[OSGeo-Discuss] Short report on OpenGIS-Moscow

[Suchith Anand]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for sharing these updates on OpenGIS-Moscow. I am sure this event will help more universities in Russia  to establish dedicated Open Source Geospatial Labs for expanding geoeducation opportunities and share Geo4All ideas and principles.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Discuss [discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] on behalf of Jeff McKenna [jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com]
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2015 9:32 PM
To: osgeo
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Short report on OpenGIS-Moscow

Hello everyone,

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the OpenGIS conference in
Moscow, Russia (http://gisconf.ru).  The venue was really nice, the huge
headquarters of @mail.ru Group (http://mail.ru), Moscow's largest
hi-tech company (2000 employees I believe), who in fact just purchased
an OpenStreetMap-based mapping application, MAPS.ME (http://maps.me).

Much of the credit for the event must go to Maxim, the chair, and his
company NextGIS (http://nextgis.ru/), who sponsored and dedicated so
much effort; the entire organizing committee deserves much praise, and
you likely will recognize many of them from past FOSS4G events
(http://gisconf.ru/organizers).

Roughly 415 attendees for the second OpenGIS event (the first was held
in 2012, with around 100 attendees) which is just excellent.  This was a
free event, meaning no admission charge, and attendees paid for their
lunches in the local cafeteria.  There were 2 tracks, one for FOSS4G
software and the other for OpenStreetMap; OSM is very active here, and
many will be aware of the locally-developed "OsmAnd" application.

The topics and talks were cutting-edge, this was a very knowledgeable
group, and very interested in the OSGeo foundation.  There was quite a
buzz at the event, and I saw packed workshop "master classes" for GRASS,
QGIS, and other core projects, and everyone was very energetic.  There
were many talks that mentioned their involvement in GeoForAll as well, I
couldn't be more impressed with their enthusiasm and passion for Open
Source geo.

Also of note is that like many other countries/municipalities across the
globe, their prime minister has signed a law that requires government
agencies to use Open Source software, which must be in place by January
2016, so there is a huge interested in FOSS.

Many will also be interested to hear that there is already talk of an
event for next year, in beautiful St. Petersburg.  So mark your
calendars!  You don't want to miss that event.

It was a special trip, I met so many vibrant energetic community
leaders.  And oh yes, because of this event a new OSGeo local chapter is
forming there, which is great!!!  Thank you to Maxim, Nikolai, the OSGeo
Board, and everyone at the OpenGIS event for making this such a special
trip.

You can see many pictures of the event here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trolleway/sets/72157659104643414


-jeff


--
Jeff McKenna
President, OSGeo
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jeff_McKenna



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