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<div> Hello,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>This seems like the perfect opening to bring up something that I have been thinking about. Here in NZ we are looking to do a big "all of GIS" joint/concurrent conference in 2011 centered around the cross-tasman SSSI conference booked for Wellington that year. Being an SSSI member and on the ESRI NZ user group committee I know that there is a lot of momentum building for this event. I understand that the NZ MapInfo user group, andI believe Intergraph. are on board with this idea as well. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>I would also like to see a strong FOSS4G presence at this conference as well. But I think t would be a big ask for the NZ OSGeo community to manage this by ourselves. We are too few in numbers, lacking in organizational or corporate support, and many of us, like myself, would find our energies split between organizing for FOSS4G and the other conference participants. Participation from Australia would help with most these issues. And as SSSI is a cross-tasman event, it would makes sense for a concurrent FOSS4G to be as well.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The details of what this conference or amalgamation of conferences might look like is extremely vague at this point. By next March we should have a somewhat better idea as to the over all format. This could be a great chance for FOSS4G to get some broader exposure to the wider GIS community and to a sizable audience. Tagging it on to another conference might make it easier for some participants to justify the expense as well.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Oh yes, the conference, I believe is scheduled to run between the semi-finals and and finals of the Rugby World Cup events.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Cheers,</div>
<div>Byron</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> Ben.Searle@osdm.gov.au wrote:</div>
<blockquote class="me55450QuoteMessage" type="cite"><!--/*SC*//*SC*/DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"/*EC*//*EC*/--> <!--/*SC*/defang_HTML/*EC*/--><!--/*SC*/defang_HEAD/*EC*/--><!--/*SC*/defang_TITLE/*EC*/--><!--/*SC*/Message/*EC*/--><!--/*SC*//defang_TITLE/*EC*/--> <!--/*SC*/defang_META http-equiv=Content-Type defang_content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"/*EC*/--> <!--/*SC*/defang_META defang_content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16890" defang_name=GENERATOR/*EC*/--><!--/*SC*//defang_HEAD/*EC*/--> <!--/*SC*/defang_BODY/*EC*/-->
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">Hi,<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small"><!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> </div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">I think that there are a number of opportunities for the open source geo (OSG) community. The Government 2.0 Task Force will be reporting later this year and I hope that this opens up opportunities to maker more government data easily accessible. <!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small"><!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> </div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">This provides two opportunities:<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">1. Assisting with developing tools to support data discovery and access - given that much of the government data will be spatial, this is an area for OSG.<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small"><!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> </div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">2. With access to a wider range of data the OSG community can develop a range of tools to mash up this data.<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small"><!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> </div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">Additionally, I am keen to see some OSGeo components in the <a href="mailto:Spatial@Gov">Spatial@Gov</a> 2010 conference.<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small"><!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> </div>
<div><span class="me55450221394506-17112009"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Arial;color:#0000ff;font-size:small">I am happy to discuss further.......<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
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<p><span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS" size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Regards<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span> </span><br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS"
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small"> <!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> <br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS"
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Ben Searle<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> <br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS"
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">General Manager, <!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span><br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT
face="Trebuchet MS" size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Australian Government Office of Spatial Data Management<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS" size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Phone: 02 6249 9298<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> <br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS" size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Mobile: 0439-995-785<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> <br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS"
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Fax: 02 6249 9942<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span> <br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT
face="Trebuchet MS" size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Email:<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span> </span><a href="mailto:ben.searle@osdm.gov.au"><span lang="en-au"><u><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT
face="Trebuchet MS" color=#0000ff
size=2/*EC*/--><span style="color:#0000ff;font-size:small">ben.searle@ga.gov.au<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></u></span></a> <br>
<span lang="en-au"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT face="Trebuchet MS" size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-size:small">Postal address: GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></span></p>
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<div> </div>
<div class="me55450OutlookMessageHeader" lang="en-us" dir="ltr" align="left"><!--/*SC*/defang_FONT
face=Tahoma size=2/*EC*/--><span style="font-face:Tahoma;font-size:small">-----Original Message-----<br>
<b>From:</b> aust-nz-bounces@lists.osgeo.org [mailto:aust-nz-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Bruce Bannerman<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, 17 November 2009 5:20<br>
<b>To:</b> Aust-NZ@lists.osgeo.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Aust-NZ] Where to now?<br>
<br>
<!--/*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*/--></span></div>
Now that FOSS4G-2009 is finished and has been well received, it may be time to start thinking about which directions we want to take OSGeo-AustNZ.<br>
<br>
There appears to be a definite desire for information and workshops on OSGeo projects in our region.<br>
<br>
Perhaps Shaun Kolomeitz and Simon Hope have hit on a good way of building the Australian and New Zealand communities by targeting local groups? However I feel we should keep the AustNZ focus to keep the overall momentum going (as per Open Source Industry Australia).<br>
<br>
Alternate between informal sessions at the pub and info sessions hosted by kind benefactors?<br>
<br>
Borrowing from a successful format that I saw in the early 1990's (G.T.), for info sessions, it may be good to focus on demonstrating solutions to problems and finishing with "oh and by the way, we used these OSGeo projects to do this". This could be followed by dedicated "under to hood" [1] sessions for more detail if required.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
For 2010, a few of us have volunteered to help Ben Searle with Spatial@Gov. We will probably have an OSGeo presence and workshops there.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Lets get some thoughts going...<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On another note, at FOSS4G, Arnulf Christl suggested that we may wish to consider running another regional FOSS4G event in two years time.<br>
<br>
I canvased a few people at FOSS4G and believe that we'd get a few key Developers / Vendors back here if we did.<br>
<br>
I think that if we were to do this, running it in New Zealand this time would be ideal.<br>
<br>
Is there any interest in this? This could become a regular event if there is sufficient interest.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Bruce<br>
<br>
<br>
[1] I hope you don't mind my using the term Ian and Ben J<br>
<br>
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</div></div><pre>--
Byron Cochrane
cochranes4@eml.cc
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