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<TITLE>FW: [Aust-NZ] Conversation restart conference, unconference, workshop or code sprint [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Fyi.<BR>
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Please note that David’s comments are his own and have not been ratified by the SIBA board.<BR>
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There is certainly potential for OSGeo-AustNZ to work with SIBA on a major spatial industry event.<BR>
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Bruce<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><B>From: </B>David Hocking <BR>
<B>Date: </B>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:44:34 +1100<BR>
<B>To: </B>Bruce Bannerman <BR>
<B>Cc: </B>Glenn Cockerton <BR>
<B>Subject: </B>RE: [Aust-NZ] Conversation restart conference, unconference, workshop or code sprint [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>Hi Bruce<BR>
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I did say that SIBA is talking to people about the possibility of an industry event of some considerable stature. The discussions are slow (as seems to be typical of our industry) but I think there is interest in doing something worthwhile. My view is that we need to rationalise events in our sector and focus on quality. I think this would also be appreciated by sponsors and exhibitors. <BR>
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My initial thoughts were to have a central hub, which would have the event title, with key areas of interest as part of that hub (perhaps open source as one of them). I am keen to get away from the traditional event where we focus on areas of interest such as defence and only defence people show up. We should be looking at sessions that attract a range of people looking at what our technologies and skills deliver rather than focusing on technical or sector-specific delivery. I am not keen on the technical aspects per se as it limits those attending. Our industry is too important to be limited to technicians so I think we need to look at how we deliver our messages. I had some strong support for this approach out of government.<BR>
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Personally, I see nothing wrong with including open source in the discussion and certainly I think we need to address open standards too as this has been identified by defence as a component of JP2064 Phase 3, which is the biggest ever geospatial contract in Australia. All these things have their place as does the newest game in town – the cloud. I think we could make such an event exciting and challenging both for those in the industry and those interested in what we can do. <BR>
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To achieve such an ambitious event I feel we need to get players in the industry to work together. This would mean putting some over blown egos to bed for the good of the industry as a whole. With all that happened last year on flood mapping (or the lack of it) and what is starting to emerge I think we need to get a team of interested people together to put the ideas on the table. I am delighted that you have indicated interest and I would very much like to get moving on this. I have a Board meeting this week and an event in Sydney with the NSW Minister for Finance and Services next week, which we are hosting, but after that I am pretty free. Let me know when you have some time for a get together. <BR>
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Cheers<BR>
David<BR>
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</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>David Hocking FSAE, MAICD<BR>
Chief Executive Officer<BR>
Spatial Industries Business Association (</SPAN><FONT SIZE="1"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'>ABN 98-095-895-819</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>)<BR>
PO Box 75, DEAKIN WEST ACT 2600, Australia<BR>
P: 02 6282 5793 F: 02 6282 2009 M: 0411 225 729<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><B>From:</B> Bruce Bannerman [<a href="mailto:B.Bannerman@bom.gov.au">mailto:B.Bannerman@bom.gov.au</a>] <BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Monday, 30 January 2012 8:51 AM<BR>
<B>To:</B> David Hocking<BR>
<B>Cc:</B> Glenn Cockerton<BR>
<B>Subject:</B> FW: [Aust-NZ] Conversation restart conference, unconference, workshop or code sprint [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'> <BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">David,<BR>
<BR>
I recall on a follow up on LinkedIn that you mentioned that SIBA is working on ‘an event’ to get things in the spatial industry going again. <BR>
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Perhaps I misunderstood what you were saying though.<BR>
<BR>
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Below is a thread from the Australia New Zealand local chapter of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation mailing list where there is some interest in helping to organise an open source spatial event with facets from the FOSS4G 2009 conference.<BR>
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There is interest in working with another event to help coordinate work and reduce the burden on volunteer time. We do have several people with experience in helping to organise an international conference.<BR>
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Would there be any interest from the SIBA community in an open source spatial stream for one of your events?<BR>
<BR>
Bruce Bannerman<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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<B>From: </B>Jody Garnett <<a href="jody.garnett@gmail.com">jody.garnett@gmail.com</a>><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:34:43 +1100<BR>
<B>To: </B>OSGeo Aust-NZ Local Chapter <<a href="Aust-NZ@lists.osgeo.org">Aust-NZ@lists.osgeo.org</a>><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>[Aust-NZ] Conversation restart conference, unconference, workshop or code sprint<BR>
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Any takers? <BR>
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It sounds like the members of this list are familiar with the trails and tribulations of organising a conference. To organise a local conference we would need to sort out a venue; arrange speakers and so on. It is often smart to do one of these in association with another event. Is there anything on the calendar that would be a good fit?<BR>
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Organising an unconference is a little bit easier; if only in that there is no program to plan out a head of time. Simply set aside rooms run those in attendance through the process of picking subject(s) and grabbing a place to talk. These can go well (or badly) depending on the enthusiasm of those present.<BR>
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Running a workshop or training session gets a bit difficult as it is a hard topic to staff using volunteers. FOSS4G gets buy by heavily subsidising the materials (to the tune of one conference ticket). Nevertheless such a function has been requested (both at the Brisbane and Canberra meet ups). <BR>
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There was a great "workshop" track at FOSS4G this year entirely devoted to what open source is, how to make use of it, and so on - aimed at providing some comfort for attendees prior to the full conference. Perhaps organising one of these would be worthwhile?<BR>
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A code sprint is perhaps the oddest one to organise; as it involves out reach to interested projects or teams; but often has the largest benefit to the source code and sense of community. However this does not always need to be the core programming projects. It may be worth while to run a sprint to work on promotional materials for Australian government and industry? Or perhaps focus on educational materials etc...<BR>
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-- <BR>
Jody Garnett<BR>
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