[Aust-NZ] Upcoming OSGeo Chapter in the Central North Island

Wed Aug 14 16:57:29 PDT 2013

Occasional regional get-togethers under the banner of Aust-NZ OSGeo are
the norm in Australia. Could proceed in that manner.

Cheers,

Byron

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013, at 08:38 AM, Brent Wood wrote:

Hi Tim,

I agree with Hamish.

We already have an OSGEO chapter that encompasses NZ, we have the
NZOSS, reasonably active NZ GIS & GPS online groups (incl OSM support &
dvpt), a very active biodata group (Dataversity) all with some level of
Open Source focus & support. The new ECO/WWF Moodle website for
tutorial/training resources for environmental data management &
analysis also has a strong Open Source GIS focus, but is not built
around OSGEO.

More fragmentation I think would be divisive rather than productive.

I'd sooner see an existing NZ group strengthened by more activity &
members instead. As a long time GMT user (as well as several OSGEO
tools) & a novice R user, I also suggest that running such a group as
an "OSGEO chapter" is unecessarily restrictive, and that if such a
group is established, it should be formed within and help grow existing
NZ initiatives rather than compete with them for members, time &
resources.

For this reason, I do not support & will not join the proposed group,
as I think it would be detrimental to the overall progress of Open
Source GIS in NZ, quite apart from not wanting to add yet another
membership to my list, which is already long enough that I can't do
most groups justice. I believe the NZ Open Source & GIS communities
needs to pull together more, not fragment even further.

Just my opinion.... if there are enough interested people to form an
active chapter, I still wish you well, & hope we can work together on
shared goals in future.

Regards

  Brent Wood
  __________________________________________________________________

From: Hamish <hamish_b at yahoo.com>
To: "heuert at landcareresearch.co.nz" <heuert at landcareresearch.co.nz>;
Aust NZ Aus Geo List <aust-nz at lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 5:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Aust-NZ] Upcoming OSGeo Chapter in the Central North
Island

Hi Tim,

why not just run it under the guise of the greater aust-nz chapter?
unneccessary bureaucratic overhead takes time away from coding :)

regards,
Hamish

  __________________________________________________________________

From: Tim-Hinnerk Heuer <heuert at landcareresearch.co.nz>
To: Aust NZ Aus Geo List <aust-nz at lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:57 PM
Subject: [Aust-NZ] Upcoming OSGeo Chapter in the Central North Island

Hi,
I'm Tim-Hinnerk Heuer, a geo web developer working at Landcare Research
in Palmerston North. The Informatics group at Landcare Research has
been using open source geo-software for quite a while and we know there
are other people in the local region with an interest in such software.
We have come up with the idea of forming an informal group in
Palmerston North - or more specifically the lower North Island - to
exchange ideas and encourage collaboration on geospatial data and
geospatial open source software. One possibility is that this group
becomes an OSGeo chapter (see [1]http://www.osgeo.org/).
At the moment, this initiative is driven by myself and my colleague
Pierre Roudier, who is working on soil data using open source software
(R, GDAL/OGR, QGIS, GRASS GIS). Anybody wanting to join the effort is
obviously more than welcome!
We are planning a meeting to gauge interest in forming such a group. It
is set to take place at the Village Inn Kitchen in Hokowhitu,
Palmerston North, from 5.30pm onwards, on Wednesday 28st August. (We
chose this venue because it has high-speed Internet access and one idea
we have is to invite people from around New Zealand or even the world
to join us via video conference to talk about their software and/or how
they are using open source geospatial software).
A couple of us are attending FOSS4G 2013 in the UK in mid September
and, if there is support for the idea of forming a chapter, we would
raise it with the OSGeo Board then.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the Village Inn Kitchen in
Hokowhitu, Palmerston North on the 28th August. Drop us an email if you
think you will come so we can get an idea of numbers.
Kind regards,
Tim

--
Tim-Hinnerk Heuer

Web Developer
Landcare Research (http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz)
Informatics (http://wiki.zen.landcareresearch.co.nz)
Ph: +64 6 353 4872
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--
Byron Cochrane
cochranes4 at eml.cc

References

1. http://www.osgeo.org/
2. mailto:Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
3. http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/aust-nz
4. mailto:Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
5. http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/aust-nz
6. mailto:Aust-NZ at lists.osgeo.org
7. http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/aust-nz
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