[Aust-NZ] Where to now? [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Byron Cochrane]

 Hello,

This seems like the perfect opening to bring up something that I
have been thinking about.  Here in NZ we are looking to do a big
"all of GIS" joint/concurrent conference in 2011 centered around
the cross-tasman SSSI conference booked for Wellington that year.
 Being an SSSI member and on the ESRI NZ user group committee I
know that there is a lot of momentum building for this event.  I
understand that the NZ MapInfo user group, andI believe
Intergraph. are on board with this idea as well.

I would also like to see a strong FOSS4G  presence at this
conference as well.  But I think t would be a big ask for the NZ
OSGeo community to manage this by ourselves.  We are too few in
numbers, lacking in organizational or corporate support, and many
of us, like myself, would find our energies split between
organizing for FOSS4G and the other conference participants.
Participation from Australia would help with most these issues.
And as SSSI is a cross-tasman event, it would makes sense for a
concurrent FOSS4G to be as well.

The details of what this conference or amalgamation of
conferences might look like is extremely vague at this point.  By
next March we should have a somewhat better idea as to the over
all format. This could be a great chance for FOSS4G to get some
broader exposure to the wider GIS community and to a sizable
audience.  Tagging it on to another conference might make it
easier for some participants to justify the expense as well.

Oh yes, the conference, I believe is scheduled to run between the
semi-finals and and finals of the Rugby World Cup events.

Cheers,
Byron


 Ben.Searle at osdm.gov.au wrote:

Hi,



I think that there are a number of opportunities for the open
source geo (OSG) community.  The Government 2.0 Task Force will
be reporting later this year and I hope that this opens up
opportunities to maker more government data easily accessible.



This provides two opportunities:

1. Assisting with developing tools to support data discovery and
access - given that much of the government data will be spatial,
this is an area for OSG.



2. With access to a wider range of data the OSG community can
develop a range of tools to mash up this data.



Additionally, I am keen to see some OSGeo components in the
[1]Spatial at Gov 2010 conference.



I am happy to discuss further.......





  Regards

  Ben Searle
  General Manager,
  Australian Government Office of Spatial Data Management

  Phone: 02 6249 9298
  Mobile: 0439-995-785
  Fax: 02 6249 9942
  Email: [2]ben.searle at ga.gov.au
  Postal address: GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601



-----Original Message-----
From: aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:aust-nz-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Bruce
Bannerman
Sent: Tuesday, 17 November 2009 5:20
To: Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [Aust-NZ] Where to now?

  Now that FOSS4G-2009 is finished and has been well received,
  it may be time to start thinking about which directions we
  want to take OSGeo-AustNZ.
  There appears to be a definite desire for information and
  workshops on OSGeo projects in our region.
  Perhaps Shaun Kolomeitz and Simon Hope have hit on a good way
  of building the Australian and New Zealand communities by
  targeting local groups? However I feel we should keep the
  AustNZ focus to keep the overall momentum going (as per Open
  Source Industry Australia).
  Alternate between informal sessions at the pub and info
  sessions hosted by kind benefactors?
  Borrowing from a successful format that I saw in the early
  1990's (G.T.), for info sessions, it may be good to focus on
  demonstrating solutions to problems and finishing with "oh and
  by the way, we used these OSGeo projects to do this". This
  could be followed by dedicated "under to hood" [1] sessions
  for more detail if required.
  For 2010, a few of us have volunteered to help Ben Searle with
  Spatial at Gov. We will probably have an OSGeo presence and
  workshops there.
  Lets get some thoughts going...
  On another note, at FOSS4G, Arnulf Christl suggested that we
  may wish to consider running another regional FOSS4G event in
  two years time.
  I canvased a few people at FOSS4G and believe that we'd get a
  few key Developers / Vendors back here if we did.
  I think that if we were to do this, running it in New Zealand
  this time would be ideal.
  Is there any interest in this? This could become a regular
  event if there is sufficient interest.
  Bruce
  [1] I hope you don't mind my using the term Ian and Ben J

References

1. mailto:Spatial at Gov
2. mailto:ben.searle at osdm.gov.au
-- 
  Byron Cochrane
  cochranes4 at eml.cc

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