[Mapserver-users] MapServer User Meeting 2

[Dave McIlhagga]

Hi everyone,

I'm writing this email to get some feedback from the community about a 
follow on MapServer User Meeting for June 2004.  This might seem a bit 
premature given we haven't had MUM 1 yet however ... no time like the 
present to plan these things -- especially given the amount of work that 
is required and the need to book space well in advance.

Over the past couple of months, we've done some preliminary planning and 
research into hosting next year's MapServer User Meeting in Ottawa.  As 
some of you may be aware, the Ottawa MapServer User Group had our first 
meeting about a month ago, and we had 23 attendees -- needless to say we 
were thrilled.  This provides a solid group of people (along with DM 
Solutions commitment) to prepare for the meeting next year.

At this point, we have found an excellent venue for the meeting through 
a local University, and would like to run this jointly with an 
International Open Source GIS/Mapping conference that would hopefully 
bring together individuals from the many open source GIS projects around 
the world to a common event.

The purpose of my email is to get feedback from you about this plan and 
to see if there are any other groups who were considering doing 
something similar at another location.  We want to be sure that we have 
the support of the MapServer community before proceeding -- but we need 
to actively begin planning in order to make this a success, hence the 
need for this to be decided soon.

I can appreciate that there would be interest in seeing the MapServer 
User Meeting hosted in other parts of the world in addition to North 
America, but at this point -- given the resources we have available 
through the user group, and within DM Solutions, and the vast adoption 
of MapServer locally in the Ottawa Region -- I suspect we may be in a 
unique position to pull this event off next year successfully.

Any thoughts?  You can reply to the list or me directly.  Thanks -- and 
I'm looking forward to meeting many of you in Minnesota.  I hear we're 
up to 75 registrants already which is great news.

Dave
-- 
Dave McIlhagga
On behalf of the Ottawa MapServer Users Group & DM Solutions