[OSGeo-UK] Thoughts on what a local chapter could do

[Anand Suchith]

Hi all,

It will be good to have an OSGeo UK meeting at AGI GeoCommunity '08,
September 24th - 25th 2008, Stratford-upon-Avon.  I will be attending
the same. Also should plan to have some promotion on OSGeo UK Chapter
and meetup session. 

Just to update you on the Open Source presentation at Geospatial Web
Services workshop. Thanks to Jo for participating. You can view the
archived webcast at
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~cczrmg/accordent/pmzcc1/20080617-145446-IH0
1/

You will require either Windows Media Player or Real Player to watch the
events. Currently the Firefox browser is not supported. All talks are
archived and links are available from the workshop TAB of
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/geowebservices/


Best wishes,

Suchith


Dr Suchith Anand
Centre for Geospatial Science
Sir Clive Granger Building
University of Nottingham
Tel: (0)115 846 8408
url: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cgs/anand.shtml


-----Original Message-----
From: uk-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:uk-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On
Behalf Of Joanne Cook
Sent: 23 June 2008 15:27
To: uk
Subject: [OSGeo-UK] Thoughts on what a local chapter could do

Hi All,

After attending part of Suchith's excellent geoweb workshop last week, I
thought about a few things that a local chapter could promote, and I
would like people's thoughts on this.

1: One thing that came out of discussions with a few people there was
that they want advice on alternatives to various proprietary packages-
not because they want to move over to open source per se but because
they want to play around at home, or broaden their skill sets. I think
it would be handy to provide a forum where people could get impartial
non-rabid advice on how to achieve particular gis tasks with open
source- or at least links to good sources of information.

2: Companies considering the move to open source need something more
substantial in the way of advice. Something that comes up a lot in the
various discussion lists that I subscribe to is the need for good case
studies for companies. We could provide links to these, or articles
about the business case for open source, or write our own.

3: We need a list of places to promote our local chapter. I think a
section on the wiki would be handy, including all of the mailing lists,
discussion groups, websites, magazines where we could sensibly post
articles, press releases, conference notifications etc. I can start this
off, but help would be valuable.

4: At the meetup in May, the question was asked as to whether the local
chapter should promote free software or free extensions to proprietary
software (ie esri extensions). Looking through the mission statement of
OSGeo, and the guidelines for local chapters- this isn't really what
OSGeo is for. I also think it might muddy the waters somewhat- confusing
free as in speech with free as in beer. What do people think?

Finally- I am speaking on open source software at the AGI conference in
September, but will not be attending FOSS4G due to a lack of time and
cash. I know of one or two people who are going, but we will need
someone to report on the UK local chapter at that point. Ideally it
would be good if we could have the chapter officially formed by then,
though I'm not sure if that's really achievable, but whatever the state
of the chapter it would be nice if someone could stand up and say a few
words on our progress this year. If you're interested, let me know...

All the best

Jo

-----------------------------------------------------
Joanne Cook
Senior IT Support and Development
Oxford Archaeology (North)
01524 880212
http://thehumanjourney.net



------
Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open
Document Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit
http://iso26300.info for more information.

_______________________________________________
UK mailing list
UK at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/uk

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system:
you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the
University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.