[Europe] INSPIRE Conference call for papers deadline today!

[Dirk Frigne]

Dear list,

Today is the deadline for presentations for the INSPIRE conference. Next
year I will use this list to ask for contributions a couple of weeks
before the deadline, so we can coordinate hte OSGeo presentations which
will be given at the conference. There was the opportunity to organise a
whole session, but I was to late to take action (and apparently knowbody
else did).

I think it is important to present OSGeo during the conference so I will
submit this evening 2 presentations:
a regular presentation of 15 minutes where I will explain OSGeo and
OSGeo Europe. (abstract 1)

and a second speed presention (5 min) where I will talk about potential
partnerships between Europoean programmes and OSGeo (abstract 2).

For your information, these are the 2 abstracts:

abstract 1:
About OSGeo Europe and INSPIRE
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit
organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open
geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted
to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development.
Since the start in 2006, OSGeo started to grow into an organisation that
has now more than 50 local chapters and more than thirty thousand unique
mailing list subscribers.  The non for profit organisation is driven by
volunteers. Where volunteers at the start of the organisation where
mostly software developers, today more and more users join the community
helping to spread the word of open source.
Last year, The European chapter was founded with a specific focus to
help open geospatial technology being adopted in Europe, and in several
European programmes. Europe has specific needs in terms of adopting open
source software.
    • OSGeo Europe is a sparring partner and the representation (Single
point of contact) for the European institutions in Brussels on behalve
of OSGeo.org, the other committees, local chapters and projects. Giving
the existing local chapters a voice in Brussels.
    • Europe also has specific business ecosystems.
        ◦ more than 99% of all the European businesses are small and
medium enterprises (SME's)
        ◦ software industry in Europe is as big as the software industry
in the US, but the driving forces are more divided
        ◦ Free (Libre) Open Source Software (FLOSS) can be used as an
opportunity to create a strong industry leadership in Europe
        ◦ OSGeo Europe can play a supporting role in this process
  One of the first initiatives OSGeo Europe supported was the promotion
of the OSGeo software, already used for several INSPIRE software needs
towards the potential users, and promotion of the INSPIRE project
towards the OSGeo community.
During this presentation, the president of OSGeo Europe will explain the
benefits of open software and point to the OSGeo Live project for
INSPIRE, where more than 50 open source software solutions are available
and being documented from an INSPIRE point of view.
At the end of the presentation the audience should have clear insight
information where OSGeo can help, and how the audience can help OSGeo to
bring the INSPIRE directive into practice.
Last but not least, you everybody receives a lot of valuable INSPIRE
software solutions – for free!

abstract 2:
How can OSGeo Europe help the European programmes

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit
organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open
geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted
to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development.
Since the start in 2006, OSGeo started to grow into an organisation that
has now more than 50 local chapters and more than thirty thousand unique
mailing list subscribers.  The non for profit organisation is driven by
volunteers. Where volunteers at the start of the organisation where
mostly software developers, today more and more users join the community
helping to spread the word of open source.
Last year, The European chapter was founded with a specific focus to
help open geospatial technology being adopted in Europe, and in several
European programmes. Europe has specific needs in terms of adopting open
source software.
During his 5 minute presentation, the president of OSGeo Europe will
present OSGeo Europe and explain how the European local chapter acts as
a single point of contact for the European institutions in Brussels on
behalve of OSGeo.org, the other committees, local chapters and projects.
Several of the members are involved in programmes such as the Copernicus
, GEO/GEOSS and Galileo/EGNOS. Many users of these programmes are using
OSGeo software, often without knowing they do. During the discussion
Dirk is willing to hear how OSGeo Europe can help from a community point
of view and will listen which challenges Europe can focus on to make the
difference on the world wide software scene. The idea is to work on a
roadmap during the breakout to contribute back to OSGeo Europe for
further discussion and action.
Questions like how can the sustainability of the OSGeo projects be
improved and how can we work on a European Ecosystem so that more people
can help developing the software stacks. What should be the OSGeo
projects for the next 5 years will be discussed. As software becomes
more and more important, what is a good licensing strategy for the
European eco-system? How can we improve the quality, distribution and
production of these open source frameworks? How will/can European
programmes become involved in the community, how can a partnership be
instantiated?
A lot of questions which need debate from a diverse audience to be able
to continue this successful movement.


-- 
Dirk
OSGeo Europe