[California] Introductions, regional & local chapters

[Allan Hollander]

About statewide vs. local chapters -- on the main list Tyler was being 
slightly facetious about what the role of a Canada-wide chapter could be, but 
I think his point might apply here. I like the idea of a SF Bay Area FOSS4G 
group (not that distant of a trip for me), so maybe an initial goal of this 
California list should be to precipitate local groups. From discussion at 
those, California-wide goals could emerge. 

Most of my programming is in Python these days. I've been using Scribus a lot 
these days to produce a newsletter, and think it's a great product. Since I 
think the end point in cartographic production should be a high-quality PDF 
document, I could envision Scribus as the final tool used in a cartographic 
production chain.

About metadata tools -- my dream tool would be able to generate a good input 
form given a fairly arbitrary metadata schema. Are you thinking in terms of a 
desktop tool, or something web-based? GeoNetwork goes a fair bit down the 
latter road.

-- Allan


On Thursday 18 October 2007 09:05, Landon Blake wrote:
> Allan,
>
> Thank you for the introduction. I am thrilled to hear about open source
> GIS being used at some level in the University of California System.
>
> I work as a Land Surveyor in Stockton, California. I work as a volunteer
> administrator and programmer on the open source program OpenJUMP.
>
> You wrote: "The main goal I have for this chapter would be to raise the
> awareness of open source geospatial tools within geospatial
> practitioners in California."
>
> I'd love to hear some ideas about how we could reach this goal.
>
> You wrote: "I am also interested in regional FOSS4G meetups."
>
> Meeting places can be hard to come by. I could offer my back porch in
> Stockton if the weather was nice. Maybe we could arrange something after
> the holidays. Perhaps a date in January would work? Or, if it was more
> convenient, I could drive up to Davis... I wonder if we have any people
> from Southern California on the mailing list?
>
> You wrote: " I also like the programming ideas
> that have been posted so far on the wiki page."
>
> My favorite language is Java. I've also been known to dabble in C#,
> Python, and even a little C. Do you have a favorite language?
>
> You wrote: "Enhancing the hard-copy
> cartographic capabilities of the FOSS4G toolset is a big interest of
> mine..."
>
> I've already started working on some Python extension scripts for
> Inkscape. These scripts will enable "tools" for precision drawing needed
> in a cartography. Perhaps this could be a starting point? I've created a
> Google Code project called InkTech to host the source code for the
> scripts. There is nothing up there yet, because I'm still learning the
> ins and outs of the scripting system in Inkscape.
>
> You wrote: "There is definitely a need for a simple, modern, and
> general-purpose
> metadata editor."
>
> I agree. Could we start with a simple GUI editor that worked with a
> single metadata standard? Would we support the FGDC standard, or
> something else?
>
> Landon
>
>