[Board] GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference

[Suchith Anand]

Hi Madi,

Thanks for bringing this up. Though i dont know details of the conference (just going through the website), it looks like a clever marketing event by Esri.

My suggestion is the following

1. Folks can email their contacts in the United Nations to understand why this event is only showcasing just  one properitory vendor .At the very least there should be some competition among the properitory GIS vendors :-)

2. Ask the United Nations contacts why this event is not supporting Openness in GIS . In fact, the recent earth quake relief operations in Nepal by the Humanitarian Open Street Map Team   http://opensourcegeospatial.icaci.org/2015/04/mapping-response-contributions-for-nepal/   highlight the importance of Openness and bringing the International community together based on open principles.

3. We are in a very strong position for organising our own focussed events for the United Nations community in parallel to the FOSS4G conferences from next year. So my suggestion is let us plan a special one day event at FOSS4G 2016 in Germany titled " Open GIS for the United Nations and for International Development". I am happy to be one of organisors and would like to get help from 2-3 people who wish to support to get this organised. Please let this list know if you can help. Thanks.

Suchith



________________________________________
From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jeff McKenna [jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2015 2:00 PM
To: board at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Board] GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference

Hi Madi,

Thank you for pointing to this event.

To be honest, this is a tough one to handle (likely why no one else
responded to you yet), but I definitely see your point.  Its audience is
supposed to be "The International Community", but it is invite only.
There are so many questionable items here.

The only point that I could make for their side, is that other than the
event title, it is clear that this event is for Esri "partners".  And
that this event seems to run every year (since 2012 it appears).

I'm not sure how to handle this one.  Maybe we can start a discussion
with the organizers/Esri, in hopes that for next year's event OSGeo can
be involved.  But the only way to contact the organizers appears to be
through exhibits(at)esri

I am hoping my response awakens other readers and those who are able to
share their thoughts.  Worst case scenario: we will discuss this item at
the next Board meeting (I've added it to the agenda).

Madi, not to change the subject on purpose, but while I am talking with
you here, I'd like you to consider joining the OSGeo Board.  I think
you'd be a great representative of the community.  (keep this in mind
for when the next Board elections begin)  Maybe we can chat about this
at FOSS4G-Europe.

-jeff



On 2015-04-29 12:17 PM, Margherita Di Leo wrote:
> Dears,
>
> with some colleagues we noticed the following event organized at UN:
> http://www.gisfortheun.com called "GIS for the United Nations and the
> International Community Conference". At a closer look at the agenda
> (http://www.gisfortheun.com/agenda/index.html), it turned out that the
> only GIS mentioned is Esri.
>
> At the beginning we thought that Esri was a sponsor, but apparently it
> does not seem to be the case http://www.gisfortheun.com/sponsors/index.html
> However, although the very general title, turns out that the event is
> co-organized by Esri. Indeed in the home page, it reads:
>
> "The event is jointly hosted by UNITAR’s Operational Satellite
> Application Programme (UNOSAT) and Esri."
>
> I don't have anything against Esri but with such general title, it seems
> misleading that no other software representative is invited. For the
> sake of diversity, some OSGeo software might as well be part of this
> event. Just to be sure that people do not think that Esri is the only
> GIS on Earth. Otherwise, if it is an advertising event, it could just be
> clear in the title: instead of just GIS, it could as well be called
> "Esri GIS for the United Nations and the International Community
> Conference".
>
> What do you think? Could OSGeo politely ask Esri to clarify the
> situation and either open up to the broader GIS community or just change
> the title of this event? Would the board take action in this sense?
>
> Thank you
>
> --
> Best regards,
>
> Dr. Margherita DI LEO
> Scientific / technical project officer
>
> European Commission - DG JRC
> Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES)
> Via Fermi, 2749
> I-21027 Ispra (VA) - Italy - TP 261
> Tel. +39 0332 78 3600
> margherita.di-leo at jrc.ec.europa.eu
> <mailto:margherita.di-leo at jrc.ec.europa.eu>
>
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