[OSGeo-Announce] First Open Source Geospatial Laboratory in South America

[Frank Warmerdam]

In 2011, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) signed a
Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) with the
aim to developing global collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and
government organisations in the field of open source GIS software and
data. The MoU
aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open
Source Geospatial
Laboratories and Research Centres across the world to support the
development of open
source geospatial software technologies, training and expertise.

We are now pleased to announce about the Open Source Geospatial Lab
initiative in
South America. After the successful establishment of Open Geospatial
Labs in Europe,
Asia and Africa , we are happy to have the first such initiative in
South America being
established at the Federal University of Parana in Brazil. Federal
University of Paraná
is regarded as the oldest Brazilian university. Details at
http://www.ufpr.br/portalufpr/

The Open Geospatial Lab at Federal University of Paraná will be led by
Prof. Silviana
Comboin .  Silviana has strong research background in Geospatial
Science, SDI and GI
standards. Previously she was working at the Brazilian National
Mapping Agency before
moving to Federal University of Paraná as a professor at the Geomatics
Department.
She also coordinate the Standards Workgroup of the Brazilian NSDI
(INDE). She also
have a strong team and action plan in place for building this
initiative for Brazil and South
America. The initial team of Open Geospatial Lab at UFPR will comprise
of Prof. Dr. Luciene
S. Delazari ,Prof. Dr. Maria Cecilia B. Brandalize , Prof. Dr. Claudia
Robbi Sluter , André Luiz
Alencar de Mendonça and  Gisele Canova (IBGE - Brazilian Institute of
Geography and
Statistics).

We are working to expand this ICA-OSGeo initiative
(http://www.osgeo.org/node/1230)
globally in our aim to bring the benefits of geospatial technology to
all. If you are interested
in establishing Open Source Geospatial Lab at your university and
build research and teaching
collaborations please contact Suchith Anand (Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk)