[VisCom] Abstract comments

[Dave McIlhagga]

Ned,

This is good stuff -- I don't have any comments, except would you be 
willing to contribute this to VisCom for future use by others? I could 
envision OSGeo maintaining a series of abstracts for various audiences:

- NGOs
- Gov't
- Corporate Users
- Corporate Developers

etc..

We'll get there, but any additions like this is really welcome at this 
point.

Dave


Ned Horning wrote:
> All,
> 
> I am preparing an abstract for the joint meeting of the Society for
> Conservation Biology and Society for Conservation GIS that will be held in
> June in San Jose, California. I would like to introduce OSGeo and discuss
> benefits with a strong bias toward conservation research and applications. I
> pasted the abstract below and would like to solicit comments. I pulled much
> of the text from the website. If the abstract is accepted I will likely come
> back here for help on input into the short (15 minute) presentation. Any
> suggestions regarding the abstract would be appreciated.
> 
> For what it's worth, I have been trying to promote OSGeo concepts within the
> conservation community for the last few years and have had limited success.
> ESRI has made strong inroads into this community in the USA and people have
> been reluctant to explore open source alternatives. ESRI has been quite
> generous with software and training donations and Arc-stuff is what people
> tend to learn in the University. Jack Dangermond will be the keynote speaker
> at the conference and I expect he will have a captive audience. 
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Ned
> 
> --
> Title: The Open Source Geospatial Foundation - An opportunity for the
> conservation community
> 
> The open source software movement is growing in momentum and sophistication
> throughout the geoinformatics community.  This growth is evidenced by the
> recent formation of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), a
> not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the
> collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The
> goals of OSGeo fit nicely with the conservation commons' principles of open
> access to data, information, and knowledge. The foundation provides
> financial, organizational and legal support to the open source geospatial
> community and serves as an independent legal entity to which community
> members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the
> knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit.
> The OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open
> source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared
> infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. There are many
> ways that the conservation community can benefit from OSGeo and vise versa,
> including open access to software and data that are vital to achieving
> conservation priorities. This presentation will provide an overview of OSGeo
> with an emphasis on potential opportunities for the conservation community
> and some details about specific projects under way within the Foundation.  
> 
> 
> 
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