OSGeo Tokyo Press Brief and promotion in Asia

[Venkatesh Raghavan]

Dear VisCom,

Autodesk Press Briefing on 16th May in Tokyo was very much successfully 
with attendance of 17 Press people from 9 companies.
And as of 19 May, we found the articles in 3 web news and 1 news paper 
(Nikkan Kogyo).Mr. Noda of Autodesk Japan is preparing to send
a brief report in a few days time.

One Webnews that I came cross (in Japanese) is available at
http://enterprise.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/topic/2006/05/16/7818.html

Announcement about the interest/intent to establish the "OSGeo Japan
Chapter" was made at the briefing and after initial discussions with
OSGeo Board, it is hoped that "OSGeo Japan Chapter" will become
functional by September, 2006 (coinciding with FOSS4G2006?).

The preparatory committee for "OSGeo Japan Chapter" comprising
for Mr. Tori Mori (0rkney Inc., Japan), Kazunori Noda (Autodesk Japan),
Prof. Shinji Masumoto (Osaka City Univ., Japan) and myself are
presently in discussions about various modalities about the
local chapter and I will be able to provide some more info
in the coming weeks. Mr. Mori is also expected to attend the
Where2.0 and will also be able to discuss more during
Where2.0.

* About promoting OSGeo in Asia

I have include a list of conferences being held in Asia
in 2006 to
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Promotion_and_Visibility_Committee

#  Geinforum2006 (website in Japanese) 29-30 June 2006 (Yamanashi, Japan)

The Japan Local Chapter preparatory committee will make a
presentation about OSGeo and its role in promoting
open geospatial solutions in Japan and Asia. We hope
that some OSGeo brochures/poster would be available
by then for distribution.

# MapAsia2006 29 August - 1 September 2006 (Bangkok,Thailand)

MapAsia is a big event organized by GIS at development (Sanjay Kumar).
Sanjay is also know to the VisCom Chair (Arnulf). VisCom (I can
also assist) to possibility of showing OSGeo presence at MapAsia
2006. Distribute brochure (perhaps have the brochure included
in the conference kit, distribute OSGeo T-Shirts to lucky
few (first come first serve). T-shirts are cheap in Thailand,
Share booth space with some one at MapAsia (will cost some money),
Have David Hastings (ardent supporter of OSGeo) to give a brief
talk about OSGeo.

# GIS-IDEAS 2006 9-11 November 2006 (Ho Chi Minh (Saigon),Vietnam)

Is OSGeo interested to be a sponsor or have/share a booth at
GIS-IDEAS 2006? If so, I can try to get things started since I
am one of the Coordinators of this meeting. Markus attended in
2004 and we had a workshop on GRASS. We plan to have a workshop
this year too. Sponsorship info is available at
http://wgrass.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/gisideas06/sponsors.html

# Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing 2006 13-17 November, 2006 (Goa,India)

This is a big event organized by SPIE. VisCom (I can
also assist)may look to possibility of showing OSGeo presence here.
Distribute brochure (perhaps have the brochure included
in the conference kit. David Hastings will be
attending and presenting a joint paper (include some
OSGeo also) with me. I will not be able to attend but maybe
David put up OSGeo Poster etc.

Regards

Venka