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

Thu May 21 00:33:14 PDT 2015

Thanks Maria, that will be excellent. I suggest that we use the session at FOSS4G Europe 2015 to discuss ideas on how we can better build synergies with the UN Millennium Development Goals based on initial ideas at http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/ica-osgeo-labs/2015-May/001610.html

I am waiting for updates from Sanghee on FOSS4G 2015 Seoul session.

Best wishes,

Suchith
________________________________________
From: Polimi [maria.brovelli at polimi.it]
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 7:00 AM
To: Suchith Anand
Cc: Cameron Shorter; board at lists.osgeo.org; Patrick Hogan
Subject: Re: [Board] GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference

Suchith, Cameron
That's great! Let me see if I'm able to find some time for a first meeting during FOSS4G Europe. Days are busy, but probably there could be some time on Friday evening after the closing session. I know that it is not the best, but let us try.
In any case I'm absolutely interested in being part of this effort. Thanks!
Ciao!
Maria

----------------------------------------------------
Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
Vice Rector for Como Campus and GIS Professor
Politecnico di Milano

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Il giorno 21/mag/2015, alle ore 03:06, Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> ha scritto:

Hi Cameron,

This is a good idea. Let us try that.

I also think it is good to plan ideas also for special track for FOSS4G conferences on "Open GIS for UN and International development" (like the Academic tracks etc we now regularly have) as that helps build long term collaborations.

Best wishes,

Suchith
________________________________________
From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Cameron Shorter [cameron.shorter at gmail.com<mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>]
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2015 11:39 PM
To: board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Board] GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference

Hi Board,
Great to see this item on the board agenda tomorrow.
With regards to this conference, an easy and initially
non-confrontational step would be to offer an OSGeo based presentation
at the conference. I regularly approach conference organisors and offer
a presentation or workshop which provides a comprehensive  overview of
Open Source Geospatial Software, based on the OSGeo-Live presentation
[1]. We are almost always warmly encouraged to present, and wh then
source a local OSGeo Advocate [2] to present.

Someone from the OSGeo Board might want to do something similar for this
ESRI UN conference, or alternatively, I'd be happy to approach on behalf
of OSGeo-Live.

[1] http://live.osgeo.org/en/presentation/index.html#/
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Advocate

Warm regards,
Cameron

On 11/05/2015 9:08 pm, Suchith Anand wrote:
Hi Sanghee,

Thank you for the updates. Please also inform them on our previous collaborations with the UN (through the ICA) for this.

In 2012 and 2014 we have organised hands on  workshop "Open Source GIS & WebMapping for UN staff" in Vienna, Austria. It was organized on behalf of the Commission on Open Source Geospatial Technologies of the International Cartographic Association (ICA). Barend Kobben (ITC) was the course organisor for this. Thank you Barend.

http://kartoweb.itc.nl/kobben/SOMAP-OSGEO-workshop/  (2014 Workshop )
http://kartoweb.itc.nl/kobben/SOMAP-OSGEO-workshop/report2012.html  (2012 Workshop )

So we are keen scale up our engagement with the UN to higher levels. Please cc me in your email and i am happy to also contact our other key contacts in the UN for this if needed.

Thanks again for your help with this.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Sanghee Shin [endofcap at gmail.com<mailto:endofcap at gmail.com>]
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2015 9:05 AM
To: Suchith Anand
Cc: Shin Sanghee; Jeff McKenna; board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Board] GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference

Hi Suchith and others,

For the update, Seoul team is currently discussing with UN Cartographic Section and other interested parties whether we can have special session named "Open GIS for the United Nations and for International Development.”

Hope I get back to you soon.

All the best,

Sanghee
---
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<mailto:foss4gchair at osgeo.org>

2015. 5. 1., 오후 11:06, Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> 작성:

Hi Sanghee,

This is great to hear and i am sure the United Nations will never endorse any particular properitory GIS vendors products etc. The UN GGIM Beijing Declaration on Sustainable Development with Geospatial Information clearly provides highlights on the importance of Openness (software, standards, data)  https://ggim.un.org/docs/meetings/3rd%20HLF/Beijing%20Declaration%2024Oct2014%20FINAL.pdf

This event  at http://www.gisfortheun.com , (though the url is  misleading as initially i thought this event was endorsed by the UN! ),  it looks like it  is a vendor initiated event (Esri) trying to reach out to the UN agencies to help indirectly promote thier properitory products in the hope that the UN will buy and use thier products :-)

I think, this discussion anyway helped us  to take proactive action to engage more proactively United Nations. It is great if we can do a special session at FOSS4G Seoul (though i thought it will be quite short notice and hence thinking ideas for FOSS4G 2016) but if you as the chair of FOSS4G 2015 wants a special session organised, i will be happy to help you oragnise this (i will help remotely though as i wont be able to attend the conference) .

Please let me know if you want to goahead with organising special session for the United Nations at FOSS4G 2015 and we can start contacting colleagues in the UN for support and participation.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Sanghee Shin [endofcap at gmail.com<mailto:endofcap at gmail.com>]
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2015 7:09 PM
To: Suchith Anand
Cc: Shin Sanghee; Jeff McKenna; board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Board] GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference

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<mailto:foss4gchair at osgeo.org>

2015. 4. 30., 오후 6:03, Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto: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<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Jeff McKenna [jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com<mailto:jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>]
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2015 2:00 PM
To: board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto: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>
<mailto:margherita.di-leo at jrc.ec.europa.eu>

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