[UN] http://www.unisdr.org/partners/academia-research/conference/2016/ , Re: osgeo-UnitedNations Committee

Fri Jan 22 21:09:08 PST 2016

Dear Jeff, Gregory

hi all 

Just a little reminder for people interested in FOSS4G-applications for disaster risk reduction and preparedness:

As already highlighted, starting from the 27. January, we have the Science&Technology Conference on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva (http://www.unisdr.org/partners/academia-research/conference/2016/).

I think for the osgeo´s staff, this conference can be a opportunity because software (and data) solutions for disaster management are frequently FOSS oriented.  

For example, from the Brazilian side, we can count , at least, on the participation from our University of São Paulo and the National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters.

OSgeo people interested in discussing FOSS-based approaches will be warmly welcome.

Till next week?

Hope we can find some synergy and join our efforts. 
Best wishes 
Werner 

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 11/18/15, Gregory Giuliani <gregory.giuliani at unepgrid.ch> wrote:

 Subject: Re: osgeo-UnitedNations Committee,  meeting 2015-11-17 @16:00 UTC
 To: "Werner Leyh" <wernerleyh at yahoo.com>
 Cc: "Werner.Leyh at icmc.usp.br" <Werner.Leyh at icmc.usp.br>, jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com
 Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 7:31 AM

 Dear
 Werner,
 Thanks for your email.Unfortunately yesterday I was not able
 to connect to the IRC channel because I firewall issue on
 our network. I’m really sorry to have not being able to
 participate to the discussion.Next time I will participate from home
 ;-) 
 I
 agree with you that we can build a much more complete list
 of possible OSGEO contributions.And the subjects you’re proposing
 are of high interest.
 Currently at UNEP we are involved in
 the development of the UNEP Live platform (http://www.uneplive.org).I’m trying with some colleague to
 promote as much as possible the use of OSGEO solutions +
 open standards… but to be honest that’s difficult
 because ESRI is lobbying our director and now we are somehow
 forced to use some of the ESRI technologies. Please this
 information is “confidential”.However, I continue my efforts to
 promote FOSS solutions within UNEP ;-)
 On my side, I’m not developing
 anymore as I’m more on the management and research side…
 but trying to make use and sense of FOSS solutions for
 solving environment issues.For example, I have a student that is
 currently finishing a work on the use of LOD solutions to
 expose some datasets of the Global Risk Data Platform as
 LOD.I’m also the
 technical leader of a platform we are currently developing
 to monitor land cover/environmental changes on various sites
 around the world. This platform is entirely based on FOSS
 solutions and OGC standards.We have also developed a teaching
 material on SDI that is available at: http://www.geossintopractice.organd it use GeoServer, GeoNetwork QGIS,
 PyWPS, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, … and we are planning to add a
 new chapter on sensors using istSOS ;-)
 Hope this gives you some insights of
 what we are doing here in Geneva.And I reiterate my support and
 commitment to the OSGEO-UN committee :-)
 All the best
 Greg
 On 17 Nov
 2015, at 20:46, Werner Leyh <wernerleyh at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 Dear
 Gregory 

 We meet us “virtually” in the
 OSGEO discussion below.

 Did you participate on the virtual
 OSGEO-UN meeting, today, 2015/11/17, at 16h?

 I am
 wondering why so many people included their name in the
 un-committee-list and why so few people participated
 effectively on with discussion.

 It’s a pity, because we could mount
 a much more complete list of possible OSGEO contributions,
 for example organized in topics proposed by ISCARM:
 http://www.iscram.org/content/iscram2016-call-papers.

 Including
 the subjects you mentioned below (disaster management,
 Sustainable Development Goals, Data Revolution Group , LOD),
 but also participative information sharing approaches like
 VGI and Citizen Science, OGC and W3C based Sensornetworks,
 etc, etc.

 Do you develop actively solutions for
 natural disasters?
 IstSOS?
 Interested in LOD integration?

 Best wishes

 Werner Leyh

 Re:
 [OSGeo-Discuss] new UN committee - call for members
 Gregory Giuliani Wed, 04 Nov 2015
 23:59:55 -0800
 Dear Jeff, Dear
 All,
 Thanks a lot for this very
 interesting and useful initiative.
 First of all, let me just introduce
 myself because I’m an OSGeo Member since a
 few years… but I was mostly silent
 (but reading with interest most of the
 emails on various OSGeo mailing
 lists).
 My name is Gregory
 Giuliani. I’m a lecturer in Geomatics and Remote Sensing
 at
 the University of Geneva
 (Switzerland) and SDI office at UNEP/GRID-Geneva.
 I’m actively involved in GEO/GEOSS
 and I’m the leading the UNIGE/Geo For All
 lab (http://www.unige.ch/tigers/en/autres-reseaux/geoforall/).
 Both at the
 University and
 GRID-Geneva we are using various FOSS solutions.
 I will be more than happy to
 contribute to this new committee.
 To follow Werner Leyh and Vivien
 Deparday emails, I agree with them that
 “disaster management” is an
 important topic to cover.
 At the
 GRID-Geneva, we have developed the “Global Risk Data
 Platform”:
 http://preview.grid.unep.ch
 It is entirely based on FOSS
 solutions. We present the platform and its
 architecture in this paper:
 http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/53/2011/nhess-11-53-2011.html
 The platform has been develop to
 support UNISDR Global Assessment Reports on
 Disaster Risk Reduction.
 I take also the opportunity to suggest
 another “hot topic" related to the UN.
 It concerns the Sustainable
 Development Goals (SDGs):
 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org
 Related to that, in August 2014 UN
 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked an
 Independent Expert Advisory Group to
 make concrete recommendations on bringing
 about a data revolution in sustainable
 development. This is the Data Revolution
 Group:
 http://www.undatarevolution.org
 And
 I’m sure that OSGeo has a role to play within this arena
 :-)
 Looking forward to collaborate
 with all of you and happy to join the team.
 Best regards
 Greg
 Message: 2
 Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2015 15:21:25 +0000
 (UTC)
 From: Werner Leyh
 <wernerl... at yahoo.com>
 To:
 osgeo <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>, Jeff McKenna
 <jmcke... at gatewaygeomatics.com>
 Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] new UN
 committee - call for members
 Message-ID:
 <1208805130.2171265.1446650485706.javamail.ya... at mail.yahoo.com>
 Content-Type: text/plain;
 charset=UTF-8

 Hi Jeff, Hi Jeroen, Hi Venka, Hi
 all

 --- On Thu, 12/19/13, Jeff McKenna
 <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote:

 From: Jeff McKenna
 <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>
 Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd:
 Season's greetings (ICA-OSGeo Lab Network)
 To: "osgeo"
 <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
 Date: Thursday, December 19, 2013,
 3:37 PM
 Dear All,

 As 2013 is
 nearly over, let me take this opportunity to
 thank each and
 every one of you for your support and
 contributions which
 helped to
 build up the *"Geo for All"*
 http://www.geoforall.org/   initiative. It
 has been amazing to see our humble
 initiative grow rapidly
 and this
 has
 been due to the dedication of
 all of you and I would like to
 thank you
 for
 your continued contribution.

 I remember reading the Google Oxera
 report in the start of
 this year
 (Jan 2013) that estimated the revenues
 from global Geo
 services at $150
 billion to $270 billion per year. This
 study is one of the
 first to
 consider Geo services as an industry
 in itself, encompassing
 all
 digital
 mapping and location-based
 services. Details at

 http://www.oxera.com/Oxera/media/Oxera/downloads/reports/What-is-the-economic-impact-of-Geo-services_1.pdf

 It clearly showed the excellent
 progress made by GIS and its
 significant
 contribution to jobs creation and
 digital economy. There was
 also
 a
 table listing the use of GIS in
 higher education (Table 5.2
 ; Page
 23)
 which clearly showed that very
 few universities in
 developing
 countries
 were currently running
 courses in GIS.  This is very
 disappointing that
 so many staff and students in the
 developing and poor
 countries
 and
 regions in our planet not
 having access to this rapidly
 growing area and
 we needed to take action so that
 everyone can study and
 benefit
 from
 geospatial opportunities. High
 cost proprietary GIS software
 packages
 are
 unaffordable for majority of users in developing and
 poor countries.
 Hence our Geo for All initiative is
 very timely as by using
 free and
 open source based GIS will help in the
 spreading geospatial
 education
 among the economically disadvantaged
 people and countries
 (without
 having to pay proprietary GIS
 vendors). In order to achieve
 UN
 Millennium Development Goals (in
 particular Goal 7) on
 themes
 like
 environmental sustainability,
 it is essential to provide
 free and
 open
 source geospatial tools to
 universities, government
 organisations etc in
 developing countries for helping them
 achieve these targets.
 Free and
 Open source GIS provides
 accessibility, low cost solutions
 and lowers
 the entry barriers for the use of
 geospatial technologies
 for all.

 Today
 morning we welcomed our *64th ICA-OSGeo lab* at the
 *University of
 Geneva*. Big welcome to Dr. Gregory
 Giuliani, Prof.Anthony
 Lehmann ,
 Dr.Nicolas Ray and colleagues at
 Institute for Environmental
 Sciences
 http://www.unige.ch/envirospace
  at the University of
 Geneva.
 I
 understand that they are also
 part of UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Geneva
 http://www.grid.unep.ch   (we
 already have UNEP
 Warsaw
 http://www.gridw.pl/  in our
 network , so it is good to
 see
 more
 collaborations developing at
 UN organisations).

 Thank you to all of you, we have now
 put strong foundations
 for our
 *"Geo for All"* initiative
 from Australia to Uruguay and i
 am
 looking
 forward to working with you
 all in 2014 to rapidly build
 upon
 this. I
 also request all
 established labs to also help other
 universities in
 your region to establish Open Source
 Geospatial Labs as a
 new year
 resolution and be the ambassador of
 the initiative in your
 regions/country.

 I wish you
 and your families very happy holidays and Happy
 New Year.

 Best wishes,

 Suchith

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 ---
 Dr.
 Gregory Giuliani
 Lecturer
 - Spatial Data Infrastructure
 http://www.unige.ch/envirospace/People/giuliani.html
 **************************************************************
 University of Geneva
 Institute for
 Environmental Sciences/enviroSPACE
 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH - 1205
 GENEVE
 Phone: (+41 22) 379 07
 09 Fax: (+41 22) 379 07 44
 Web: http://www.unige.ch/envirospace
 Email: gregory.giuliani at unige.ch
 **************************************************************
 UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Geneva
 International
 Environment House
 11 chemin
 des Anémones, CH - 1219 CHATELAINE
 Phone: (+41 22) 917 84 17 Fax:
 (+41 22) 917 80 29
 Web: http://www.grid.unep.ch
 Email: gregory.giuliani at unepgrid.ch
 **************************************************************