening and using the FOSS4G brand.</div><div><br></div><div>It
was not entirely clear whether we can use the FOSS4G naming, who should
we inform, but my understanding is if we stay aligned with the core
values and spirit of OSGeo and FOSS4G, it should be fine. Let me know if
I misunderstood something. Some documents I went through are:</div><div><span><a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G#Using_the_Name_FOSS4G" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G#Using_the_Name_FOSS4G</a></span><br></div><div><span><a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook#About_FOSS4G" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Handbook</a></span><br></div><div><span><a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Manifesto" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_Manifesto</a></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Please
let us know if we are doing something wrong, we are learning by
experience so far. We never officially aligned with the OSGeo
organization as we are not a officially recognized chapter (yet).</div><div><br></div><div><span style="display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hopefully
later this year we have an official local OSGeo chapter and QGIS user
group, it will be part of the discussions during the conference days.</span><br></div><div><span style="display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other
than that, I want to invite everyone to our local event. Even though it
is in Bulgarian, there is a good portion of people who speak good
English. If someone is really interested in giving a presentation in
English, or just saying hi!, you are welcome!</span></div><div><span style="display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div>Best wishes,</div><span>Ivan</span><br></div>
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