[OSGeo Africa] African FOSSGIS meeting 2010

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Dorothy K. Gordon
<director-general at aiti-kace.com.gh> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Tim, You may want to consider holding this meeting to coincide with the Idlelo 4 meeting which will be held in Accra in 17- 21st May 2010 with the possibility of pre and post workshops.  What do you think?
>
> best regards
>

Thanks Dorothy. I've had another proposal (to be confirmed) for a
venue near Johannesburg, SA, so its good to have a few options
already!

I do worry that the timing of the idlelo conference is too soon - I
would rather it was later in the year so that we had enough time to
prepare, publicise and that people still have clear spaces in their
diaries.

For those interested the idlelo conference website is: http://idlelo.net/

Best regards

Tim


> Dorothy K. Gordon
> Director-General
> Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT
> Mobile: 233 244 311 348
> Direct Line: 233 21 683579
> Website: www.aiti-kace.com.gh
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tim Sutton" <tim at linfiniti.com>
> To: "Africa local chapter discussions" <africa at lists.osgeo.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 3, 2010 3:28:05 PM GMT +00:00 Casablanca / Monrovia
> Subject: [OSGeo Africa] African FOSSGIS meeting 2010
>
> 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)
> ==============================================
> Visit http://linfiniti.com to find out about:
>  * QGIS programming services
>  * Mapserver and PostGIS based hosting plans
>  * FOSS Consulting Services
> Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
> ==============================================
> _______________________________________________
> Africa mailing list
> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>



-- 
Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
==============================================
Visit http://linfiniti.com to find out about:
 * QGIS programming services
 * Mapserver and PostGIS based hosting plans
 * FOSS Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
==============================================