[OSGeo-Discuss] Board candidate vision: Massimiliano Cannata

[Massimiliano Cannata]

Some people from the community asked for a couple of word on vision/plans
from the Board candidates, so here is my vision and a few things about me
to supplement the kind presentation provided by Professor Venkatesh.

My Vision

In the last decade OSGeo has matured and cemented his role as an important
leading actor in the geospatial sector, often driving changes and bringing
innovations thanks to the impressive work done by the community in a broad
sense: the board, the committees, the local chapters, the projects and the
people.

Since Bangkok 2004, that we can consider as the father of all the FOSS4G
conferences, the community had the feeling that Open Source Software were
underestimated and that to compete with proprietary software we would had
need to demonstrate that “our” software is stable, reliable and of great
quality. All this has been achieved, thanks to the commitment of many
people, and we can see today the effect of this effort: FOSS4G software
used in production in critical services of Governments, Administrations,
Organizations, Universities and Industries.

At the same time, with the above mentioned attainment, the community has
massively grown. So much that today we can count on developers, passionate
advocates, users and curious from all over the world which provide an
impressive kaleidoscope of expertise (engineers, architects, geologists,
urban planners, computer scientists, designer, educators, biologists… and
many others) and represent an incredible variety of cultures (Anglo-Saxon,
Latin, African, Indo, Islamic, Arab, Sinosphere, European, Asiatic… and
many others). We are a kind of Utopia of biodiversity, and we all know that
from high biodiversity come high productivity and stability.

My vision is that in the next years FOSS4G will become more and more
important bringing innovation and reliable solutions in particular it will
facilitate the widely implementation of Open Geo Data, the management and
analysis of Big Geo Data, the implementation of the Digital Earth and Smart
Cities: all this with the ultimate goal to  effectively impact the
societies and the quality of life of people located all over the globe.

Succeeding means striking a balance between OSGeo communities, sectors and
cultures. As board member my priorities will be:

   -

   Foster FOSS4G education: teaching Open Source has been in the past a key
   feature in creating FOSS4G advocates that massively contributed to the
   realization of OSGeo. In the future we should go further: reaching more
   countries and offering courses of outstanding quality, in the same way we
   do for projects.
   -

   Lower the barriers to attend FOSS4G: conferences are one of the few
   moments where we have the opportunity to meet up,  discuss face to face and
   take inspiration by attending talks, workshops and sprint codes.
   Unfortunately costs has become higher, year after year, and I believe that
   this is a undesired barrier for many: particularly for students, people
   from developing countries or individuals which do not attend in the name of
   any organization or company.
   -

   Encourage continental chapters: OSGeo strongly rely on local chapters to
   act locally and spread FOSS4G. This approach allows to correctly address
   the specificity and needs of different countries or region. Nevertheless in
   the last years we have seen the natural growing of continental conferences
   (FOSS4G North America, FOSS4G Europe, FOSS4G Asia, FOSS4G South America)
   which I believe should grow more as an important moment to address issues,
   needs and opportunities which are particularly meaningful for that
   continent or that may not apply to other part of the world. They could also
   be an option to lower barriers to attend international meetings.
   -

   Listen to individual: like it has always been in OSGeo, the community is
   OSGeo and ideas and needs expressed by each single member are the gas of
   our community. I will be committed to bring those to the board discussion
   table.


About me
Thanks to the type of projects I have carried out I used to consider myself
academic with a private company perspective.

I am Professor in Geomatics and head of the Geomatic Division, which is one
of the established ICA-OSGo-labs, at the University of Applied Sciences and
Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) [1].

I 'm 43 and I have a long participation record in what is the OSGeo
community today: I had the chance to participate in all the FOSS4G
conferences, from Bangkok to Nottingham.

I approached FOSS4G during my master thesis, then I strengthened its
knowledge during my PhD and my visit at DM Solutions and finally I cemented
in the last decade.

Applied Science University in Switzerland are committed to provide
education, applied research and services in support of the local region,
this allows me in the last decade to carry out different type of works, for
example: mandates from the local administration on critical services,
international R&D projects of large dimensions, world bank projects and
several courses in base and continuing education.





[1] http://www.supsi.ch/home_en.html

-- 
*Massimiliano Cannata*

Professore SUPSI in ingegneria Geomatica

Responsabile settore Geomatica


Istituto scienze della Terra

Dipartimento ambiente costruzione e design

Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana

Campus Trevano, CH - 6952 Canobbio

Tel. +41 (0)58 666 62 14

Fax +41 (0)58 666 62 09

massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch

*www.supsi.ch/ist <http://www.supsi.ch/ist>*
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