[OSGeo Africa] Africa Open Source GIS mailing list news

[Paul Scott]

Ugh! Sorry, have been away at various conferences/workshops/meetings
etc. Just got back from a round trip of Addis Ababa, London, and
Florence, so am only really managing to catch up on some mail now...

On Mon, 2006-06-19 at 11:16 +0200, Gaby van Wyk wrote:
> Hi All
> I would think that a course like this should rather take the form of a
> 'Hackfest' where people bring computers, laptops etc. It would be
> great if people can actually go away having had fist hand contact. I
> think this could then be followed up with on-line course - great idea.
> (Paul - I know that it will probably be a bit difficult to attend for
> those in WC) 

Difficult, yes, hence the suggestion of an online course and
collaboration. Most of what can be done in a live course, can be done
online using our toolset. At the same time, it has the added advantage
of working in workgroups (say a GRASS group, a qGIS group, a PostGIS
group etc) which can be more specialized for people that are
interested. 

A hackfest is cool, but it should be done as a group of people in the
same room, all connected to the same site so that it becomes a mixed
environment of online and offline learning. We have found that this is
an _extremely_ effective strategy in getting projects off the ground,
and websites turning very rapidly into vibrant communities. See
http://fsiu.uwc.ac.za/ as an example. This site was started to host a
mixed environment workshop, and is still going strong. The site has now
evolved into a community site and a primary entry point for OSS people
all over the world.


> On 6/15/06, Jody Garnett <jgarnett at refractions.net> wrote:
>         Hi Paul,
>         
>         Checking that out ... darn sorry I was away for the GIS
>         Conference in
>         April there. Is this site different login/password then the
>         usual osgeo
>         wiki and website? I am already split over so many websites for
>         OSGEO I 
>         do not know what to do...
>         

Jody,

Yes, you will have to register on the site. It is really easy though to
modify your password to be the same as all of your other logins though!

I have the added advantage of being able to auth against our LDAP server
to get into the site, so I forget sometimes the issues of passwords and
multiple logins. That being said, however, I would really like to see
the site moving, as it can be a valuable resource (For Africa, by
Africans, with software created in Africa...)


--Paul
> 

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