[OSGeo-UK] OSGeo:UK local chapter update

[Ross McDonald]

Morning morning

I certainly see myself as part of OSGeo (UK) and I am sure Simon and Matt and others would too.  Quite what that means for OSGeo (UK) I am not sure but I like to think that the UK QGIS user group contributes to raising the awareness of FOSS4G and OSGeo.  If it doesn't then we can make amends.  The PostGIS day in Edinburgh in November (the 19th, ESRI's GISday) will be under the OSGeo banner but will be all about PostGIS.

The QGIS user group came into being out of a demand in a number of local authorities for a replacement desktop GIS application and the subsequent need for a support and development community.  But as QGIS is really just a front end to the whole FOSS4G stack everything else that makes up that stack - GRASS, MapServer, GeoServer, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, etc., etc. - I think is fair game at a QGIS user group meeting.  At the Scottish meet I was thinking of repeating the talk Ian gave at OSGIS from the OSGeo live DVD (or at least highlighting what was available on the DVD and explaining how OSGeo helps out.)

I'd like to see more engagement too.  It may just start with simply putting up the OSGeo logo and doing a lightning talk about the UK chapter from a certified (or not) OSGeo stalwart at a QGIS meeting.  Who knows - maybe we should have an OSGeo unconference day where we look at everything on the OSGeo DVD...

Michael, it would be great to have a discussion about it all, particularly as I am relatively new to the whole thing.

Cheers

Ross

On 16 Sep 2014, at 09:59, Jo Cook wrote:

> Hi Michael and Anzir,
> 
> The guys organising the QGIS User groups have no obligation to be part of OSGeo (UK chapter or not)- this is something that they have organised from nothing, off their own backs, and they have made it a big success. If anything, it's a failing on the part of those of us deeply involved in the local chapter that we didn't make it seem like the obvious place for that to happen, rather than them going off on their own.
> 
> It would be really nice to see more engagement between the two parts of the community (I'm not going to call them separate communities), and hopefully with the rebooted chapter that may start to happen. To be honest, rather than seeing anything negative in the rise of QGIS User groups, I see it as a sign of growing success of the tools, and that can only be a good thing.
> 
> Jo
> 
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 12:42 AM, Anzir Boodoo <ab at transcience.co.uk> wrote:
> Michael,
> On 15 Sep 2014, at 22:19, Michael Spencer <spencer.mike.r at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Something I find a little difficult to reconcile are the QGIS user groups. I think they're a good idea, but don't understand why they don't exist as a part of OSGeo UK. In my mind a tool doesn't exist in isolation.
> >
> > I'm speaking at the Scottish meet next month so may raise it.
> 
> You’re not the only one!
> 
> I’ve been having a little trouble with this as well, but it seems I’m best off trying to gather people together on OSGeo here in Leeds as there are one or two who do OS Geospatial stuff and don’t use QGIS (and what I’m about to come back to uses QGIS only to assist with some input and output of results)
> 
> --
> Anzir Boodoo
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> -- 
> Jo Cook
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