[OSGeo Africa] A roadmap for OSGEO Africa

[Tim Sutton]

Hi Frank

2008/10/12 Frank Sokolic <sokolic at worldonline.co.za>:
> Hi Tim,
>
> Sounds good. I was also very inspired by FOSS4G2008 and got a lot out of the
> conference. The workshops and labs were great and were the highlight of the
> conference for me.
>
> I'm based in Durban and can help out with developing training materials for
> programs like MapWindow, gvSIG and QGIS.

Great - any workshop materials you plan to do etc., let hs know on the
list so that we can avoid duplication of effort and collaborate to
lesson the workload. Also collaborating in this way would let us
present a consistent format of presentation to our audiences.

> Who would you aim your proposed
> training workshops at? People already dabbling in FOSS GIS?
>

I'm thinking that since we are starting pretty much from ground zero
we need to structure things in a 'knowledge ladder':


                                      4 - Becoming a FOSSGIS developer
                         3 - Becoming a FOSSGIS Expert
           2 -  Becoming a FOSSGIS User
1 - FOSSGIS Familiarisation

 My suggestion is that we do a first round of workshops which
basically introduce a FOSSGIS software stack to users so the can
understand what can be achieved with FOSSGIS. Following that we can
continue with a next round where we start building skills in
particular products e.g. a day training on postgis, followed by a day
on QGIS etc etc. Of course we need not expect everyone to reach level
4. although it is my hope that we can build a caucus of FOSSGIS
developers in Africa so that we can play a role in shaping the future
of FOSSGIS and also building up our own local skills.

The workshops can be repeated as demand dictates. Currently there is
interest in Jhb, Cape Town, and now with your email Durbs. I thing the
folks in East London may be interested too. It would be great if we
can establish regional user groups that can eventually do the local
organisation for workshops and then presenters can visit different
regions and not have to manage all the arrangements solo. But to start
lets aim to do 3 or 4 introductory workshops and work on from there.
Workshops would be carried out at no charge for as long as we can
sustain it - and we could look at ways to raise funds in order to make
it sustainable - possible the likes of SITA etc could help out since
what we doing would very much further the goals of skills development
within FOSSGIS in South Africa. We should also look at how we can
extend these activites further afield since other African countries
can equally benifit.

It would be great if we could get a core of volunteers established
first to make an initial working group until regional groups can get
up and running. Already we have Russell Hope in Cape Town who is going
to help to get a group together for a workshop there, and Bridgette
Flemming mentioned being possibly able to secure a venue here in Jhb.
I'm happy to donate my time to run the workshops while we get things
up and running, and it would be great if others could do the same.
Frank will you be able to coordinate a workshop in Durban?


So for now our 'target market' should probably be GIS practioners and
IT heads, teachers etc, who need to get a decent feel for what can be
done with FOSSGIS.


Best regards

Tim

> Frank.
>
>
> Tim Sutton wrote:
>>
>> Hi All
>>
>> FOSS4G2008 is more or less at an end (we still have the code sprint
>> left tomorrow). It has really encouraged me to see so many Africans
>> interested in FOSS GIS. I have some suggestions on how we can start to
>> clear a path forward to greater familiarity, comfort and acceptance of
>> FOSS GIS solutions in Africa. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Africa
>> presents a first draft at this and I invite others to comment, edit,
>> and take action to help make something happen. I would also suggest
>> that we set ourselves a modest goal of holding two 20 person FOSS GIS
>> training workshops before the year is out. There are quite a few
>> people I have already spoken to who have expressed interest in making
>> this happen so it would be great to get something off the ground here.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>



-- 
Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
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