[Ica-osgeo-labs] "Geo for All" Heros 2014

[Suchith Anand]

Dear all,

When i look back at 2014 and see the amazing work that all of you have done for , it gives me great inspiration for working hard for this mission in 2015 and  each and every one of you who have been contributing your efforts are "Geo for All" Heros.  But i thought it will be appropriate to acknowledge some of our amazing people whose work and efforts has inspired all of us a lot.

Sergio Acosta y Lara and colleagues at gvSIG Batoví initiative in Uruguay who have done amazing contribution for widening high quality education opportunities for students all across Uruguay through the  wider CEIBAL Initiative http://www.ceibal.org.uy/   by developing excellent educational tools that enables primary and secondary education students to understand space, to easily interpret maps and to learn free technologies. The video link (with English translation) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orwN9K07XPo speaks for itself the contribution of  CEIBAL and i hope this will inspire other developing and poor countries to invest in free and open technologies in primary and secondary school education, so that the students (esp. from poor backgrounds) will also get access to high quality educational resources and opportunities.
Professor Maria Brovelli who is  respected by everyone in the FOSS4G community for not only her great research contributions but also for her kindness and compassion. Her background support and work on many initiatives from NASA Worldwind Europa Challenge to various Summer Schools and now working hard to host the FOSS4G-Europe in 2015, clearly shows her commitment for widening education opportunities in Geospatial for everyone. 

Jason Sadler from University of Southampton has worked hard to develop and maintain our Geo for All http://www.geoforall.org website. We all are grateful for his and other colleagues at Southampton's efforts and contributions for this. Also  Luca Delucchi and Vaclav Petras who helped create the dynamic map for Geo for All labs.

Lluis Vicens of SIGTE , University of Girona is the driving force behind the very successful Open Source GIS Summer School Initiative  http://www.sigte.udg.edu/summerschool2014/ 
 which is now in its fifth year. By making available all the teaching materials for the Summer School to everyone through the website , its impact is not only for students who attend the summer school  but for everyone.

Dr Rafael Moreno of University of Colarado, Denver, USA who has not only the driving force for the FOSS4G lab at University of Colarado  http://geospatial.ucdenver.edu/foss4g/ but also been working hard to provide geo education opportunities to more staff and students in other countries.
So big thank you for all of you for your  contributions to Open Education and your work and contributions will keep inspiring all of us for the future. The fundamental principle of "Geo for All" is to  enable education opportunities for everyone and Openness in Education (Free and Open software, open standards, open data, open access to research publications)  provide great opportunities for widening education opportunities.

Best wishes,

Suchith    
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