[OSGeo Africa] FOSS4G2008 Code sprint, lightning talks and demo sessions.

[Tim Sutton]

Hello African FOSS geospatial software users and developers!

I am the organiser for the lightning talks, demo sessions and code sprint
at this year's FOSS4G conference. I have posted a detailed call for
participation
below, but before you get to that, I would like to make a special plea to
members of this list to enthusiastically participate in this event (as
presenters
and by attending). Having FOSS4G in Africa provides us with a great
opportunity to show the world the many great things we get up to here
in Africa. It is also an opportunity to highlight challenges and areas
needing special attention in the realm of Free and Open Source
geospatial software as relates to an African audience. With that in mind,
it would be particularly great to see as many demos and lightning talk
proposals emanating from this continent as possible!

Best regards

Tim Sutton

----------------------------------------------------
Free and Open Source Geospatial Conference 2008 (FOSS4G2008)

FOSS4G2008 will be taking place this year in September / October in
South Africa. FOSS4G is a an annual gathering place for Free
and Open Source  projects with a geospatial leaning. The conference
venue is the Cape Town International Conference Center (CTICC) in the
Foreshore area of Cape Town - the beautiful 'mother city' of South
Africa.

Demo Sessions:
=======================

We will be holding a demo theatre during tea breaks and lunch times.
Demos are a great way to show off your work to decision makers, GIS
professionals and fellow code crunchers. The demos will be restricted
to 10 minutes each (including questions and setup time) so they need
to be brief and to the point. If you would like to demo your project,
something you have achieved with FOSS geospatial, or anything else
relevant to a geospatial practitioner audience, you can register by
following the instructions provided on the demo wiki page here:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2008_Demos


Lightning Talks:
=======================

During the plenary session on Monday 29 July, there will be eight
lightning talks of 5 minutes each. Time limits will be strictly
adhered to and we are looking for the most entertaining, thought
provoking and informative speeches possible. The speeches will be
presented to the entire conference. If you are interested in making a
lightning speech, or know of any good candidates to give such a
speech, please visit the lightning talks wiki page to register your
interest here:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2008_LightningTalks


Code Sprint:
=======================

We will be holding an all day code sprint on Saturday 4 October - the
day following the end of the main conference activities. Given that
most FOSS projects are conducted as virtual collaborations over the
internet, the code sprint is a rare opportunity for you to get
together in person with other developers in your project.

The code sprint is also a great opportunity for those who are
interested in getting involved in a project to go and meet the
developers face to face and get some help in getting started with
development. If you are not a developer, but interested in other
aspects of project development, (documentation, creating demonstrator
implementations of software etc.) the code sprint is an equally good
opportunity to collaborate.

We will provide a venue, lunch and refreshments, internet connection
and flip charts. If you have other special requirements let us know
and we will see what we can do.

In order to provide the very best experience for you it would be
helpful to get an idea of how many people are likely to attend. We
have created a Wiki page at:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G2008_CodeSprint

On this page you can create a section for your project and list the
people planning to attend. The page also provides a space to help you
organise your code sprint day by writing up the goals and preparation
work needed for your sprint.


Contact Info:
=======================


The code sprint, lightning talks & demo session organiser is Tim
Sutton (tim at linfiniti.com) - if you have any questions or special
requirements, please don't hesitate to ask. If you haven't already
registered for the conference, we advise doing so as soon as possible
to secure your place. Visit the conference registration page at:

http://conference.osgeo.org/index.php/foss4g/2008/schedConf/registration

-- 
Tim Sutton
QGIS Project Steering Committee Member - Release Manager
Visit http://qgis.org for a great open source GIS
Blog: http://tim.linfiniti.com
Skype: timlinux
Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net