[Foss4g2008loc] draft call for workshops for FOSS4G2008

[Gavin Fleming]

Hi all, please review this draft by 16h00 SAST Thurs 6 Feb so we can distribute the Call on Friday. Thanks to Graeme for putting this together.  
 
begins
 
 
The FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) conference is pleased to announce the Call for Workshops for the 2008 conference, being held September 29- October 3 in Cape Town, South Africa.

FOSS4G is the premier conference for the open source geospatial community, providing a place for developers, users, and people new to open source geospatial to get a full-immersion experience in both established and leading edge geospatial technologies.

This year's FOSS4G is a bit different, for it incorporates GISSA 2008, the main GIS Conference on the South African calender, attended by people who are not yet too familiar with FOSS4G. The crucial point to note though, is that the South African Government has made a strategic commitment to FOSS. This has created a certain amount of clamour for more information about FOSS4G. The FOSS4G2008 Organising Committee believe that immersive workshops could play a crucial role in convincing people that FOSS4G is "An Option for Developing Nations" alongside more well known proprietary tools. As the famous wedding quote generator, Kahlil Gibran, once said, "Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music". Not to stretch the poetry too far, but FOSS4G 2008 offers an opportunity to let people experience the FOSS and proprietary software strings playing nicely together.

Come to Cape Town to showcase your favorite application, integration solution, or other topic and get the excitement bubbling around it. You will use your superior classroom skills to lead a group of attendees through your chosen topic in {either a half-day workshop or ninety minute lab}.

No restrictions are placed on topics for workshops, but we expect interest to be high for workshops on:

    * Practical Introduction to ___________
    * Interoperability
    * Exposure to a Software Stack
    * Fitting FOSS4G into the enterprise
    * Using FOSS4G to solve __________

But FOSS4G plays strongly in emerging spaces, so workshops with NeoGeography-like themes or on new directions will be welcome and are likely to be fresh topics for many attendees.

Traditionally, FOSS4G workshops are mostly "hands on" events, with participants seated in front of computers and able to follow along with the instructor, working directly with the software and applications under discussion.

Workshops require considerable preparation. Past experience has shown that a high quality workshop requires about three days of preparation for each hour of presentation time. As part of this preparation you will be expected to develop material for attendees to take away with them, such as handouts, a 'workbook', CDROM, etc.

In recognition of this effort, workshop presenters will receive a reduction in the price of conference registration:

    * free registration for delivering a half-day workshop
    * half-price registration for delivering a 90-minute workshop

Because of limited space, you may want to consider submitting two versions of your topic, one for each length format.

Please visit the Call for Papers page on our website to receive instructions for submitting a workshop proposal at http://conference.osgeo.org/index.php/foss4g/2008/schedConf/cfp


The deadline for workshop proposal submissions is 15 April, 2008. 
You will hear whether your proposal has been accepted by 30 April, after which you will be required to register for the conference to confirm your attendance as well as subscribe to the conference-workshops at lists.osgeo.org mailing list, which will be the forum for discussing your workshop development, progress and logistics with the LOC, members of the OSGeo community and fellow presenters. 
 
 
ends

 
Gavin Fleming MSc, Pr. GISc Technologist
Senior GISc and Sustainable Development Researcher 
FOSS4G2008 conference chair
Mintek, 200 Malibongwe Drive (formerly Hans Strijdom Drive)
P/Bag X3015, Randburg, 2125, South Africa
w: +27-11-709-4668 c: 0845965680 f: 0866164820
xmpp (Jabber, Google Talk, etc.): gavinjfleming at gmail.com
Skype: phlemingo
27.9782E 26.0896S
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/foss4g2008loc/attachments/20080304/d7f5e1d5/attachment.html