[Qgis-user] Organizing a US / North American User Group

Wed Jan 29 09:31:55 PST 2014

Hi Jeffrey,
A thought - there's a UK QGIS User group; I only joined recently so maybe
others can better say what it does. However it seems to do a few things:
- Address UK specific issues (dataset related).
- Facilitate organisation of local meetings. For a North-America version I
think this would be even more important given how large that area is
compared to the UK.
- Other stuff

I think both could do well for a US version. I see no reason why if
somewhere as geographically small as the UK can have 3-4 a year in various
areas (there may be more; again I'm still new to it) a North American group
couldn't have a dozen or more meetups scattered around the continent. A
dedicated mailinglist (or chosen means) would be a convenient means of
organising those without adding noise to this list.

Just my 2p,
Cheers,
Jonathan

On 29 January 2014 16:47, Jeffrey Johnson <jjohnson at boundlessgeo.com> wrote:

> Having a separate list isn't so critical. That said, the intention was
> to use it to discuss organizing local events rather than for general
> knowledge/questions which should go to this list.
>
> Alex, your point about splitting mindshare is well taken and you do
> nail the one point which is that we are finding that QGIS is kind of a
> hook to get people into FOSS4G that otherwise might not be interested.
> So having a QGIS Specific 'User Group' makes sense to get people
> involved who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the full scope of
> FOSS4G groups. I do think it makes sense to generally try to organize
> local events around the dates of the other events you mention. Thats
> the idea for this first one before State of the Map in DC.
>
> Jeff
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 8:03 AM, Pedro Machado Monteiro
> <pedromachadomonteiro at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I agree with Alex, about the mailing list; splitting lists = splitting
> and
> > losing knowledge, information and solutions;
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Pedro Monteiro
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 2014-01-28 Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com>
> >>
> >> On 01/22/2014 02:01 PM, Jeffrey Johnson wrote:
> >> > I setup a quick google spreadsheet to collect emails in lieu of a
> >> > mailing list for now.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> https://docs.google.com/a/boundlessgeo.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AishiXFd06bHdGl4ZE92Y09TbkU1TVBKTm8zMmNmZmc&usp=drive_web#gid=0
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 12:50 PM, Jeffrey Johnson
> >> > <jjohnson at boundlessgeo.com> wrote:
> >> >> Hi Folks,
> >> >>
> >> >> It seems like a good time to get a US / North American User Group
> >> >> going since there has been a serious uptick in interest in QGIS on
> >> >> this side of the Atlantic. I've talked to quite a few people
> privately
> >> >> about this, but figured now is the time to bring it to the wider user
> >> >> community.
> >> >>
> >> >> So, my employer (Boundless Geo) would like to help organize an
> >> >> inaugural User Group Meeting on April 11th, the day before the State
> >> >> of the Map Conference in Washington DC. This seems like a good
> >> >> opportunity to get everyone together when lots of spatially minded
> >> >> people will be in town. The consensus is that we could arrange space
> >> >> in the District during the day and have a happy hour nearby that
> >> >> night.
> >> >>
> >> >> I'm not sure what the procedure is for organizing a User Group (or if
> >> >> there even is one), but we can take on the tasks of setting up a
> >> >> mailing list, website etc. If the PSC can let us know what hoops we
> >> >> should jump through, or things we should think about, please let us
> >> >> know. We will be reaching out to lots of people who are very excited
> >> >> about QGIS but haven't really joined the community and try to get the
> >> >> involved.
> >> >>
> >>
> >> There really isn't a procedure that I've seen. I think most people are
> >> served by local user groups of FOSS or GIS origin. North America might
> >> even be too big of a geographic area for what many traditionally call a
> >> user group. I see a good role being to help ensure Birds of a
> >> Feather/Local meets whenever good related conferences roll into town:
> >> FOSS4G, FOSS4GNA, NACIS, State of the Map, URISA (e.g. WAURISA, CalGIS)
> >> etc...
> >>
> >> Note the comparison in the EU is the hackfests which is really a lot of
> >> developers and power users getting together to work on QGIS.
> >>
> >> >> Please contact me off-list if you are interested in helping with this
> >> >> effort and as soon as we get a mailing list going I'll follow up with
> >> >> a link here.
> >> >>
> >> >> Hoping to see some of you in DC in April!
> >> >>
> >> >> Jeff
> >>
> >> My personal opinion is that beyond meetups coinciding with other confs,
> >> and possibly organizing QGIS hackfests (can be user oriented) that most
> >> other functions of such a group overlap either with QGIS' existing
> >> infrastructure (e.g. do we really need our own mailing list since the
> >> main QGIS ones are in English except to discuss regional events?) or
> >> OSGeo chapters.
> >>
> >> Guess I'm mostly hesitant about splitting the FOSS4G community
> >> mindshare, I don't use QGIS in isolation and never would (unlike some
> >> monolithic software packages), so to me leaving out Postgis, Spatialite,
> >> GRASS, (Everything else in Processing) kinda misses the mark.
> >>
> >> But I do get the notion that some things simplified can be more
> >> attractive to a general audience (ie hook in the QGIS users out there
> >> somehow).
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Alex
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Qgis-user mailing list
> >> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Qgis-user mailing list
> > Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-user mailing list
> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
>

-- 
This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may 
contain sensitive or protectively marked material up to RESTRICTED and 
should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or 
authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or 
disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in error 
please notify the sender immediately. All email traffic sent to or from us, 
including without limitation all GCSX traffic, may be subject to recording 
and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/attachments/20140129/27d6697a/attachment.html>