[OSGeo Africa] African FOSSGIS meeting 2010

[Tim Sutton]

Hi all

Happy New Year all!

I would like to organise (with help from others I hope!) an African
FOSSGIS meeting for the third quarter of 2010. I know there is FOSS4G
held yearly but the travel distances are usually far and the topic
matter not necessarily germane to an African audience. Having attended
the german FOSSGIS conference last year I can see the benifits of
localised get together where the attendees share a common geography
and operational environment. This email is just an initial 'toe in the
water' to see how much interest there is. My thought was to hold it
over 3 days with tracks covering:

- general presentations (case studies, thought provoking ideas etc.)
- academic papers (FOSS GIS applied in an African context)
- panel discussions (how can we develop African FOSSGIS skills)
- a B2B (business to business) help wanted / help offered pin board
(each can advertise their wares or requirements on a 10x5 card that
gets placed on a pin board) to help clients and solution providers
find each other
- workshops (practical hands on FOSSGIS training)

Of course to make this happen we need:

- a venue (somewhere in Africa that is easy to get to)
- volunteers
- a funding model that doesn't result in exorbitant entrance fees
- promotion and advertising

There is also the possibility of dovetailing with the annual afrigis
conference though I do wonder if we would have better success as a
dedicated FISSGIS conference.

Perhaps we could start off more simply and hold an 'unconference' (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference) and grow from that in
future years.

If you are interested, think the idea sucks, or have any other ideas
on the matter please lets discuss further here on this list....

Best regards

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