[Board] Potential Vietnam Chapter

[Venkatesh Raghavan]

Hi All,

I have been involved in setting up of several OSGeo Local Chapters
in Asia (Japan, China, India) since 2006.

Regarding the China Local Chapter, it was establised thru discussions
over the Internet and our Chinese colleagues were gracious enough
to invite someone from the OSGeo board to be present at the inagural
for OSGeo-China Chapter and Michael could visit.

Since its official establishment, the OSGeo-Japan chapter has
fortunately had many visitiors from the OSGeo community most
of whose travel was funded by the OSGeo-Japan community.

I have been promoting OSGeo in Vietnam since 2006 and have
given many workshops, tutorials, special sessions in conferences
in various parts of Vietnam. OSGeo had kindly funded (1000US$)
promotions at the GIS-IDEAS 2006 when we organized 1 day workshop,
booth and other OSGeo promotions.

Several reasons can be stated for the reason why an "official"
OSGeo-Vietnam Chapter could not matterialize despite the
efforts made over the last four years. I do not want to go into all
the reasons here. I hope to continue these efforts as I see lot of
interest and need to have a local chapter in Vietnam. My self-financed
trip in March 2010 is also a part of this effort.

It is nice that discussions with the local OSGeo enthusiasts
has been restarted and possible meeting in Hanoi with
related folks from Saigon, Hue and Hanoi to work towards
setting-up a local chapter is also very welcome.

Further, would be very apt and useful if Jeff's trip
could be supported in someway to be present at the meeting.
It would be difficult to look for local sponsors in Vietnam when the
Local Chapter is still not yest established. It will be good
if we could do our bit to encourage the Vietnam folks to
self-organize before seeking local sponsors for funding.

Best

Venka


Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> Hi Jeff, hope your visit there is going well!  Here's a bit of
> background for the rest of the board, and maybe you, on the whole
> Vietnam discussion and why I started it.  I'm doing this with various
> potential local chapters and other international contacts, by the
> way...
> 
> Earlier in the month, I approached some Vietnam contacts (including
> Venka) to see how things were going down there since last year their
> gov't adopted an encouraging stance toward open source - with
> commitments to migrate their IT infrastructures and staff over to
> FOSS in 2010.  I was curious on how the local folks saw
> implementations happening and was asking how others of us outside
> could help.  Sounds like some encouraging things going on and my main
> reason for contacting them was to get up to date from the local
> members on the ground.  One thing led to another and there is a
> general invite to come and meet with them, which Jeff is referring
> to.
> 
> My hope though, in the end, was sort of like what Ravi has proposed.
> Where a local chapter can arrange a meeting/workshop/round table
> discussion and invite and !fund! for guests to come.  That's occurred
> in the past elsewhere (e.g. when Michael went to China) and will
> happen in the future as well.
> 
> It's obviously not my call on the funding question and where that
> fits into the budget, but thought some background might help set the
> stage for where this came from.  I recommend focusing on local
> sponsors to fund such an event.
> 
> Hope that helps, Tyler
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeff McKenna
> <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> Date: Thursday, February 11, 2010
> 7:42 pm Subject: [Board] Potential Vietnam Chapter To: osgeo-board
> List <board at lists.osgeo.org>
> 
>> Hello fellow Board members,
>> 
>> Some of you may be aware that there are discussions of a possible 
>> Vietnam local chapter formation occurring now.  In fact there is
>> talk of bringing the important players together in Hanoi Vietnam on
>>  March 10-14th to discuss the potential reasons and benefits of
>> forming an official OSGeo local chapter.
>> 
>> I am writing this message to you, since I am currently 'in the 
>> area' of these meetings (Japan) and I would like to go attend the
>> Vietnam meeting as an OSGeo Director.  I am requesting that some
>> funding be provided for my travel there, as well as local travel
>> for 2 important representatives in Vietnam.  The meetings will take
>> place in Hanoi.
>> 
>> Some of you may have traveled in SE Asia, and you know of the 
>> respect shown there towards OSGeo delegates.  So it will mean a lot
>>  to the Vietnam representatives to have a current OSGeo Director in
>> the meetings.  Venka (another former Director) will also attend the
>> meetings in Vietnam (he is providing his own funding).
>> 
>> I am not requesting for spending money, I am requesting that my 
>> actual travel (flight from Japan to Vietnam, and hotel) be covered,
>> as well as local travel for 2 Vietnam delegates.  I will provide 
>> receipts for all travel.  The estimate is:
>> 
>> Flight:       700 USD Hotel:        300 USD Local travel: 600 USD
>> 
>> (hotel is very cheap in Vietnam)
>> 
>> I think this is a great opportunity, especially since I happen to
>> be in the area.
>> 
>> Please provide your thoughts, and let me know how we can move 
>> forward. Thanks.
>> 
>> -jeff
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
> 
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