[OSGeo-Discuss] 2015 North American conference

[Alex Mandel]

On 04/04/2014 02:02 PM, Andrew Ross wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> Please excuse the cross post between OSGeo's discuss & conference_dev
> lists as well as LocationTech's discussion list. I'm hoping to enable
> inclusive discussion about an idea.
> 
> Bit of background, this coming May (19-21), LocationTech Summit is
> co-hosted with Location Intelligence in Washington D.C.
> <http://www.locationintelligence.net/>. Travel restrictions for Federal
> Government employees for instance meant holding this in D.C. was
> important in 2014.
> 
> We have started planning for 2015, and I wanted to reach out and see if
> an idea might be of interest to the greater community.
> 
> The idea is to co-host LocationTech Summit, FOSS4G North America, and
> EclipseCon next year in the spring.
> 
> For those that haven't been:
> 
>  * EclipseCon is a great  developer conference & covers topics that I
>    feel may be a really nice complement such as Science, Internet of
>    Things, Automotive, Software development best practice, and more.
>    While there are some awesome talks in the area, it's not just about
>    the IDE. :-)
>  * FOSS4G NA is the regional sibling of FOSS4G Global, also a great
>    developer conference, and focused on geospatial technologies. It is
>    a must attend event if you're into web mapping or looking for open
>    source GIS solutions.
>  * LocationTech Summit is new (first one this May), similar to FOSS4G
>    however perhaps has a stronger focus on high performance
>    geoprocessing technologies and new technologies like GeoGit for
>    instance.
>  * My feeble attempt at contrast aside, I think these last two will see
>    a lot of the same speakers & audience.
> 
> A few thoughts:
> 
>  * We believe a combined event could likely be done to prioritize
>    camaraderie which is so important for open source projects &
>    community. i.e. avoid anyone feeling lost in a huge event.
>  * We feel the mutual outreach to people across communities would be
>    really useful, interesting, and spark wonderful ideas we can't predict.
>  * The logistical work can be done by full time conference organizers
>    who organize EclipseCon each year. The program is up to the
>    communities to set.
>  * For those seeking suppliers, partners, & customers, this should make
>    for more opportunities.
>  * Profit sharing with significant participating groups is doable.
>    We're glad to help figure out a fair and amicable solution.
>  * Ensuring each group are well served is a priority of course. We
>    think this combined event might attract people who might not
>    otherwise come to any of them. But we'll have to try and see.
> 
> Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Is this a good idea? Interested?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Andrew
> 


I agree that Foss4g and LocationTech share interest and that separately
LocationTech and EclipseCon share interest.

However the jump from Foss4g to EclipseCon is only a small overlap of
the communities.

This statement doesn't really differentiate LocationTech from Foss4g for me:
"...however perhaps has a stronger focus on high performance
    geoprocessing technologies and new technologies like GeoGit for
    instance."
Plenty of Foss4g is interested in those topics. I see nothing in
LocationTech that isn't also part of Foss4g conceptually. Just a focus
on the Eclipse community for implementation methods.

Perhaps LocationTech should split itself and partake in both things
separately. e.g. LocationTech tracks and submeetings at each conference?

I wouldn't be opposed to Foss4gNA taking place a few days before or
after EclipseCon depending on location and timing. This happens with OSM
state of the map conference sometimes. Note we strive for Foss4gNA to be
offset in the calendar from Foss4g 4-6 months.


Thanks,
Alex