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

Thu Apr 30 11:09:01 PDT 2015

Hi Suchith,

As far as I know there is already some moves toward openness in UN. 

1. At FOSS4G Seoul, Mr. Kyung-Soo Eom, Head of UN Cartographic Section, will give a keynote speech[1] about UN’s views, plans toward open source GIS. And I was told that some UN technical officers will attend FOSS4G Seoul to discuss feasibility of open source GIS in UN and share their thoughts. 

2. UN already called for RFI named "Request for Information (RFI) on the implementation of an enterprise open source GIS software at the United Nations”[2]

3. This years SotM will be held at UN Headquarter with support from UN.[3]

4. When UN-GGIM[4] was established in 2011, President of OSGeo - Arnulf Christl - was invited to UN-GGIM conference and at the same year, OSGeo submitted OSGeo’s vision for UN-GGIM.[5] And importance and role of open source GIS is also written in UN-GGIM’s report.[6]

I think we can explore the possibility of organising similar session you suggested at FOSS4G Seoul. 

All the best, 

Sanghee

[1]http://2015.foss4g.org/programme/keynote-speech/
[2]http://www.un.org/depts/ptd/pdf/rfi50.pdf
[3]http://openstreetmap.us/2015/04/at-united-nations/
[4]http://ggim.un.org/
[5]http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Vision_for_UN-GGIM
[6]http://ggim.un.org/docs/Future-trends.pdf
---
Sanghee Shin, Chair of FOSS4G 2015 Seoul 
"Toward Diversity! FOSS4G Bigbang from Seoul!"
http://2015.foss4g.org
Twitter: @foss4g
Facebook: FOSS4G2015
email: foss4gchair at osgeo.org

> 2015. 4. 30., 오후 6:03, Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk> 작성:
> 
> 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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