[OSGeo-Discuss] Making my pitch

[Joanne Cook]

Dear All,

In light of the request that Charter Member nominees state their case for nomination, here goes...

For those that don't know- I'm the local representative of the UK Local Chapter of OSGeo. I helped found the local chapter after FOSS4G2006 in Lausanne, and since then have been trying to raise the profile of OSGeo and open source geospatial software in general in the UK. I believe this has been quite successful. The local chapter has grown significantly since Lausanne, and we now have a core team of very committed people, who are organising events such as the very successful OSGIS conferences at the University of Nottingham Centre for Geospatial Sciences. I speak at industry conferences such as the Association of Geographic Information, on OSGeo and open source GIS. I help teach open source gis at workshops around the UK. I blog at www.archaeogeek.com (though less frequently at the moment), on real-life experiences with open source GIS, and have been advising companies around the UK on making the transition from proprietary software. In all these cases I cite OSGeo as one of the reasons why the open source approach is viable, sustainable and professional. 

Charter Membership would mean a lot to me, personally, and would (I think) help me when I am trying to raise the profile of the foundation. Having more female charter members will help address the gender imbalance within the organisation that was identified at FOSS4G in Barcelona. The UK is also currently quite under-represented, so it would be nice to see more Brits on the list as well.

I hope that helps...

Jo

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Joanne Cook
Senior IT Support and Development
Oxford Archaeology (North)
01524 880212
http://thehumanjourney.net


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