[Aust-NZ] Please accept your Aust-NZ nomination NOW

[Brent Wood]

--- Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Cameron,

I've been asked a couple of times off list if I was interested. Given the
uncertainty of NZ residents being able to hold directors positions, I was
waiting to see what the actual situation was before confirming.

However, even if we are not, I'm sure we can work around it. I'm happy to
accept the nomination.


About me... near enough to 50 years old, born in NZ. Worked in the area of
fisheries research for over 30 years, currently employed by NIWA (National
Institute for Water & Atmospheric Research in NZ). I have a somewhat generic
role, specialising in data management & GIS as much as anything. I have
presented papers at FOSS GIS & international fisheries conferences where I
focus on showing the benefits of FOSS software. For example, I have just been
asked to run a 5 day workshop in Oman in September on fisheries data
management, which will only be using FOSS software packages.

My first involvement with this initiative was some emails swapped with Tim
after Linuxconf '05 in Dunedin, where he was given my name by a colleague. At
that stage we decided there would be enough support in NZ to make the chapter a
joint Aust-NZ one, instead of an Australian one. I'm very pleased to see this
is indeed the case, and that FOSS GIS is generating increasing interest here.

I have used open source GIS related tools under Linux for close to 15 years,
and used them pretty much exclusively for the last 10. I'm not a programmer,
but do some prototyping & basic scripting. I'm a member of NZOSS & Wellylug,
and have organised local Installfests & SFD events for several years. I have
managed to get NIWA to fund a few small enhancements to GOSS GIS packages like
OGR, as well as develop new applications based on FOSS which will become FOSS
when completed. The main GIS packages I use daily are PostGIS, QGIS, UMN
mapserver & GMT, but I do keep in touch with other packages and developments, &
have plenty of others installed to play with!

I'm particularly interested in improving public access to taxpayer funded
geodata in NZ, where we are not the worst country around, but I believe could
do much better. I do extensive fieldwork, and this does sometimes impact on my
ability to contribute in positions like this, as I frequently have no internet
& limited email access, however I believe I can still fulfill a useful role.


Regards,

  Brent Wood




> We are trying to get the Aust-NZ chapter formed before we make big 
> decisions for FOSS4G (like selecting a Professional Conference 
> Organisor), so please help out by fast tracking the boring procedural stuff.
> 
> We need 5 directors for Aust NZ, and we want representation from both 
> Australia and New Zealand. The role has minimal duties by itself, just 
> the occasional vote to make list discussions official. People who are 
> likely to be involved in OSGeo type events would be good candidates. (If 
> you are reading this, you qualify).
> 
> So in interests of speed, I nominate everyone on this list who has read 
> this far down this email.
> 
> Could we please see some acceptance emails which include a paragraph or 
> 2 about yourself and your OSGeo interests.
> 
> Bruce Bannerman wrote:
> > Cameron,
> >
> > I'll be offline all day tomorrow.
> >
> > I'm concerned that we don't have acceptance of nomination from anyone
> > but yourself and myself. 
> >
> > Can you chase this up please? 
> >
> > It may be worth nominating Liz Kolster and Hamish as well.
> >
> >
> > Bruce
> >   
> 
> 
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Systems Architect
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
> 
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
> http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
> 
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