[Conference-europe] when and where

[Dirk Frigne]

Mateusz,


On 21-08-14 11:03, Mateusz Łoskot wrote:
> On 21 August 2014 10:50, Jachym Cepicky <jachym.cepicky at gmail.com> wrote:
[...]
> IMHO, a code sprint or any other events close to software development are
> required. Reason?
> - OSGeo/FOSS4G roots are in software development, later extended to
> cover other aspects
> - majority of community is involved in development (note, development
> is not only programming,
> but also brainstorming ideas, designs, architectures, documentation, etc.)
> - face-to-face meetings is what the community is missing and FOSS4G is
> one of few opportunities
> to gather folks in one place so they can collaborate...supporting such
> face-to-face meeting-and-hacking
> should be one of major points of the agenda.
+1
I follow your analysis here!
but ...

[...]
> Number of IT events grow every year, so it's become more important to
> have a topic, than make a huge one-for-all event.
> IMHO, main focus of OSGeo/FOSS4G is software and data, and all
> activities that are closely related.
> From what I see, general discussions about INSPIRE or OGC are not
> particularly interesting topics to our community,
> unless we talk about a particular standard, its implementation(s) and
> related issues.
I don't follow this one,

I don't mean a huge one-for-all event when I try to align place and time
with other EU conferences, but by doing so, many people are traveling to
the same space at the_same_time, and this should result in networking
opportunities for FOSS4G/OSGeo (as you described it in your text above
as "other aspects":

- OSGeo/FOSS4G roots are in software development, later extended to
cover other aspects

As a nominee for the board of OSGeo, these are exactly the things I want
to focus on. As Jeff describes under 'Building an "Ecosystem"/Network',
I think it is necessary to create an environment where we have the
opportunity to physically meet people face2face that are related, but
not necessary interested in the same domain.

I want to find solutions where we can leverage the time/effort we are
investing in our community of communities for a greater impact on what
is going on in the world.
travelling means a big investment, not only in money, but also in time.

If you concentrate people around a specific topic, you don't have the
opportunity to meet people face to face, having different visions, views
and idea's. Cross domain brain storming is IMHO very important to bring
OSGeo to a next level.

If you have different events going on in one city (eventually on
different venues in the city), there is 'cofee / lunch and beer time'
available to organize these cross domain meetings.
We even can think in more 'structured' meetings, but this could be the
result of the discussions during a first try out.

It shouldn’t be the first time this is happening. If I am right,
FOSS4G2013 was also a part of a bigger event 'Maptember'.

my 2c

D.
>
> Best regards,

-- 
Yours sincerely,


ir. Dirk Frigne
CEO

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