[Board] [Ica-osgeo-labs] Open call for volunteers to help with building and hosting GeoforAll website in OSGeo infrastructure

Thu May 21 23:46:21 PDT 2015

Education is central to the key missions of OSGeo, ISPRS and ICA . They all have thier seperate education committees, WGs etc but when we all join together on a common aim of making geospatial education and opportunities for all , it adds lot of synergies and that was the main reason of the success and momentum of "Geo for All". Though the majority of members in GeoforAll are from OSGeo Education committee, we want to make sure it is inclusive and hence there is strong participation from ICA members and ISPRS members and we want to encourage more of this as this is key for the success.

Suchith

________________________________________
From: massimiliano.cannata at gmail.com [massimiliano.cannata at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Massimiliano Cannata [massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch]
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2015 2:37 AM
To: Charles Schweik
Cc: OSGeo Discussions; ICA OSGeo Labs list; osgeo-board List; Suchith Anand
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Open call for volunteers to help with building and hosting GeoforAll website in OSGeo infrastructure

Hello,
This is my personal view that do not reflect the opinion of the board, but only of a single member.

If Geo4All is an extension of the edu committee aiming to be cross-organization, I would expect the edu-com to formerly represent osgeo with respect to Ica and ISPRS and this is not the case. Since there is no interactions I cannot see the complimentary but only overlaps.

Personally, I feel Geo4All has replaced the edu-com. Last email in the edu-com list seems to be dated December 2014, while ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS list is active.
Members are almost the same, so I feel there is no time and energy to support both.

Education is one of the key missions of osgeo in my opinion and spreading energies doesn’t make too much sense to me.

My 2 cents

Maxi

Il 21-mag-2015 05:11, "Charles Schweik" <cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu<mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu>> ha scritto:
The below view makes sense to me.

I'm cc'ing the OSGeo Board list so they can see your thoughts here, Suchith.

Charlie

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 9:54 AM, Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> wrote:
Hi Charlie,

My suggestion is to  have a link the GeoforAll website from OSGeo Education or ideally directly from OSGeo homepage. It is important to keep both OSGeo Education Committee and GeoforAll as they are complimentary. The whole idea of GeoforAll was to make this  a wider geocommunity initiative (hence we have OSGeo, ICA and ISPRS Presidents as cochairs in our Advisory Board along with GeoforAll community nominated members http://www.geoforall.org/advisory_board/

Best wishes,

Suchith
________________________________________
From: Charles Schweik [cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu<mailto:cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu>]
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 9:43 AM
To: Phillip Davis
Cc: Suchith Anand; Steven Feldman; discuss at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Open call for volunteers to help with building and hosting GeoforAll website in OSGeo infrastructure

Hi,

This probably relates directly to my last post to the OSGeo Board and the distinction between OSGeo Education Committee and GeoForAll.

I think we can, and probably should, combine them. If others agree, this would mean building from the OSGeo Education page [1]. I have the authority to update that page and need to because the ELOgeo link is not functioning on it and some other updating is needed.

My problem here is time... I'm trying to focus my attention on a GeoForAll grant proposal right now! If someone can come up with revised content for those pages (or we replace with a GeoForAll link)...

But I think we should see what the board thinks about whether the Education group and GeoForAll should be combined or separated?

Or what do others think of this question? (sorry -- I forsee a bunch of threads on this coming in our in-boxes!)

Cheers,

Charlie

[1] http://www.osgeo.org/education

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 9:34 AM, Phillip Davis <pdavis at delmar.edu<mailto:pdavis at delmar.edu><mailto:pdavis at delmar.edu<mailto:pdavis at delmar.edu>>> wrote:
Suchith you can count on my limited talents to contribute to this worthy and necessary cause.

Phillip Davis
________________________________________
From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> [ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>>] On Behalf Of Suchith Anand [Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk><mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>>]
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 3:31 AM
To: Steven Feldman; discuss at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:discuss at lists.osgeo.org>>; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>>
Subject: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Open call for volunteers to help with building and hosting GeoforAll website in OSGeo infrastructure

Colleagues,

I would like to call upon all of you , if you can help volunteer to build a website for "Geo for All" http://www.geoforall.org/  in OSGeo infrastructure

Key advantages:

1. We can ensure long term hosting and development as the initiative grows

2. We will be able to provide the whole $5k of our budget for student travel awards for FOSS4G- Seoul 2015

I am sure our University of Southampton colleagues will be happy to work with any interested volunteers to move the website from the current hosts (University of Southampton) to OSGeo infrastructure.

It will be great if we can have many volunteers so we can spread the efforts. I am willing to volunteer my time and efforts for provide content etc for this. Could you please let us all know if you are wlling to help  by 30th May 2015, so we can plan ideas. Thanks.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org><mailto: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><mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>>] On Behalf Of Steven Feldman [shfeldman at gmail.com<mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com><mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com<mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>>]
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 9:11 AM
To: Suchith Anand; OSGeo-Board
Subject: Re: [Board] [Ica-osgeo-labs] Reminder of meeting tomorrow

Suchith, Board

We should not be diverting money from the student travel budget to build a web site for Geo4All. Either use the OSGeo infrastructure or get volunteers to spin something up, with all of the universities involved there must be some people with the necessary skills who can do this, we should not be paying Southampton to do it

steven

From: Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk><mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>><mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk><mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>>>>
Subject: Re: [Board] [Ica-osgeo-labs] Reminder of meeting tomorrow
Date: 21 May 2015 01:01:15 BST
To: Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch<mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch><mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch<mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>><mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch<mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch><mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch<mailto:massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>>>>
Cc: osgeo-board List <board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>><mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:board at lists.osgeo.org>>>>, "ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>>>" <ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org><mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>>>>

Hi Massimiliano,

Thank you for your queries.

Yes, GeoforAll is 100 percent an OSGeo Education initiative (but supported by others like ICA, ISPRS through MoUs and we hope more like minded organisations who have interest in enabling Geospatial education and opportunities for all join us in the future).

Regarding your questions:

- Does a budget for Geo4All exists?

Yes, the only budget we have is the $5k allocation for ICA/OSGeo Labs Student Travel  in the OSGeo budget last year and this year. Last year budget [1] if i remember correctly we did not use it .
[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Budget_2014

- ISPRS, ICA and OSGeo how they support the initiative, apart from having signed the MoU?

For example in addition to the amazing support that both ICA and ISPRS has given which helped us expand to many universities globally , they have been contributing to student awards etc. For example for the Europa World Wind challenge 2015, both ICA and ISPRS are contributing student prizes http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/ica-osgeo-labs/2015-May/001531.html  I remember ICA gave student awards last year also for Europa challenge.

- Why Geo4All need a website hosted in Nottingham and is not using the OSGeo infrastructure, like the OSGeo committees (incubation, marketing, etc.)?

First of all, it is NOT hosted in Nottingham, it is developed and hosted by the University of Southampton. We had long , big discussions in Geofor all maillists to see who can help us with the website development and hosting . In fact, our first offer came from colleagues in Mexico but unfortunately even after nearly 1 year delay nothing happened and thankfully that time University of Southampton colleagues  stepped in and volunteered to develop a website for us free and i am very grateful for that.

If OSGeo intrstructure can be provided  and we can get volunteers for developing and maintaining our website , we will be very happy. The website is really key for us and we  need to make sure it is supported long term. For example, the open educational repository that we at University of Nottingham developed called ELOGeo, i wanted to transfer to OSGeo infrastructure when the project funding ended and i did send many emails but nothing happened. We do not want the same thing to happen to our website as we spend huge amounts of time and effort reaching this stage and hence we request support  for the website developments . As you can see from the links in my email there has been lot of discussions from the community on this and supporting our website developments is the top priority.

- How Geo4All differentiates from the educational committee? Shall we consider that committee dead and replaced by Geo4All?

GeoforAll is a key element of OSGeo Education initiative not replacing the educational committee . The biggest advantage of having GeoforAll initiative is that we have made OSGeo Education into a wider geocommunity initiative ( not just OSGeo but much wider geocommunity inititative in collaboration with other like minded organisations) and we need to take actions to expand this.

Please let me know if there are any other queries. Thanks.

Best wishes,

Suchith
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Charlie Schweik

Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dept of Environmental Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration

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