[OSGeodata] Reminder: Abstract submission deadline for FOSSG2006

[Jo Walsh]

dear all, 

On Wed, Jul 05, 2006 at 11:55:30AM -0400, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> Just a short reminder that the deadline for submissions for the FOSS4G 
> conference (http://www.foss4g2006.org/) is July 15th.  Also, there is a 
> "[SDI] Free Open Geospatial Data" track that still does not have any 
> papers submitted for it...

I would definitely urge anyone who is planning to attend FOSS4G to
submit an abstract. The chance to "set out one's stall" for a current
project / favoured obsession can attract surprising new people to it.
I would love to hear more practical "war stories" from people who are
working on, or have managed to effect, the shift towards open geodata
distribution in their organisations, and where the pitfalls are. 

Thinking over IRC discussions, a few random topics come to my mind: 

- Creating data-sharing agreements and representing the public
  interest in them (MetroGIS...)
- Free/Open Licensing of governmental and commercial data (NRCAN,PGL...)
- Pragmatic metadata and spatial data search (thinking of 
  http://cholmes.wordpress.com/2006/06/16/the-metadata-problem-or-the-problem-with-metadata/
) here... 
- Designing better data discovery tools for non "expert" users 
- How "wiki-style" data truthing can fit with more traditional data
  collection and maintenance practises 
- WFS-T / GeoRSS approaches to trickle-wise data updates, versioning
  and history  
- Collaborative mapping as a teaching practise   
- ...     

Consider splitting a session with someone else if you don't think you
want to talk/manage discussion for a whole 30 minutes (includes questions). 

I hope to be able to hold a publicgeodata.org/INSPIRE directive BoF 
(informal) session, whatever stage that process has reached by then. :/

cheers,


jo