[OSGeo-Announce] Landmark Geospatial Conference Coming to Cape Town

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Landmark Geospatial Conference Coming to Cape Town

Cape Town, South Africa, September 8, 2008 – The Open Source  
Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) (http://www.osgeo.org) and the  
Geographic Information Society of South Africa (GISSA) (http:// 
www.gissa.org.za) announce the 2008 Free and Open Source Software for  
Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference incorporating GISSA 2008 (http:// 
www.foss4g2008.org) September 29 - October 3, 2008 at Cape Town  
International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa.

Around 500 software programmers, Government officials, business  
people and technology experts will be converging on Cape Town to  
attend the 2008 international Free and Open Source Software for  
Geospatial conference. 'Geospatial' describes the combination of  
spatial (mapping) software and analytical methods that use geographic  
data. The theme of the conference is "Open Source Geospatial: an  
option for developing countries", providing a platform for industry  
members to explore and debate issues around the application of the  
technology for developing countries. Ed Parsons, Chief of Geospatial  
Technology at Google, will be the Keynote Speaker.

Most of those attending the conference use geospatial software to  
perform a wide variety of tasks. They create and share maps, build  
online mapping sites, analyse satellite imagery data to calculate  
flood zones, plan housing and infrastructure developments, support  
planning for the 2010 World Cup, map archaeological finds and  
coordinate tsunami relief efforts.

This year’s conference is sponsored by local and international  
organisations such as Autodesk, Google, Geographic Information  
Management Systems (GIMS) and the South African State Information  
Technology Agency (SITA) and will be attended by delegates from over  
50 countries. Delegates will be coming to Cape Town to share their  
expertise and to have a debate about the role of open source software  
in countries where the cost of proprietary software is taking up  
substantial portions of their budgets.

Open Source software (http://www.opensource.org) is a form of  
collaborative programming and knowledge sharing that allows a global  
community of programmers to pool their efforts and build software  
systems. The resulting software is often available for free, or at a  
cost far less than proprietary software. This affects many  
industries, including computer mapping, otherwise known as Geographic  
Information Systems (GIS). FOSS4G will be an ideal opportunity for  
the geospatial industry to kickstart planning and implementation of  
the South African Government Open Source policy, approved by Cabinet  
in February 2007 (http://www.oss.gov.za), including procurement  
policies and local skills development.

In addition to presentations and hands-on software classes throughout  
the week, there will be an OpenStreetMap (http:// 
www.openstreetmap.org) mapping party to map Cape Town's streets on  
Sunday the 28th. An education outreach programme has been developed  
to assist teachers to learn about GIS as it is now part of the high  
school geography curriculum. The conference is open to anyone with an  
interest in mapping and geospatial technology, and special rates are  
provided for students at tertiary institutions.

The opportunity to host FOSS4G, the premier international FOSS GIS  
conference, was won in an international bid and South Africa is  
honoured to be welcoming local and international visitors for an  
event that is a landmark for South Africa and the continent.

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Contact: Gavin Fleming, Conference Chair: Free and Open Source  
Software for Geospatial 2008 (FOSS4G 2008), incorporating GISSA 2008.

tel: +27-11-7094668

gavinf at mintek.co.za http://www.foss4g2008.org