[OSGeo-Discuss] What is North America?

[Daniel P. Ames]

Arnulf, many Americans (Amerikans?) find the term "gringo" to be quite
disparaging. Close, but not quite as bad as other racist terms (n*,
etc). Please avoid using it. Also your etymology of the term is
completely wrong ("green go"!?)

"in Spanish it simply identifies a foreigner"
"The word was used in Spain - although the word is nowadays rarely
heard there - long before it crossed the Atlantic to denote foreign,
non-native speakers of Spanish." - Wikipedia.

- Dan
--------------------------
Daniel P. Ames, Ph.D. PE
Associate Professor, Geosciences
Idaho State University - Idaho Falls
dan.ames at isu.edu
geology.isu.edu
www.mapwindow.org




On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 3:29 AM, Seven (aka Arnulf) <seven at arnulf.us> wrote:
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> Now that a North American Regional Chapter is emerging I wanted to
> understand what the term "North America" actually means. Just a few
> example:
>
> In my cultural context (Germany) the Unites States on their own are
> typically called "Amerika" which in reality is a whole continent. To
> many Germans Kanada (yes, with a "K") is just a US wilderness adventure
> park (Canadians: no offence meant). In many South American countries US
> citizens are nowadays called "Gringo" which originally meant "Green Go"
> and relates to US "interventions" in Middle and Southern America.
>
> So for many non-North-Americans the term might be really, really fuzzy
> which is why I thought it would be a good idea to define it more
> closely, started here:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Talk:North_America_Regional
>
> Looking at the typical roles of a local chapter (or in this case a "meta
> local chapter" or "regional chapter") I would suggest that this chapter
> would be the primary point of contact for the organization of a FOSS4G
> event in English language in either the US or Canada. Extending it
> beyond these two countries would probably raise a whole lot of
> additional issues starting with language (Spanish) and ending with
> politics (Cuba) - which will probably complicate things beyond
> recognition. I can also see other meta chapters forming with a more
> Spanish speaking background in the Middle Americas, so there is no
> exclusivity here at all. The Spanish speaking Local Chapter might also
> be a good template to see how this could look.
>
> But anything I say here is absolutely not fundamental at all, just 2ct
> from an outsider (sent in the hope that this list will see a broadly
> inclusive dialog about how this group will evolve).
>
> Have fun,
> Arnulf
>
> - --
> Exploring Space, Time and Mind
> http://arnulf.us
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