[Ottawa_users] Summary of monthly meeting (May 22 2014)

[Fabien Ancelin]

Hello folks,

This is a summary of the meeting that happened Thursday May 22 (Richard,
Javed, feel free to add to it), since we discussed a couple of things
everyone should be aware of.

   1. First of all as a co-chair of an organization that promotes Open
   Source, I feel the need to communicate a bit about a change in my
   professional life, since I want to make sure people are comfortable with my
   new position and my involvement in OSGeo. As many of you may know, I am
   still contracting for my old company (Rhexia Inc) part time but I am now a
   full time developer at ESRI Canada. I am very excited and I see that as a
   great opportunity. However, from now on I will be very careful about any
   situation where I could be a conflict of interest between me, OSGeo, and
   ESRI Canada.  If you think that it impacts the image of OSGeo, or you are
   not comfortable with that situation and think I should step down, please
   feel free to do so. OSGeo works on a democratic basis, where everyone's
   opinion matters.
   2. The Geocaching : given the low number of response, we will postpone
   that for one month. Richard will try to get Open Street Map people from his
   group, and if needed, I will check with the Ottawa Geek Social Club. The
   format I have in mind is definitely something that takes only Saturday
   morning and everyone can go back home at noon. Feel free to bring people
   but I need to know the number of people to expect in advance. Let me know
   if you would be interested in that and you availability. Saying that you
   are not interested HELPS me to organized that, so let me know that too.
   3. Javed has started a discussion about having a FOSS4G in Ottawa. As
   much as I am enthusiastic about it I know one thing. That is an important
   event and if we jump in that, we can NOT screw up. It required dedicated
   volunteers, finding event planners, getting speakers to come. It is
   something that 3-4 people can carry on their shoulder, regardless how
   motivated they are. So guys, if that lights an candle in your eyes, you
   need to let us know what you think and we need to be active about OSGeo.
   Again, I need feedback from you guys.
   4. I will be doing the presentation about OSGeo next Friday, since
   Richard won`t be able to do it. This is an important event and we need to
   get some exposure.


At the same time, I am working with Daniel Morissette and bunch of other
people to get a hackathon running in association with EnvisionGeomatics
2014. The concept of the hackathon is to find organisation that provides
with a challenge (and $500). The hacker tackle that challenge and get $150.
We need to find organisations that provides with a challenge. I am going to
use GoGeomatics and Open Data to pass the word on but if you can encourage
/ organisation people to jump in, I strongly encourage you to do so, and
report to me. We need to act quick. Summer won`t help us. I will contact
Rob Giggey and OCTranspo,  but feel free to add any contact idea. I need
all the help you can give me.

As a reminder, all the upcoming meeting dates are defined on our wiki page
and meetup ( http://www.meetup.com/OttawaOSGeo/events/177808952/). When
people RSVP on meet up, we actually gain visibility.

Finally, as you can see, my agenda is pretty full and I carry a lot on my
shoulders. Having your ideas opinion, feedback on the ideas I bring allow
me to know if I am wasting time on this idea or not. And time is not
something I have a lot right now. So I trust you to give me feedback when I
need it.

Have a good week-end.

*Fabien*
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