[Qgis-psc] Establishing an Official QGIS User Group Philippines [Steps to Take]

Thu Nov 12 21:35:41 PST 2020

Hi Marco,

Thank you for following up and apologies if I haven't gotten back to this
thread for a while. The Philippines was battered by consecutive typhoons
this November, with one (Goni) being the strongest typhoon this 2020, so
we've been busy doing some volunteer mapping work.

We're still interested in initiating a user group this year. Do we need to
comply with all the things below (as mentioned by Andreas) or can others be
on a "to-follow" basis?
1.) Core group or board of volunteers
2.) Registering the country-level domain (qgis.ph)
3.) Registering a local official association (this one might take time)
4.) Public communication channel (we've set up a TG group right now)
5.) Official contact of the group

As for the regular meetings, I'm planning to hold one as part of the Pista
ng Mapa (Festival of Maps) conference (https://pistangmapa.github.io/2020/)
this month where I'm a co-organizer and where I'll also hold a short
workshop about QGIS.

Thank you.

All the best,
Ben Hur

---
*Ben Hur S. Pintor | BNHR <https://bnhr.xyz>*
bnhr.xyz
hi at bnhr.xyz

On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 9:59 PM Marco Bernasocchi <marco at qgis.org> wrote:

> Hi Ben, Hi Martin
> I was wondering if you'd be planning to have a usergroup initiated this
> year?
>
> I'll need to have all the informations by December 1st (normally the
> deadline is November 1st).
> I need to start voting for community members
>
> cheers Marco
>
> On Sat, 31 Oct 2020, 01:18 Ben Hur Pintor, <bnhr.xyz at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.
>>
>> We will consolidate our group further to have a more formal structure. We
>> will also try to get the qgis.ph domain and have an officially
>> registered association here in the Philippines. We were thinking of
>> establishing a non-stock non-profit organization for this. However, things
>> are still not back to normal speed here in the Philippines because of the
>> pandemic so establishing an official association might take longer than
>> usual. Noted as well on the regular meetings with presentations and
>> workshops.
>>
>> I totally understand the point about Facebook especially in terms of
>> security and privacy. FB and social media is huge in the Philippines so at
>> the time of creating the group, it was the easiest and most convenient way
>> to get people connected. Not everyone checks their emails regularly but
>> everyone checks Facebook daily. Based on Ismail's experience with
>> Indonesia, I think we'll add a Telegram group (which other communities like
>> OSM Philippines also have), other social media accounts like Twitter and
>> Instagram for sharing events and news, try if we can have an effective
>> mailing list, or maybe even Discord.
>>
>> I will get back to you soon with more updates.
>>
>> All the best,
>> Ben Hur
>> ---
>> *Ben Hur S. Pintor | BNHR <https://bnhr.xyz>*
>> bnhr.xyz
>> hi at bnhr.xyz
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 5:56 PM Andreas Neumann <andreas at qgis.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Ben Hur,
>>>
>>> Thank you so much for your efforts in maintaining an "unofficial" QGIS
>>> user group in the Philippines - and for your willingness to turn this
>>> effort into an "official" user group.
>>>
>>> Some important things:
>>>
>>>    - It would be great if you could organize a group of active people
>>>    driving the effort besides you, e.g. form a small board of dedicated
>>>    people. It would be good if the work could be distributed between several
>>>    people besides you
>>>    - Please try to register the country level QGIS domain - qgis.ph -
>>>    make sure that this domain is not "owned" by a company, but by the local
>>>    user group.
>>>    - Try to establish regular meetings (currently probably primarily
>>>    online, but later also "in person" meetings) with presentations and
>>>    workshops
>>>    - If feasible and doable it would be good to establish a local
>>>    official association (or similar) and hand over ownership of the domain
>>>    name to that association
>>>    - Facebook is ok to use, but please don't use it as the "only"
>>>    channel. Facebook is quite restrictive and politically not neutral at all
>>>    (at multiple occasions Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that they would oppose the
>>>    Democrats in the US, because they would want to put regulations on data
>>>    privacy and probably start antitrust measurements). It is also really
>>>    problematic regarding privacy (collecting user data without their consent).
>>>    Ideally you could find an alternative channel besides Facebook for your
>>>    discussion (don't know if this is feasible).
>>>    - Finally: please send the name and contact of the "official
>>>    contact" of your group to Marco Bernasocchi (marco at qgis.org). That
>>>    would probably be you?
>>>
>>> Let us know if you want further assistance and greetings,
>>> Andreas
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 at 04:16, Ben Hur Pintor <bnhr.xyz at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I hope this email finds you all in good health and in good spirits.
>>>>
>>>> My name is Ben Hur and I'm a QGIS user and FOSS4G advocate from the
>>>> Philippines. I'm the creator and admin of an unofficial QGIS User Group
>>>> Philippines on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/qgis.ph)
>>>> which I created to have a safe and open avenue for Filipino QGIS users,
>>>> developers, and enthusiasts to share their knowledge and love for QGIS and
>>>> FOSS4G. Our group has around 2K members and is still growing. Aside from
>>>> this, I organize and volunteer for local FOSS4G and QGIS-related
>>>> initiatives here in the Philippines like Pista ng Mapa (
>>>> https://www.osgeo.org/events/pista-ng-mapa/) and MaptimeDiliman (
>>>> https://www.facebook.com/maptimediliman). I'm also the proprietor of
>>>> BNHR -- a Small QGIS Sustaining Member and Certifying Organization.
>>>>
>>>> I'm sending this email on behalf of my community because we've long
>>>> planned to organize ourselves as an official user group. Recently, I was
>>>> inspired by our Southeast Asian neighbors from Indonesia and believe that
>>>> we can bring another perspective to the global community.
>>>>
>>>> I read https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/usergroups.html and would
>>>> like to ask for guidance on what steps to take next.
>>>>
>>>> Your help and replies would be greatly appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> *Maraming salamat! *(Thank you very much!)
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>> Ben Hur
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> *Ben Hur S. Pintor | BNHR <https://bnhr.xyz>*
>>>> bnhr.xyz
>>>> hi at bnhr.xyz
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Qgis-psc mailing list
>>>> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> --
>>> Andreas Neumann
>>> QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
>>>
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