[OSGeo-Discuss] Happy news from GeoForAll

[Suchith Anand]

Hi all,

GeoForAll will take up this challenge with great pleasure and humility. We have so many examples of hundreds of schools already benifiting from GeoForAll principles that are lead from Sergio to Bridget that these publications should also publish if they are serious about geoeducation and are impartial. I can reach out to the editors and ask them to publish articles on these examples and  developments in GeoForAll. If they refuse to publish our articles then, we need to understand why ? Is it because of sponsorship or pressure? If so from whom?

I request the OSGeo community to help us by doing three things for us


1. Every single member of OSGeo is our GeoAmbassodors, so goahead and share http://www.geoforall.org with your contacts (by mail, social media etc) our monthly newsletters with your contacts and community. Even if some publications might not publish our articles for fear for upsetting sponsors, it really doesn’t matter. No vendor can impose Iron Curtains on the free flow of information today .


2. You all are connected to atleast one school in some way . It maybe the school you studied, or schools that your children are studying now. Please share GeoForAll url with the teachers there and request them to join the mailing list at http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/geoforall



3. GeoForAll’s mission is make geospatial education opportunities open to all and to make sure we all work together to create global citizens contributing to the betterment of humanity. Caring and Sharing are important values that all students should learn to be good global citizens .


I am now in Africa and had the opportunity to meet and discuss ideas with lot of teachers and students  . Taking to students and teachers in Kenya has inspired me a lot . Just now I came back after giving lecture to students in a University here. I had interesting discussions of how things changed with staff and students now fully empowered. They used to struggle to get GIS licences before but recently  one of Properitery GIS vendors are now running around desperately giving licences to some universities here and guess what the students are all downloading QGIS for their laptops and using that!. The vendor just cannot stop students downloading QGIS and using that  as long as there is internet.  These students are also very active in social media sharing these ideas.   The digital natives are too smart for any vendor to fool and force them to buy their product later.  These students and staff  in Kenya  are also promoting GeoForAll at GIS Day next month at their universities ( properitery vendor are even sponsorsing GIS Day here at many universities hoping to market their product! ) All of these students are also  our GeoAmbassodors and they have also seen the gvSIG Batovi youtube videos etc  and are very inspired that they are now spreading the message and ideas to their schools , teachers and contacts using their smartphones.

I am very optimistic of the future. Please do not underestimate the knowledge and ideas of the digital natives. They know how to find the information and tools that they need and no vendor can fool them. I request the OSGeo community to support geoeducation as a priority and be our GeoAmbassodors. GeoMentors are very welcome to  share GeoForAll ideas using the opportunity they got. We are open minded.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: GeoForAll <geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
Sent: 27 October 2016 8:35 PM
To: SERGIO ACOSTAYLARA; discuss at lists.osgeo.org; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Geo4All] [OSGeo-Discuss] Sharing sad news from the web...

Hi Sergio, geo4all,

Sounds like a challenge to me. Why not reach out to the editor and offer to help them write another article about all the Open Source Geospatial initiatives?

On 28/10/2016 2:36 AM, SERGIO ACOSTAYLARA wrote:

Sadly, only ESRI seems to exist for some in the USA...Imagine the consequences of this: http://www.pobonline.com/articles/100610-gathering-up-geospatial-pros-to-meet-massive-market-growth


Sergio Acosta y Lara
Departamento de Geomática
Dirección Nacional de Topografía
Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas
URUGUAY
(598)29157933 ints. 20329/20330
http://geoportal.mtop.gub.uy/



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Cameron Shorter
M +61 419 142 254





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