Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Co-editors needed for Geo for All Newsletters
Reminder to get 2 more co-editors to support Nikos for this. We have got one volunteer co-editor from Asia region . To make sure there is global distribution, it will be good to get co-editors from other continients (Africa and Americas) . So please email Nikos (Email: labri...@eled.auth.gr ) if you can help with the newsletters. Thanks. Best wishes, Suchith From: Anand Suchith Sent: Friday, May 29, 2015 8:22 AM To: discuss@lists.osgeo.org; ica-osgeo-l...@lists.osgeo.org Subject: Co-editors needed for Geo for All Newsletters Hi all, As we are growing rapidly with lot of activities, it has become difficult to keep track of all developments, so Dr. Nikos Lambrinos (Associate Professor, Dept. of Primary Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) has put forward an excellent idea for starting a Geo for All newsletter, so we all can get summary monthly updates . Newsletter will be a good benifit to the community. Nikos has also kindly volunteered to the the Chief Editor of our newsletter. We now need 3 volunteer co- editors to be part of this team with Nikos (ideally from different continients). So please let Nikos (Email: labri...@eled.auth.gr ) know if you are interested. In fact, all our email archives are available publically at http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/ica-osgeo-labs/ so it just need someone with some editorial skills to bring together key items and publish as a newsletter for the community. I am sure once we start, we can build upon this with feedbacks/inputs from others, use the same template for monthly newsletters etc. Just need a lead editor and good team in place for this. The Newsletter aims to have the following: * Summary of the month highlighting various activities in the network * Will have a section on Lab of the month where the editor/sub editors will contact one of the labs in our network to work with them to put together an article on thier work and developments, key people etc. * Sections on various events, conferences, webinars, courses, training programs etc at the various labs * Section on any key research publications published by any of our labs * Section on funding opportunities, bids etc that our members are working on * Section on new free and open software, books, articles, etc. * Section on scholarships for students and exchange programs for students and staff in our network. * Any other ideas/proposals So please come forward if you can help with this. Thanks. Best wishes, Suchith 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 Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Nigeria OSGeo Local Chapter
Thanks Jeff. Welcome Ayo and please join also the Africa focussed maillist http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-africa and also inform other universities in Nigeria to join and share ideas on our Education initiative. You can also contact our chairs for Africa: Serena Coetzee (South Africa) , Bridget Fleming (South Africa) and Rania Elsayed Ibrahim (Egypt) and they will be pleased to share experiences and guide you. Also for info. I recieved update from Bridget Fleming yesterday about the success of GIS teacher courses using QGIS that she is being doing and it is great to know QGIS is being used extensively and with much success in many South African schools. I think this is great development that will inspire other school teachers not only in Africa but globally to also explore ideas for expanding geoeducation opportunities for thier students I understand from Bridget that there will be a conference info that she will be sending to the Africa maillists soon. So keep an eye of these developments and participate. Best wishes, Suchith From: discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org [discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jeff McKenna [jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com] Sent: Monday, June 01, 2015 3:42 PM To: discuss@lists.osgeo.org Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Nigeria OSGeo Local Chapter Thanks for this great news from Nigeria, Ayo! I have added your chapter link to the list of local chapter initiatives: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapters#Local_Chapter_Initiatives I have also filed a ticket for your new mailing list, with you as the administrator of that list: https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/ticket/1497 In your connections with local universities in Nigeria, please be sure to promote the GeoForAll network to them (http://www.geoforall.org/), made up of researchers promoting FOSS4G all around the globe. They can subscribe to the mailing list and introduce their activities (subscribe at http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ica-osgeo-labs). And possibly consider hosting a local FOSS4G event in Nigeria, why not?! :) Please keep us all updated with your activities in Nigeria promoting OSGeo, through this mailing list. Thanks again! -jeff -- Jeff McKenna President, OSGeo http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jeff_McKenna On 2015-05-31 8:25 PM, Ayo Akinseye DSS wrote: Hello All, I hold a Masters in GIS from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1997) and have worked on GIS projects in Nigeria ever since. My transition to Opensource software (operating systems, Server, Desktop and Web) began about 5 years ago. Over time I have acquired most of the basic skills required for Opensource (java, python, javascript, html5, CSS etc) and have become an Opensource advocate of some sort (in public and private sectors in Nigeria). I have a group of people that we have held informal meetings and we are passionate about Open Source software, GIS, and our part of the world. We have people from all walks of life - academia, government and business. We have decided to set-up a Local OSGeo Chapter to assist our current drive of increasing FOSS4G and Opensource awareness in Nigeria. I have looked at the guidelines, OSGeo mission and according to http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapters/Starting a page has been set-up at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User_talk:Ayolagos To grow our potential user base, we want to adopt the Ubuntu Linux model of distributing CDs/Flash drives with FOSS4G videos and software to interested people and organisations across our country. These costs will be borne by us. We would like to put the OSGeo logo on all these items. A training facility in Lagos Island, Lagos has given us access to one of their training rooms that can seat 50 people. The room has all the facilities required for workshops and trainings. This will form our Lagos base for now while we will look for other facilities in other parts of the country as we move along. We intend to start monthly workshops within the next 6 weeks. We intend to have movable banners at all our events, and would like to put OSGEO logo on these banners. We also have a couple of businesses (including our company) who have pledged at least 2 PCs in each of our offices which we will encourage potential users to come to use for specified periods, to mitigate the issue of users not having access to an internet facing computer. These will be managed by a booking system so we do not disturb the commercial activities of these businesses. We have started discussing with 5 Universities across Nigeria (as a start) about including Opensource and FOSS4G courses in their related departments. We actually found one university already using QGIS!. Introduction letters have been requested from these organisations and we would like to use the OSGeo logo as part of these letters. We have started development of a website and still working on the
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Ica-osgeo-labs] Nigeria OSGeo Local Chapter
Welcome from our side as well, Ayo and Nigeria! You are most welcome to contact us. Regards, -- Serena Coetzee Geography Building 3-5 Centre for Geoinformation Science, Department Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa email: serena.coet...@up.ac.za mailto:serena.coet...@up.ac.za · Web: www.up.ac.za/cgis http://www.up.ac.za/cgis · Mobile: +27 82 464 4294 · Tel: +27 12 420 3823 On 02 Jun 2015, at 10:23, Suchith Anand suchith.an...@nottingham.ac.uk wrote: Thanks Jeff. Welcome Ayo and please join also the Africa focussed maillist http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-africa and also inform other universities in Nigeria to join and share ideas on our Education initiative. You can also contact our chairs for Africa: Serena Coetzee (South Africa) , Bridget Fleming (South Africa) and Rania Elsayed Ibrahim (Egypt) and they will be pleased to share experiences and guide you. Also for info. I recieved update from Bridget Fleming yesterday about the success of GIS teacher courses using QGIS that she is being doing and it is great to know QGIS is being used extensively and with much success in many South African schools. I think this is great development that will inspire other school teachers not only in Africa but globally to also explore ideas for expanding geoeducation opportunities for thier students I understand from Bridget that there will be a conference info that she will be sending to the Africa maillists soon. So keep an eye of these developments and participate. Best wishes, Suchith From: discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org [discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jeff McKenna [jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com] Sent: Monday, June 01, 2015 3:42 PM To: discuss@lists.osgeo.org Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Nigeria OSGeo Local Chapter Thanks for this great news from Nigeria, Ayo! I have added your chapter link to the list of local chapter initiatives: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapters#Local_Chapter_Initiatives I have also filed a ticket for your new mailing list, with you as the administrator of that list: https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo/ticket/1497 In your connections with local universities in Nigeria, please be sure to promote the GeoForAll network to them (http://www.geoforall.org/), made up of researchers promoting FOSS4G all around the globe. They can subscribe to the mailing list and introduce their activities (subscribe at http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ica-osgeo-labs). And possibly consider hosting a local FOSS4G event in Nigeria, why not?! :) Please keep us all updated with your activities in Nigeria promoting OSGeo, through this mailing list. Thanks again! -jeff -- Jeff McKenna President, OSGeo http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Jeff_McKenna On 2015-05-31 8:25 PM, Ayo Akinseye DSS wrote: Hello All, I hold a Masters in GIS from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1997) and have worked on GIS projects in Nigeria ever since. My transition to Opensource software (operating systems, Server, Desktop and Web) began about 5 years ago. Over time I have acquired most of the basic skills required for Opensource (java, python, javascript, html5, CSS etc) and have become an Opensource advocate of some sort (in public and private sectors in Nigeria). I have a group of people that we have held informal meetings and we are passionate about Open Source software, GIS, and our part of the world. We have people from all walks of life - academia, government and business. We have decided to set-up a Local OSGeo Chapter to assist our current drive of increasing FOSS4G and Opensource awareness in Nigeria. I have looked at the guidelines, OSGeo mission and according to http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapters/Starting a page has been set-up at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User_talk:Ayolagos To grow our potential user base, we want to adopt the Ubuntu Linux model of distributing CDs/Flash drives with FOSS4G videos and software to interested people and organisations across our country. These costs will be borne by us. We would like to put the OSGeo logo on all these items. A training facility in Lagos Island, Lagos has given us access to one of their training rooms that can seat 50 people. The room has all the facilities required for workshops and trainings. This will form our Lagos base for now while we will look for other facilities in other parts of the country as we move along. We intend to start monthly workshops within the next 6 weeks. We intend to have movable banners at all our events, and would like to put OSGEO logo on these banners. We also have a couple of businesses (including our company) who have pledged at least 2 PCs in each of our offices which we will encourage potential users to come to use for specified periods, to mitigate the issue of users not having access to an
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] How to quantify the economic impact of OSGeo software? Your help needed for a research article
Suchith, I am guessing that the 1 billion dollar number is for full commercial price with no volume or educational discounts for the ArcGIS Online services. If you want to make a similar claim for the OSGeo Academy simply multiply the full retail commercial cost ( plus maintenance) , without volume or educational discounts, of the different proprietary software packages with equivalent functionality to the tasks presented in the GeoAcademy MOOC , times 4000. To add a bit more honesty, list the educational discount for the proprietary software packages , then the full commercial price. One could make the case that the software presented in GeoAcademy does not change in price when leaving academia for the real world, presenting an economic benefit to geospatial professionals starting careers. Do a 10 year analysis, based on ongoing licensing purchase and maintenance costs, between the software in GeoAcademy and the proprietary software. Multiply that times 4000. Just a suggestion. Doug On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 7:58 AM, Suchith Anand suchith.an...@nottingham.ac.uk wrote: Hi all, Few years ago, myself and colleagues here did a study to help us understand the social history of collaborative activities within the OSGeo ecosystem. The results were published as a research paper on Mapping Collaboration in Open Source Geospatial Ecosystem in Transactions in GIS (Volume 16, Issue 4, pages 581–597, 2012). Last year after OSGIS 2014, following informal discussions with some colleagues, i decided to do a similar study to help understand the economic impact of OSGeo Software on the digital economy. To do this, we need to understand the metrics used for calculating this. Can anyone who has done similar studies in other domains help me point to any relevant articles for helping find a framework for this. We need to know the underlying metrics so we can use that same framework for this study. For example, reading through http://news.aag.org/2015/05/aag-seeks-proposal-authors-reviewers-for-new-ap-course-in-gist/ i understand that In 2014, Esri announced a $1 billion gift of cloud-based ArcGIS Online software to support the Obama Administration’s ConnectEd initiative. This remarkable gift is providing free ArcGIS Online accounts to any public or private school upon request. I am interested to understand how this $1 billion gift is calculated? Can anyone knowledgeable on this provide the details of these metrics use for this calculation? For example, The GeoAcademy MOOC program that our colleagues did ( i understand that for just the March 2015 cohert were 4000 students in thier program who all used QGIS), so if they all had to buy properitory software for thier study, how much will they have to pay? and will it be possible to even run a course like this ? It is important to quantify this as it will help us also appreciate the great donation of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the importance of Open Principles in Education. Once we can get details of the metrics used for the calculation of properitory software donation, we can use the same metric to understand the impact of OSGeo software donations over many years to the Global geospatial education, economy and business and help us with the new research paper that i am planning to work on The Economic Impacts of Open Source Geospatial Software. I will acknowledge all contributions/inputs recieved from the wider community in this planned research paper. If you done similar kind of study, in other domains , it will be helpful to get your ideas. Thanks in advance. Best wishes, Suchith 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 Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss -- Doug Newcomb USFWS Raleigh, NC 919-856-4520 ext. 14 doug_newc...@fws.gov - The opinions I express are my own and are not representative of the official policy of the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service or Dept. of the Interior. Life is too short for undocumented, proprietary data formats.
[OSGeo-Discuss] How to quantify the economic impact of OSGeo software? Your help needed for a research article
Hi all, Few years ago, myself and colleagues here did a study to help us understand the social history of collaborative activities within the OSGeo ecosystem. The results were published as a research paper on Mapping Collaboration in Open Source Geospatial Ecosystem in Transactions in GIS (Volume 16, Issue 4, pages 581–597, 2012). Last year after OSGIS 2014, following informal discussions with some colleagues, i decided to do a similar study to help understand the economic impact of OSGeo Software on the digital economy. To do this, we need to understand the metrics used for calculating this. Can anyone who has done similar studies in other domains help me point to any relevant articles for helping find a framework for this. We need to know the underlying metrics so we can use that same framework for this study. For example, reading through http://news.aag.org/2015/05/aag-seeks-proposal-authors-reviewers-for-new-ap-course-in-gist/ i understand that In 2014, Esri announced a $1 billion gift of cloud-based ArcGIS Online software to support the Obama Administration’s ConnectEd initiative. This remarkable gift is providing free ArcGIS Online accounts to any public or private school upon request. I am interested to understand how this $1 billion gift is calculated? Can anyone knowledgeable on this provide the details of these metrics use for this calculation? For example, The GeoAcademy MOOC program that our colleagues did ( i understand that for just the March 2015 cohert were 4000 students in thier program who all used QGIS), so if they all had to buy properitory software for thier study, how much will they have to pay? and will it be possible to even run a course like this ? It is important to quantify this as it will help us also appreciate the great donation of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the importance of Open Principles in Education. Once we can get details of the metrics used for the calculation of properitory software donation, we can use the same metric to understand the impact of OSGeo software donations over many years to the Global geospatial education, economy and business and help us with the new research paper that i am planning to work on The Economic Impacts of Open Source Geospatial Software. I will acknowledge all contributions/inputs recieved from the wider community in this planned research paper. If you done similar kind of study, in other domains , it will be helpful to get your ideas. Thanks in advance. Best wishes, Suchith 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 Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G Belgium - Brussels, 29 October 2015
Hi Johan, Thanks for sharing this, I've very happy to hear of the 1st FOSS4G-Belgium event! For any news releases about this, please consider sending them to news_item(at)osgeo(dot)org so they are posted on osgeo.org and automagically tweeted. For a domain, let us know if you want something like belgium.foss4g.org (or maybe you already own foss4g.be) By the way I already lurk on your mailing list :) Congrats again on the event! -jeff On 2015-06-01 4:09 PM, Johan Van de Wauw wrote: English version [dutch and french below] After different succesful events, such as OSGeo Ghent (2013)[1], beOpenGIS (2014)[2] and the geospatial devroom at FOSDEM in 2015[3], the Dutch speaking and French speaking Open GIS communities in Belgium have decided to join their forces and organise the first FOSS4G Belgium. The event will be hosted in Brussels at BEL[4], The Environment and Energy Agency of the Brussels. The date will be **29 October 2015**. The goal of the conference is to target a broad audience. Apart from a plenary session there will be place for interactive workshops and debates, both in English and in the major official languages of Belgium: Dutch and French. A call for participation will be launched soon - keep an eye on this place. If you are interested in helping to organise FOSS4G Belgium - get in touch with the organisers at our mailinglist[5] and feel free to join! http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Belgium/FOSS4G **Nederlands** Na verschillende succesvolle activiteiten, zoals OSGeo Gent, beOpenGIS en de [geospatial devroomhttps://fosdem.org/2015/schedule/track/geospatial/] op FOSDEM in 2015 hebben de Nederlandstalige en Franstalige OpenGIS gemeenschap de handen in elkaar geslagen om de eerste FOSS4G België te organiseren. De dag zal doorgaan bij Leefmilieu Brussel. De datum ligt nu vast op **29 Oktober 2015**. De bedoeling van het congres is om een breed publiek aan te spreken. Daarom voorzien we naast een aantal plenaire sessies ook ruimte voor interactieve workshops en debatten, zowel in het Engels als in het Nederlands en het Frans. Een oproep tot deelname zal binnenkort hier verschijnen. Voel je je geroepen om mee te helpen met de organisatie? Neem dan contact op met de organisatoren of sluit je aan op onze mailinglijst [5]. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Belgium/FOSS4G **Français** Après plusiers activités fructueses telles que l'OSGeo Gand (2013), beOpenGISfr (2014) et le geospatial devroom au FOSDEM (2015), les communautés Open-SIG néerlandais et français ont battu leurs forces pour organiser la première FOSS4G Belgique. La conférence aura lieu à Bruxelles, au Bruxelles Environnement. La date est maintenant fixeé: le **29 Octobre 2015**. Le but de la conférence est de cibler à un large public: pas seulement des session plénaires, mais aussi des ateliers et des débats interactifs, à la foi en anglais, mais aussi en néerlandais et français. Un appel à participation sera lancé bientôt. Vous sentez-vous appelés à aider à l'organisation? Ne hésitez pas à contacter les ofganisateurs et rejoignez notre liste de diffusion [5]. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Belgium/FOSS4G [1] http://www.geomajas.org/osgeogent2013 [2] http://be-opengis.ulb.ac.be/ [3] https://fosdem.org/2015/schedule/track/geospatial/ [4] http://bel.brussels/ [5] http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/belgium http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Belgium/FOSS4G ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] How to quantify the economic impact of OSGeo software? Your help needed for a research article
Regarding metrics, I try to check into this for the OSGeo community about once a month; and oddly enough, yesterday I spent effort on updating our community statistics (recorded at http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/VisibilityStats). But it is not easy. And much more can be done. So my point is that it is also difficult for the open community to quantify our impact. Also related: yesterday I saw Tim Sutton tweet an interesting study comparing the feasibility of QGIS vs ArcGIS. It contains some numbers. https://twitter.com/timlinux/status/605398737922359297 -jeff On 2015-06-02 8:58 AM, Suchith Anand wrote: Hi all, Few years ago, myself and colleagues here did a study to help us understand the social history of collaborative activities within the OSGeo ecosystem. The results were published as a research paper on Mapping Collaboration in Open Source Geospatial Ecosystem in Transactions in GIS (Volume 16, Issue 4, pages 581–597, 2012). Last year after OSGIS 2014, following informal discussions with some colleagues, i decided to do a similar study to help understand the economic impact of OSGeo Software on the digital economy. To do this, we need to understand the metrics used for calculating this. Can anyone who has done similar studies in other domains help me point to any relevant articles for helping find a framework for this. We need to know the underlying metrics so we can use that same framework for this study. For example, reading through http://news.aag.org/2015/05/aag-seeks-proposal-authors-reviewers-for-new-ap-course-in-gist/ i understand that In 2014, Esri announced a $1 billion gift of cloud-based ArcGIS Online software to support the Obama Administration’s ConnectEd initiative. This remarkable gift is providing free ArcGIS Online accounts to any public or private school upon request. I am interested to understand how this $1 billion gift is calculated? Can anyone knowledgeable on this provide the details of these metrics use for this calculation? For example, The GeoAcademy MOOC program that our colleagues did ( i understand that for just the March 2015 cohert were 4000 students in thier program who all used QGIS), so if they all had to buy properitory software for thier study, how much will they have to pay? and will it be possible to even run a course like this ? It is important to quantify this as it will help us also appreciate the great donation of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the importance of Open Principles in Education. Once we can get details of the metrics used for the calculation of properitory software donation, we can use the same metric to understand the impact of OSGeo software donations over many years to the Global geospatial education, economy and business and help us with the new research paper that i am planning to work on The Economic Impacts of Open Source Geospatial Software. I will acknowledge all contributions/inputs recieved from the wider community in this planned research paper. If you done similar kind of study, in other domains , it will be helpful to get your ideas. Thanks in advance. Best wishes, Suchith 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 Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
