[Ottawa_users] Happenings from the February OSGEO Meetup

[richard burcher]

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to recap our last meetup for the folks who couldn't make it & a
way for us to look back at some of our chats/ideas etc.

Big thanks to all those that attended. We had one of the largest turn outs
in a while. Thanks to the folks from the GoGeomatics/National Capital GIS
group who came out. For background I had attended their meeting the
previous night.

I would like to introduce a loose structure to the meetings, just a quick
intro/news & items of note at the beginning. So that that end here are the
items covered.
1) FOSS4GNA - at moment appears I am the only one going.
2) New OSGEO 5.5 Live DVD released.
3) Chapter 2011 update - requested suggestions. I am taking care of this.
4) Tectara Meeting Feb 29 - Ed Parson's giving one of the key notes.
5) FOSS4G 2013 RFP Process announced.

Handed out the last of my OSGEO Live DVD's. Good timing considering the new
release. I plan on burning some copies & will have at next meetup.

Below are just a few of the notes I captured from interesting talks, points
of view and other conservations. This is not everything, so please add to
this:

1) Balloon mapping from Teresa. This looks really neat & apparently the kit
minus helium is about $80. I am looking into this as a side project for the
group. (publiclaboratory.org)
2) Along the topics of balloons was the mention of the Perth high altitude
launch group. Andrew I recall you mentioned someone you knew was in contact
with them. Would be really neat to tap into these folks.
3) Ottawa Python/Ruby/Perl groups. Could we meetup together?
4) Growing interest & discussion on the use of virtual machines.
5) Open streetmap usage & contributors in the Ottawa area. Seems like
Toronto users get together for mapping parties etc.
6) Andrew gave a fantastic talk about FOSS licenses.
7) Again thanks Andrew for speaking about & posting information on FOSS
business models.
8) Porter now flies to Washington, so if you're going to FOSS4GNA make sure
to check them out.
9) There is a vacancy on the FOSS4G board.
10) FME World Tour coming to Ottawa. Thanks Christie for the mention. Great
way to get some free training.
11) Plenty of talk about GIS skills and how what employers are looking for.
12) Christie had mentioned she finished the Python Oreily Online course &
was happy. I would definitely check this out.
13) Growing use of augmented reality. Very insightful ideas Regie.
Maintaining the data would be paramount.
14) Mathew mentioned some interesting comments about the issue of cross
browser support for SVG webmapping. Improving but not quickly enough.
15) The usefulness of social media for staying informed & connecting with
like minded folks.


Please free free to add to this if I missed anything or you want to add to
what is here.

I have a bunch of follow up items for the group. Will be posting on them in
the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more OSGEO awesomeness!

Cheers,

Richard

drownedfrog at gmail.com
@richardburcher
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