Hi Jeff, Thanks for sharing these updates on OpenGIS-Moscow. I am sure this event will help more universities in Russia to establish dedicated Open Source Geospatial Labs for expanding geoeducation opportunities and share Geo4All ideas and principles.
Best wishes, Suchith ________________________________________ From: Discuss [[email protected]] on behalf of Jeff McKenna [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 30, 2015 9:32 PM To: osgeo Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Short report on OpenGIS-Moscow 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 -- Jeff McKenna President, OSGeo http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jeff_McKenna _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. 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. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
