Unfortunately, email is the lowest common denominator for this kind of thing. Not everyone uses social media or is inclined to do so just for this.
We are planning to setup a website (hopefully this week) at qgis.us ... I think the OpenStreetMap folks have the right idea on this kind of thing and will be following that pattern. On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 10:19 AM, Ammar <[email protected]> wrote: > If the main idea of having a QGIS mailing list to discuss events and meetups > in the North American region then why not just create a Twitter account or a > Facebook page to discuss such events? > > Regards, > Ammar > > ________________________________ > From: Jeffrey Johnson <[email protected]> > To: Pedro Machado Monteiro <[email protected]> > Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; > [email protected] > Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 5:47 PM > Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] Organizing a US / North American User Group > > Having a separate list isn't so critical. That said, the intention was > to use it to discuss organizing local events rather than for general > knowledge/questions which should go to this list. > > Alex, your point about splitting mindshare is well taken and you do > nail the one point which is that we are finding that QGIS is kind of a > hook to get people into FOSS4G that otherwise might not be interested. > So having a QGIS Specific 'User Group' makes sense to get people > involved who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the full scope of > FOSS4G groups. I do think it makes sense to generally try to organize > local events around the dates of the other events you mention. Thats > the idea for this first one before State of the Map in DC. > > Jeff > > On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 8:03 AM, Pedro Machado Monteiro > <[email protected]> wrote: >> I agree with Alex, about the mailing list; splitting lists = splitting and >> losing knowledge, information and solutions; >> >> Best regards >> >> Pedro Monteiro >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> 2014-01-28 Alex Mandel <[email protected]> >>> >>> On 01/22/2014 02:01 PM, Jeffrey Johnson wrote: >>> > I setup a quick google spreadsheet to collect emails in lieu of a >>> > mailing list for now. >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > https://docs.google.com/a/boundlessgeo.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AishiXFd06bHdGl4ZE92Y09TbkU1TVBKTm8zMmNmZmc&usp=drive_web#gid=0 >>> > >>> > On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 12:50 PM, Jeffrey Johnson >>> > <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >> Hi Folks, >>> >> >>> >> It seems like a good time to get a US / North American User Group >>> >> going since there has been a serious uptick in interest in QGIS on >>> >> this side of the Atlantic. I've talked to quite a few people privately >>> >> about this, but figured now is the time to bring it to the wider user >>> >> community. >>> >> >>> >> So, my employer (Boundless Geo) would like to help organize an >>> >> inaugural User Group Meeting on April 11th, the day before the State >>> >> of the Map Conference in Washington DC. This seems like a good >>> >> opportunity to get everyone together when lots of spatially minded >>> >> people will be in town. The consensus is that we could arrange space >>> >> in the District during the day and have a happy hour nearby that >>> >> night. >>> >> >>> >> I'm not sure what the procedure is for organizing a User Group (or if >>> >> there even is one), but we can take on the tasks of setting up a >>> >> mailing list, website etc. If the PSC can let us know what hoops we >>> >> should jump through, or things we should think about, please let us >>> >> know. We will be reaching out to lots of people who are very excited >>> >> about QGIS but haven't really joined the community and try to get the >>> >> involved. >>> >> >>> >>> There really isn't a procedure that I've seen. I think most people are >>> served by local user groups of FOSS or GIS origin. North America might >>> even be too big of a geographic area for what many traditionally call a >>> user group. I see a good role being to help ensure Birds of a >>> Feather/Local meets whenever good related conferences roll into town: >>> FOSS4G, FOSS4GNA, NACIS, State of the Map, URISA (e.g. WAURISA, CalGIS) >>> etc... >>> >>> Note the comparison in the EU is the hackfests which is really a lot of >>> developers and power users getting together to work on QGIS. >>> >>> >> Please contact me off-list if you are interested in helping with this >>> >> effort and as soon as we get a mailing list going I'll follow up with >>> >> a link here. >>> >> >>> >> Hoping to see some of you in DC in April! >>> >> >>> >> Jeff >>> >>> My personal opinion is that beyond meetups coinciding with other confs, >>> and possibly organizing QGIS hackfests (can be user oriented) that most >>> other functions of such a group overlap either with QGIS' existing >>> infrastructure (e.g. do we really need our own mailing list since the >>> main QGIS ones are in English except to discuss regional events?) or >>> OSGeo chapters. >>> >>> Guess I'm mostly hesitant about splitting the FOSS4G community >>> mindshare, I don't use QGIS in isolation and never would (unlike some >>> monolithic software packages), so to me leaving out Postgis, Spatialite, >>> GRASS, (Everything else in Processing) kinda misses the mark. >>> >>> But I do get the notion that some things simplified can be more >>> attractive to a general audience (ie hook in the QGIS users out there >>> somehow). >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Alex >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Qgis-user mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user > >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Qgis-user mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user > _______________________________________________ > Qgis-user mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user > > _______________________________________________ Qgis-user mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
