[OSGeo Oceania] [FOSS4G-Oceania] Considering future Open Geospatial conferences in Oceania

Sat Aug 10 13:07:43 PDT 2019

Bula one and all
Apologies for the delay in reply but my feedback below:
Are you keen to see FOSS4G & SotM continue in our region? Yes very much and more awareness is needed in the Pacific region for more recognition. The university of the south pacific in the upcoming Wellington conference will try and seek support from the FOSS4G community of possibly having a course for open source for a postgraduate unit. Begin its a regional university - its setting the platform the right direction in regards to awareness. 

Do you have ideas about where and how? As Edwin said - Fiji would be great. How? Esri is very popular in Fiji. I guess to build the momentum for FOSS4, volunteers and drivers of Foss4G can possibly run free online seminar for simple python course or some mapathon in qgis - similar to what Melbourne does? i have been thinking about this for awhile and very keen to start having discussion around setting this up in Fiji and to have it available for the Pacific region. It will be a bit difficult to have govt stakeholders champion this in Fiji begin that they are ESRI users, however i do see an opportunity with CROP agency and private organization to support this. I cant agree more with Edwin that we need more OS in the Pacific. 

Would you like to help make it happen? Yes very happy but we need a lot of support. If Edwin and other PICs members join hands we can host this in the Fiji for the Pacific region. 

Are you interested in mentoring or being mentored by a bunch of committed volunteers who have worked on prior FOSS4G events? Yes - very keen to mentor the beginners and but would love to be mentored by a senior. 

2020: FOSS4G SotM Oceania: Where? Fiji . With Edwin and Domonic support and interested Pacific members in this mailing group - we can start a different discussion about possibly tabling a paper to host it in Fiji? Edwin if you would like to chair this for us, then i am happy to drive it with you. For now, i can start reaching out to key people in key organization to seek their support and interest. If current committee members think that big sponsors for past and current conference will be willing to lend the same support if Fiji is to host 2020 - then we are off to a good start. 

2021: FOSS4G-International Should we bid for it? Why not? Lets do it, however i think we need to be strategic about the country that will host it. If Fiji is to host the FOSS4G Oceania 2020 then i guess come 2021 International we should have a clear idea as to which country is ideal to host it and supported by the Oceania region. 

Many thanksVasiti Soko 

    On Saturday, August 10, 2019, 7:35:32 PM GMT+12, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:  

 Hi all, forwarding a response from Alyssa Wright (with her permission):

Hi! 
I wanted to say that I think it's very important to have an Oceania FoSS4G / SOTM. The geography is so expansive in both mileage and innovation. There is so much going on. 
Maybe a bi-annual conference and/or coordination with HOT efforts in Indonesia would lighten the burden and diversify the funding/attendance/etc.

And, if it makes a difference, we also have been having trouble finding hosts for SOTMUS. 
Anyway, I am not sure I can manage joining another email list ;( but I wanted to share my support for ongoing Oceania events. Let me know what I can do to help!
Best, Alyssa. 

On Thu, 8 Aug 2019 at 11:19, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, please see the following message below:

“What should we do about upcoming conferences for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) and State of the Map (SotM) within our Oceania region?”

Image by @mapmakerdavid

We didn’t have an answer to this question at the last OSGeo Oceania board meeting. At the moment, no one is volunteering to chair. No one is backing a city with commitment, and that is a problem we hope to solve.

Pertinent is that the international FOSS4G will be held somewhere outside of Europe or North America in 2021 and a call for a two-page Expression Of Interest is coming in September. We have a very compelling case for bringing the international community to our region, if we try.

Are you keen to see FOSS4G & SotM continue in our region? Do you have ideas about where and how? Would you like to help make it happen? Are you interested in mentoring or being mentored by a bunch of committed volunteers who have worked on prior FOSS4G events? If so, why don’t you talk to us? Come join our email list and introduce yourself. We particularly want to hear ideas about what we should do about FOSS4G in the next two years.

Some history:

   -    
2009: FOSS4G-International in Sydney. During the global financial crisis, we had lower attendance than expected, but managed to stay profitable when similar conferences were losing money.

   -    
2018: FOSS4G SotM Oceania in Melbourne. Exceeded expectations for size, sponsorship, activities, and engagement.

   -    
2019: FOSS4G SotM Oceania Wellington: Has already exceeded sponsorship targets and sold out early bird tickets within a week.

   -    
2020: FOSS4G SotM Oceania: Where?

   -    
2021: FOSS4G-International Should we bid for it?

We are looking forward to hearing from you,

John Bryant (OSGeo Oceania president) and Cameron Shorter (scribe).

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