[Qgis-user] QGIS presence at the AGIT conference in Salzburg

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi all,

The AGIT conference (http://www.agit.at/) was held last week. It is a
german speaking conference (application related) but there is also a
more scientific english track.

We had a small booth with a poster and laptop and tablet presenting
QGIS. People especially liked the ability to deliver content to
different media with QGIS: desktop, tablet, phone, web, web services,
print. This is definitely a strength we should build on.

We also had a workshop on "Cartography with QGIS" with about 35
participants (more than we had PCs in the computer lab). The room was
too small for the workshop. Many of the participants did not know QGIS
and were quite impressed about the capabilities in symbolization,
labeling and the print composer.

Next year we have the opportunity to organize a german-speaking QGIS
track (one day or half day) at the conference if we have enough
presentations. If you would be interesting in contributing (presentation
or workshop) please let us know. We will also send out reminders when
the call for participation runs. I would also especially be interested
in contributions from Austrian QGIS users.

QGIS was also present in two of the three keynotes, which was nice to
see. In one keynote, unfortunately it was a representation of a
complicated desktop GIS (for non GIS-experts) - though the speaker
mentioned that the situation is worse with ArcGIS. His message was that
most or all of the existing desktop GIS are too complicated for average,
non-expert users. Why should the user be bothered by complicated
CRS/EPSG codes? Why is zooming and panning so slow compared to Google
maps? Why are the dialogues so complicated? Obviously it is not so easy
to reach out to both experts (with a lot of options) and the occasional
user or newbie.

He also presented a small Android mobile GIS for people in Africa who
can report illegal forest activities with the GPS-powered device. A GIS
for people who cannot even read and write, made with simple dialogues
with only images instead of text to choose.

Anita, Werner or Stefan - can you please add your own impressions from
the conference?

Andreas