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<p>I know with this being Labor Day many of you may be off so I'll
be repeating this email on Tuesday Sept 6th also. <br>
</p>
<p>Over the last few months I've been getting more and more comments
of "We need to do something FOSS4G related in the area" with the
area being the general area of East Tennessee. So after a lot of
emails to various people from Texas to Canada and all points in
between: <br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>There is momentum after the FOSS4GNA Raleigh event. People are
interested in Free and Open Source GIS and People are using Free
and Open Source GIS. <br>
</li>
<li>Colleges in Particular have been vocal (more so than usual):
ETSU and UTK I'm looking at you and I'm yelling to anyone else
in the area. <br>
</li>
<li>The consensus is this needs to be cheap and fun. Emphasis on
Cheap and we can always make it Fun. It will be Informative by
default. <br>
</li>
<li>Location: We don't have no stinkin' location - we need one
(see above bullet point for cheap). <br>
</li>
<li>We have some funding to pull this off (more funding sources
are welcome). <br>
</li>
<li>This will be a "Pre Boston FOSS4G 2017 event" - whatever we do
needs to feed into that event. I've been talking to them and
they are excited and send energy our way. <br>
</li>
<li>There are three conferences we will be avoiding and as this
gets more momentum I'll be sticking those up somewhere. The
three conferences are good conferences and we in no way want to
hurt those events (NC TNGIC FOSS4G2017). <br>
</li>
<li>Date: We don't have no stinkin' dates. <br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>With all that being said - A Free and Open Source GIS event of
some type and shape at some point is happening. FOSS4G people in
the surrounding areas - we welcome your input and participation. <br>
</p>
<p>This will all be done probably on this list - so if you don't
like a lot of email - Sorry. This is community building at the
ground level. Step 1 was this email list. Step 2 is happening.
Step 3 is ????. <br>
</p>
<p>If I can repeat two things: Cheap and Fun. <br>
</p>
<p>Randy "What am I doing" Hale<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
-----------------
Randal Hale
North River Geographic Systems, Inc
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.northrivergeographic.com">http://www.northrivergeographic.com</a>
423.653.3611 <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rjhale@northrivergeographic.com">rjhale@northrivergeographic.com</a>
twitter:rjhale </pre>
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