[Aust-NZ] Upcoming OSGeo Chapter in the Central North Island

[Brent Wood]

Hi Tim,

I agree with Hamish.

We already have an OSGEO chapter that encompasses NZ, we have the NZOSS, reasonably active NZ GIS & GPS online groups (incl OSM support & dvpt), a very active biodata group (Dataversity) all with some level of Open Source focus & support. The new ECO/WWF Moodle website for tutorial/training resources for environmental data management & analysis also has a strong Open Source GIS focus, but is not built around OSGEO.

More fragmentation I think would be divisive rather than productive.

I'd sooner see an existing NZ group strengthened by more activity & members instead. As a long time GMT user (as well as several OSGEO tools) & a novice R user, I also suggest that running such a group as an "OSGEO chapter" is unecessarily restrictive, and that if such a group is established, it should be formed within and help grow existing NZ initiatives rather than compete with them for members, time & resources.

For this reason, I do not support & will not join the proposed group, as I think it would be detrimental to the overall progress of Open Source GIS in NZ, quite apart from not wanting to add yet another membership to my list, which is already long enough that I can't do most groups justice. I believe the NZ Open Source & GIS communities needs to pull together more, not fragment even further.

Just my opinion.... if there are enough interested people to form an active chapter, I still wish you well, & hope we can work together on shared goals in future.


Regards


  Brent Wood


________________________________
 From: Hamish <hamish_b at yahoo.com>
To: "heuert at landcareresearch.co.nz" <heuert at landcareresearch.co.nz>; Aust NZ Aus Geo List <aust-nz at lists.osgeo.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 5:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Aust-NZ] Upcoming OSGeo Chapter in the Central North Island
 


Hi Tim,

why not just run it under the guise of the greater aust-nz chapter? unneccessary bureaucratic overhead takes time away from coding :)


regards,
Hamish





>________________________________
> From: Tim-Hinnerk Heuer <heuert at landcareresearch.co.nz>
>To: Aust NZ Aus Geo List <aust-nz at lists.osgeo.org> 
>Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:57 PM
>Subject: [Aust-NZ] Upcoming OSGeo Chapter in the Central North Island
> 
>
>
>Hi,
> 
>I'm Tim-Hinnerk Heuer, a geo web developer working at Landcare Research in Palmerston North. The Informatics group at Landcare Research has been using open source geo-software for quite a while and we know there are other people in the local region with an interest in such software. 
> 
>We have come up with the idea of forming an informal group in Palmerston North - or more specifically the lower North Island - to exchange ideas and encourage collaboration on geospatial data and geospatial open source software. One possibility is that this group becomes an OSGeo chapter (see http://www.osgeo.org/).
> 
>At the moment, this initiative is driven by myself and my colleague Pierre Roudier, who is working on soil data using open source software (R, GDAL/OGR, QGIS, GRASS GIS). Anybody wanting to join the effort is obviously more than welcome!
> 
>We are planning a meeting to gauge interest in forming such a group. It is set to take place at the Village Inn Kitchen in Hokowhitu, Palmerston North, from 5.30pm onwards, on Wednesday 28st August. (We chose this venue because it has high-speed Internet access and one idea we have is to invite people from around New Zealand or even the world to join us via video conference to talk about their software and/or how they are using open source geospatial software).
> 
>A couple of us are attending FOSS4G 2013 in the UK in mid September and, if there is support for the idea of forming a chapter, we would raise it with the OSGeo Board then. 
> 
>We are looking forward to seeing you at the Village Inn Kitchen in Hokowhitu, Palmerston North on the 28th August. Drop us an email if you think you will come so we can get an idea of numbers.
> 
>Kind regards,
> 
>Tim 
>
>
-- 
>Tim-Hinnerk Heuer 
>
>
>Web Developer
>Landcare Research (http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz)
>Informatics (http://wiki.zen.landcareresearch.co.nz)
>Ph: +64 6 353 4872
>>________________________________
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