[OSGeo-Standards] [OSGeo-Discuss] Geo4All - Empowering academics and educators globally - requesting colleagues to share Geo4All ideas at Geography Awareness Week

Munich Orientation Convention volksnav at volksnav.de
Mon Sep 5 00:34:12 PDT 2016


 

Hi Suchit,

 

nowhere in the world there are so many visually impaired people as in India.


 

For more than 100 years, most of them use imaginary clocks for orientation
purposes and with this get GeoAwareness for directions and angles. Counting
steps, they get additional GeoAwareness for locations and distances, having
an alternative to lat/lon. The same tools use boy scouts, soldiers, pilots,
children, people who can't read maps, illiterate etc.  

 

The mentioned tools are doubtless free, open and libre, so why do OSGeo,
Geo4all etc. insist on ignoring them? 

Because it's not software? 

Because digital clocks are trendy?

Because God dictated that the horizon has to be divided into 8 (see UN logo)
or 360 directions? 

Because a convention for such imaginary tools could favor the merit
principle?

 

The topic is Geo Awareness Week, that means, education for young consumers.
Would you really recommend "here" www.volksnav.de/YouAreHere, Open Location
Code www.openlocationcode.com and others just because they are free and
open? Do they improve awareness for 1) locations, 2) directions, 3)
distances and 4) angles? What about quality and excellence?

 

Now that you're spiritually recharged, I'm sure that we could find an open
minded win/win/win level and show that OSGeo/Geo4all  aren't closed user
groups but open user groups which e. g. also consider visually impaired
people. 

 

I affirm that the actual black/white criteria concerning openness can cause
the following collateral damages: 

- generate many win/lose products.       After 5 years, Munich thinks about
abandoning the expensive Linux/Limux. 

- demotivate to be creative                     A lose/lose situation. 

 

Henrique   

 

 

   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/standards/attachments/20160905/eabb9c14/attachment.html>


More information about the Standards mailing list