An OSGeo Call for Papers, sort of

[Michael P. Gerlek]

OSGeo-ers:

The following is sort of an experiment, so please bear with me.

Your Visibility Committee is setting up a "library" of content related
to OSGeo activities, and we would like you to contribute.  We know that
there is a lot of very good content out there -- and so our idea is to
be able to collect a number of presentations, talks, etc, under terms of
a CC-like license so that other OSGeo members can use them in order to
create/derive/remix/mashup their own custom presentations, talks, etc.

The sort of content we are looking for includes, but is not limited to:
  - papers
  - slide presentations
  - web-based presentations (e.g. for tutorials)
  - podcasts
  - ...?

The topics we are looking to cover include anything that touches on
OSGeo, e.g. the intersection of Open Source and GIS:
  - overviews of what our Foundation is and does
  - why open source is good, in the GIS world
  - surveys of open source geo packages
  - presentations on specific OSGeo member projects
  - etc

As we intend this to be a "permanent" library, higher quality material
is preferred over random wiki pages of notes and scribblings.  That
said, if all I can get is a bunch of outlines for talks written up in
ASCII, I'd be happy with that.  If in doubt, go ahead and submit it.

We're going to see how it goes and what happens, but for now the ground
rules will be:

* The actual "library" will live on the OSGeo site as a simple Wiki page
with summaries and links.  I would prefer to host the actual content at
osgeo.org -- if you can't abide by that, you can send me a link and I'll
use that.

* For now, unless otherwise indicated, if you submit material I will
assume you consent to a
"free-to-remix-this-content-as-long-as-you-give-me-credit" policy.  (I'm
sure there's a formal CC term for this, but I need to do the research on
that.)

* I'm not going to fight any file format wars at this point: whatever
format is submitted will be what we use, at least for now.  PowerPoint,
PDF, LaTex, troff, HyperCard, whatever.

* Languages other than English are encouraged!  (although you'll need to
give me a short one-sentence summary in English of what the content is
about...)

(Also, I think we should exclude from this CFP any material that is more
"course-work" oriented, as that falls under the purview of the Education
and Curriculum Committee.)

For now I'm just focused on getting a critical mass of content to launch
this, but if you have any suggestions for how to organize and host this
material later on, I'd be happy to hear them.

Thanks in advance for your contributions!

-mpg