[OSGeo-Announce] 50th ICA-OSGeo Lab established at Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM), Italy, and new GeoforAll website launched

[Anne Ghisla]

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new website of the
ICA-OSGeo lab initiative. Many thanks to Jason Sadler and colleagues at
the University of Southampton, UK who developed and are hosting the
central site for our rapidly growing network.

The motto of ICA-OSGeo Labs initiative is "Geo For All."  By combining
the potential of e-learning tools and open source geospatial software,
the academic community can strengthen education in GIScience providing
students with holistic education covering open source, open standards,
and open data in geospatial technology. The widespread application of
e-learning tools and open source GIS will increase access to GIS
education. Free and open GI software helps make geospatial education
available to students from economically poor backgrounds worldwide
(removing the need for high cost proprietary GI software). Our key aim
is to make it possible for students in developing and poor countries to
be also able to get geospatial education. We also will be starting work
on "Train the Trainer" GIS programs for school teachers all over the
world. It is very important to have open source GIS and standards (OGC,
ISO TC 211) based solutions to achieve widespread application of
geotools at grassroots level especially in developing countries. Open
source GIS provides accessibility, low cost solutions and lowers the
entry barriers for the use of geospatial technologies for all. We look
forward to working with you all for making geospatial education and
opportunities accessible to all. More details of our website and
mission at http://www.geoforall.org .


It is also our pleasure  to announce that the 50th ICA-OSGeo  Lab has
been established at the GIS and Remote Sensing Unit (Piattaforma GIS &
Remote Sensing, PGIS), Research and Innovation Centre (CRI), Fondazione
Edmund Mach (FEM), Italy. CRI is a multifaceted research organization
established in 2008 under the umbrella of FEM, a private research
foundation funded by the government of Autonomous Province of Trento.
CRI focuses on studies and innovations in the fields of agriculture,
nutrition, and environment, with the aim to generate new sharing
knowledge and to contribute to economic growth, social development and
the overall improvement of quality of life.

The mission of the PGIS unit is to develop and provide multi-scale
approaches for the description of multi-dimensional biological systems
and processes. Core activities of the unit include acquisition,
processing and validation of geo-physical, ecological and spatial
datasets collected within various research projects and monitoring
activities, along with advanced scientific analysis and data
management. These studies involve multi-decadal change analysis of
various ecological and physical parameters from continental to
landscape level using satellite imagery and other climatic layers. The
lab focuses on the geostatistical analysis of such information layers,
the creation and processing of indicators, and the production of
ecological, landscape genetics, eco-epidemiological and physiological
models. The team pursues actively the development of innovative methods
and their implementation in a GIS framework including the time series
analysis of proximal and remote sensing data.

The GIS and Remote Sensing Unit (PGIS) members strongly support the
peer reviewed approach of Free and Open Source software development
which is perfectly in line with academic research. PGIS contributes
extensively to the open source software development in geospatial (main
contributors to GRASS GIS), often collaborating with various other
developers and researchers around the globe. In the new ICA-OSGeo lab
at FEM international PhD students, university students and trainees are
present.PGIS is focused on knowledge dissemination of open source tools
through a series of courses designed for specific user requirement
(schools, universities, research institutes), blogs, workshops and
conferences. Their recent publication in Trends in Ecology and
Evolution underlines the need on using Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS) for completely open science. Dr. Markus Neteler, who is leading
the group since its formation, has two decades of experience in
developing and promoting open source GIS software. Being founding
member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo.org, USA), he
served on its board of directors from 2006 to 2011. Luca Delucchi,
focal point and responsible person for the new ICA-OSGeo Lab, is member
of the board of directors of the Associazione Italiana per
l'Informazione Geografica Libera (GFOSS.it, the Italian Local Chapter
of OSGeo). He contributes to several Free and Open Source software and
open data projects as developer and trainer.

Details about the GIS and Remote Sensing Unit at
http://gis.cri.fmach.it/ .

Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit
organisation founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote
the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies
and data.


International Cartographic Association (ICA) is the world authoritative
body for cartography and GIScience.
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