From tmitchell at osgeo.org Wed Jan 7 09:43:53 2009 From: tmitchell at osgeo.org (Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 09:43:53 -0800 Subject: [OSGeo-Announce] OGC and OSGeo Sign Memorandum of Understanding Message-ID: From: http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/944 Wayland, Mass., January 7, 2009 - In Valencia, Spain, at the December Technical Committee meetings of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), the OGC and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to coordinate in advancing open geospatial standards (OGC's mission) and open source geospatial software and data (OSGeo's mission). Mark Reichardt, CEO and President of the OGC, explained that, "Openness benefits markets. Vendors of proprietary software have found that today's more open and complex "business ecosystem," which includes both open source software and open standards, is good for their businesses. It's also good for technology users. It makes sense for the OGC to work with the OSGeo." Open source software is software that has been designed and developed in an open, community process. The OGC's open standards are similarly developed in an open, community process, but they are specifications (for interfaces, encodings and best practices), not software. Arnulf Christl, President of OSGeo, said, "We look forward to collaborating with the OGC to identify open source technologies that can be used as reference implementations for OGC standards and to identify standards requirements that result from our open source geospatial software development programs." The MOU provides for the assignment of up to six one-year Individual Memberships in the OGC. Memberships will be selected by OSGeo and are subject to OGC qualifications for Individual Membership. The OSGeo is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies and data. The OGC? is an international consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS? Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/. Contact: Sam Bacharach Executive Director, Outreach and Community Adoption Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc tel: +1-703-352-3938 sbacharach at opengeospatial.org From tmitchell at osgeo.org Wed Jan 21 08:48:46 2009 From: tmitchell at osgeo.org (Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:48:46 -0800 Subject: [OSGeo-Announce] Climate Change Integration Plugfest to be launched at FOSS4G Message-ID: <3C200040-80DB-4CF2-9706-17A4F958408D@osgeo.org> PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information about this announcement, contact: Sam Bacharach Executive Director, Outreach and Community Adoption Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc tel: +1-703-352-3938 sbacharach at opengeospatial.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sydney, Australia. 20 January 2009. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) have announced a Climate Change Integration Plugfest (CCIP) to be launched at the FOSS4G conference, 20-23 October 2009, http://2009.foss4g.org. The CCIP will demonstrate standards based interoperability between geospatial applications based on a Climate Change scenario. Raj Singh, Director of Interoperability Programs at OGC, explained that, "The CCIP is a server with multiple virtual machines providing a number of different geospatial Web services that implement the OGC's open interface and encoding standards. It will be used in the coming months to demonstrate open Web-based geoprocessing at conferences, testbeds, classes and other events around the world." Graham de Hoedt, Manager of Climate Information Services at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said, "Integration of data and applications is crucial for solving complex problems like the provision/sharing of decadal and multi-decadal climate change related data and information". Cameron Shorter, Chair of the FOSS4G organizing committee and Systems Architect at LISAsoft said "Geospatial users regularly ask how to integrate Open Source, COTS and proprietary software. At FOSS4G, attendees will see the major geospatial applications working together and talk with implementers about what really works". Companies or individuals interested in sponsoring or participating in the Climate Change Integration Plugfest should contact Greg Buehler . The OGC?[http://www.opengeospatial.org/] is an international consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS? Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. FOSS4G is the international "gathering of tribes" of open source geospatial communities, where developers and users show off their latest software and projects. The theme for 2009 is "User Driven", highlighting the power of Open Source to integrate with existing systems. http://2009.foss4g.org The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) has been created to support and build the highest-quality open source geospatial software. The foundation's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development of community-led projects, data development and education. http://osgeo.org ________________________________ From tmitchell at osgeo.org Fri Jan 23 15:47:09 2009 From: tmitchell at osgeo.org (Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:47:09 -0800 Subject: [OSGeo-Announce] Announcing the release of QGIS 1.0 'Kore' Message-ID: <60408E7F-4A82-4A25-92A9-EA851DCD2A8F@osgeo.org> Dear QGIS Users, Developers and FOSSGIS devotees We are extremely pleased to announce the release of QGIS 1.0 and the shiny new QGIS 1.0 User's Guide. We have also revamped our web site at http://qgis.org. See the note below from our project chair: ----- This release is the culmination of literally hundreds of hours of work by a team of developers, translators, documentation writers, and graphics designers. QGIS began life in February of 2002, with the first release in June of the same year. The initial goal was to create a viewer for PostGIS data that ran on Linux. From those humble beginnings, QGIS has become a true cross-platform application that runs on all major versions of unix, Linux, as well as Mac and Windows. It supports editing and map composition as well as integration with GRASS to provide powerful GIS capability. QGIS has been translated into many languages by a dedicated internationalization team. At 1.0 we provide a stable API from which you can develop custom solutions in Python or C++. Even though 1.0 is fresh, there are a number of exciting developments underway in both the core application and plugins. Although it took nearly 7 years to get to version 1.0, I think you'll find that this version is the best yet. Thanks for using QGIS---you, the users, have played a large part in its success. -- Gary Sherman, Chair, QGIS Project Steering Committee ----- For more detailed release information, visit: http://blog.qgis.org/node/123 For Gnu/Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows downloads, visit: http://download.qgis.org - Source code and User's Guide are also available from this site. From tmitchell at osgeo.org Wed Jan 28 07:10:24 2009 From: tmitchell at osgeo.org (Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:10:24 -0800 Subject: [OSGeo-Announce] FOSS4G Sponsorship and Exhibition bookings now open Message-ID: <6B1D6ADF-3021-4304-BDE5-9F4F64A7E353@osgeo.org> Sydney, Australia. 28 January 2009. Sponsorship and Exhibition packages are now available to be purchased for the international FOSS4G conference, to be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre from 20-23 October 2009. http:// 2009.foss4g.org/sponsorship/ FOSS4G is the international "gathering of tribes" for open source geospatial communities, where developers and users show off their latest software and projects. The theme for 2009 is "User Driven", highlighting the power of Open Source to integrate with existing systems. The OGC's Climate Change Integration Plugfest (CCIP) to be launched will demonstrate standards based interoperability between Open Source and Proprietary geospatial applications. The CCIP will be a major draw-card for Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) sponsors looking for standards based spatial solutions. http:// external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/ClimateChallenge2009/WebHome BOOK NOW to take advantage of extensive direct marketing campaigns that will extend your exposure well before and beyond the Conference itself. For further details, contact Kirsty O?Brien, Sponsorship and Exhibition Executive, kobrien at tourhosts.com.au or Tel: +61 2 9265 0776 The Sponsorship and Exhibition Prospectus is available at http:// 2009.foss4g.org/downloads/FOSS4G_Sponsorship_Exhibition_Document.pdf Upcoming milestones * 2 Feb 2009, *Call for Workshops/Tutorials opens* * 9 Mar 2009, *Call for Abstracts opens* * 13 Apr 2009, *Registration for conference and tutorials opens* * 31 Jul 2009, *Author/Early registration deadline* * 20-23 Oct 2009, *FOSS4G* * 24-25 Oct 2009, *Code Sprint* ------- From: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_4 For information about this announcement, contact: Cameron Shorter Chair of the FOSS4G Organising Committee and Geospatial Systems Architect at LISAsoft tel +61-8570-5050 c a m e r o n . s h o r t e r @ l i s a s o f t . c o m