[OSGeo-Discuss] Short report on OpenGIS-Moscow

[Jeff McKenna]

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