[fusion-dev] FOSS4G 2009 One week extension to Workshops and Tutorial abstract submissions

[Paul Spencer]

FOSS4G 2009 One week extension to Workshops and Tutorial abstract  
submissions

Sydney, Australia. 2 March 2009.
In response to requests from presenters, the deadline for the FOSS4G  
2009 workshop and tutorial abstract submissions has been extended by  
one week, to Monday 9 March 2009. If you are considering submitting a  
workshop, please notify your intent by emailing the Workshop/Tutorial  
coordinator, Mark Leslie, at m a r k . l e s l i e AT l i s a s o f  
t . c o m.

About FOSS4G

FOSS4G, held 20-23 October 2009 in Sydney, Australia, is the  
international "gathering of tribes" for open source geospatial  
communities. The theme for the FOSS4G 2009 conference will be "User  
Driven". Users and developers are encouraged present their latest  
projects and software to demonstrate the power of Open Source for  
system integration through a series of workshop sessions and tutorial  
presentations. Session participants should expect to see presentations  
on both geospatial open source and propriety software integration  
along with pure open source solutions.

Workshops

Workshops are expected to be a hands-on experience with participants  
following along with the instructor, working directly with the  
application under discussion. All workshop rooms will be equipped with  
computers (two students sharing one system) to support this vision.  
Workshop computers will pre-installed with a basic image containing  
standard packages running in a Windows XP environment. A projector  
will be provided for each computer room for use within a workshop.  
Instructors will need to discuss pre-installation requirements with  
the Conference Organising Committee if required.
Workshops are expected to require considerable effort to create, with  
past experience showing that three days of preparation per hour of  
presentation are required to produce a high quality workshop.  
Additionally you will be expected to develop material for attendees to  
take home with them, such as handouts, workbook, CD-ROMs etc. Due to  
the effort involved in producing and presenting a workshop,  
instructors will receive a single complementary registration to the  
conference for delivering a workshop.

All workshop submissions will be considered, but particular interest  
will be shown in the following topics:
Practical Introduction to ____
Integrating Open Source
Spatial Data Privacy and Security

Tutorials

Tutorial rooms will not be equipped with computers, however presenters  
may optionally make use of delegate laptops and the FOSS4G LiveDVD.
At least 80% of delegates are expected to be carrying a laptop and  
FOSS4G LiveDVDs will be given to all delegates.
Preference will be given to hands-on tutorials.
Any hands-on aspects to a tutorial will be the responsibility of the  
presenter and needs to be described in the tutorial description.  
Presenters making use of the Live DVD or Climate Challenge Integration  
Plugfest (CCIP) will be expected to contribute to testing pre-releases  
to ensure material and software is properly installed. To discuss your  
requirements for LiveDVD, please contact the organising committee:http://2009.foss4g.org/contacts/ 
.
All tutorial submissions will be considered, but particular interest  
will be shown in the following topics:

Practical introductions
Interoperability
Spatial data accuracy
Spatial data privacy
Spatial data security
System implementation
Data migration
Submission instructions and templates are available at http://2009.foss4g.org/workshops/ 
  andhttp://2009.foss4g.org/tutorials/.
The deadline for workshop / tutorial submissions is March 9, 2009.

FOSS4G 2009 Highlights

The Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP): FOSS4G will launch  
the OGC's Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP), which  
demonstrates standards based interoperability between Open Source and  
Proprietary geospatial applications. It consists of a server with  
multiple virtual machines, each installed with geospatial applications  
offering standards based web services. All web services will  
demonstrate a common dataset, and will be accessed by a range of  
geospatial client applications installed on client computers.http://external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/ClimateChallenge2009/WebHome
Presenters are encouraged (but not mandated) to make use of scenarios  
and on-site data from the Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest  
(CCIP). This is especially important as demand for access to data over  
the internet is expected to be high, and Australia has notoriously  
slow connections to the outside world.
FOSS4G Live DVD: LiveDVDs, based on the Xubuntu operating system and  
including Geospatial Open Source Software, will be given to all  
delegates. Users can boot a Live DVD on their computer and trial the  
software without installing or effecting the existing system. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc
Installfest: The Installfest will give delegates the opportunity to  
meet in a common area and install a wide variety of FOSS software on  
their laptops, EEPC or any other system they care to bring in.  
Community members will be around to assist with any troubles and  
provide help and insight into the software. The install fest will take  
place after workshops on the first day.
Workshops and Tutorials: Workshops and Tutorials allow presenters to  
lead attendees through applications, integration solutions, or other  
topics in an interactive environment. Half-day workshops (3 hours)  
will be held in computer rooms on the first day. Tutorials (90  
minutes) will be held in standard presentation rooms, run concurrently  
with presentations during the third and fourth days.
Presentations: The meat of the conference are it's presentations.  
Drawing on a huge community of local, regional and international  
experts we will discuss some of the most current and poignant topics  
in the industry today.
Birds of a Feather: Rooms have been set aside for semi-organised  
meetings between like minded groups. Some prominant community  
initiatives started in prior FOSS4G Birds of a Feather sessions.
Code Sprint: The weekend after FOSS4G is reserved for the Hackers'  
Code Sprint. Hackers will be locked in a basement with lots of  
bandwidth, pizzas and coke. (Well, maybe something better than that,  
but we don't want to spoil the mystical hacker image by describing it  
any differently.)

Upcoming milestones

2 Feb 2009, Call for Workshops/Tutorials opens
9 Mar 2009, Call for Workshops/Tutorials closes
9 Mar 2009, Call for Abstracts opens
30 Mar 2009, Notification of acceptance for workshops/tutorials
13 Apr 2009, Registration for conference and tutorials opens
1 Jun 2009, Abstract submission deadline
13 Jul 2009, Presenters notified of acceptance for talks
31 Jul 2009, Author/Early registration deadline
14 Sep 2009, Completed program available on the wiki
20 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Workshop
21-23 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Presentations and Tutorials
24-25 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Code Sprint

For information about this announcement, contact:
FOSS4G Organising Committee: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009#Contact_Us
or,
Cameron Shorter, Chair of the FOSS4G Organising Committee and  
Geospatial Systems Architect at LISAsoft
tel +61-8570-5050
c a m e r o n . s h o r t e r @ l i s a s o f t . c o m