Hi Jeff and others,
Good news to hear about the success of the Moscow event. I'm
particularly interested to hear more about
"their prime minister has signed a law that requires government agencies
to use Open Source software, which must be in place by January 2016".
Is there an authoritative link that we can reference from
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Case_Studies#Open_Source_Policies
On 1/12/2015 8:32 am, Jeff McKenna wrote:
Hello everyone,
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the OpenGIS conference in
Moscow, Russia (http://gisconf.ru). The venue was really nice, the
huge headquarters of @mail.ru Group (http://mail.ru), Moscow's largest
hi-tech company (2000 employees I believe), who in fact just purchased
an OpenStreetMap-based mapping application, MAPS.ME (http://maps.me).
Much of the credit for the event must go to Maxim, the chair, and his
company NextGIS (http://nextgis.ru/), who sponsored and dedicated so
much effort; the entire organizing committee deserves much praise, and
you likely will recognize many of them from past FOSS4G events
(http://gisconf.ru/organizers).
Roughly 415 attendees for the second OpenGIS event (the first was held
in 2012, with around 100 attendees) which is just excellent. This was
a free event, meaning no admission charge, and attendees paid for
their lunches in the local cafeteria. There were 2 tracks, one for
FOSS4G software and the other for OpenStreetMap; OSM is very active
here, and many will be aware of the locally-developed "OsmAnd"
application.
The topics and talks were cutting-edge, this was a very knowledgeable
group, and very interested in the OSGeo foundation. There was quite a
buzz at the event, and I saw packed workshop "master classes" for
GRASS, QGIS, and other core projects, and everyone was very
energetic. There were many talks that mentioned their involvement in
GeoForAll as well, I couldn't be more impressed with their enthusiasm
and passion for Open Source geo.
Also of note is that like many other countries/municipalities across
the globe, their prime minister has signed a law that requires
government agencies to use Open Source software, which must be in
place by January 2016, so there is a huge interested in FOSS.
Many will also be interested to hear that there is already talk of an
event for next year, in beautiful St. Petersburg. So mark your
calendars! You don't want to miss that event.
It was a special trip, I met so many vibrant energetic community
leaders. And oh yes, because of this event a new OSGeo local chapter
is forming there, which is great!!! Thank you to Maxim, Nikolai, the
OSGeo Board, and everyone at the OpenGIS event for making this such a
special trip.
You can see many pictures of the event here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trolleway/sets/72157659104643414
-jeff
--
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
P +61 2 9009 5000, W www.lisasoft.com, F +61 2 9009 5099
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