Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [OSGeo-Conf] regional conferences
I hope that It pains me to say it, but we might be better off de-emphasizing FOSS4G-the-international-event and trying instead of space regional events regularly around the calendar Doesn't happen until after FOSS4G 2013 :) _ Steven Feldman _ On 18 Jun 2012, at 17:18, Paul Ramsey wrote: On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 5:08 AM, Steven Feldman shfeld...@gmail.com wrote: If there are regional events in every continent except for the continent where the global event is being run we may risk diluting interest in the global event. We will have the global FOSS4G in Europe in 2013 (either UK or Finland will host) we would expect to see less delegates from outside of Europe if there are North American, Asian and other regional events. Perhaps a compromise would be to ensure that the timing of regional events is as close as possible to 6 months away from the global event? That's always a risk, but the reality is that the vast majority of FOSS4G attendees are from the local region, and only a small slice are international. So we really are effectively serving a much larger population with regional events. In some ways (watch this rhetorical bend) dilution is actually a net positive, because it keeps the same-old-same-old highly rated software talks from clogging up the agenda leaving little space for quirky local topics. But I digress. I've been encouraging the regional organizers to try and keep as much schedule space between their event and mid-September as possible. This I think helps the international travellers make schedule time to potentially attend two events in a year. It does lead to some awkward moments though, like FOSS4GNA this year coming just 6 months *after* the last event in NA, the Denver conference. All in all though, because we were serving a market (DC) that itself couldn't all get even so far away as Denver, we ended up serving a wider group. So I think on balance the regional thing is serving us very well. It pains me to say it, but we might be better off de-emphasizing FOSS4G-the-international-event and trying instead of space regional events regularly around the calendar so it's possible for some in-demand speakers to hit 2-3 regional events, while still allowing more travel-constrained local delegates the option of having a regular event. So many options, but unfortunately there's no slam dunk way of knowing what is best. P. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] (no subject)
ยป every second is a precious moment ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] Sharing GIS Data Models
I recently started work on a GIS for a small sewer district at my day job. I'm currently using diagrams I created in Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/) to illustrate the following elements of my GIS data model: 1) Simple Feature Attributes 2) Individual Feature Level Metadata When the data model documentation process is complete I hope to also have diagrams for the additional elements of my GIS data model: 1) Topology Data 2) Feature Relationships 3) Feature Editing History The diagrams will be combined with a short written guide to document the data model. I plan on sharing all of the data model, including its design, the SVG and PDF files of the diagrams, and the written guide. I'd like to release all of that under a Creative Commons License. If I can find time, I'll tweak the diagrams to create templates that could be easily applied to other data models. Is there any interest among other OSGeo members in these data model documents and templates? If there is, I'd love to gather feedback from interested parties. If there was enough interest, I'd like to talk about hosting an open data model page similar to the one here: http://support.esri.com/en/downloads/datamodel I'd could commit to maintaining the data for the sewer data model, and hope to add data models for the Public Land Survey System and Flood Control Infrastructure before the end of the year. If there isn't interest in doing that as part of OSGeo, I'll put up a set of GIS data model pages here: http://www.ccvgpg.org/ Ultimately my goal is to encourage better documentation and sharing of GIS data model design. Inkscape is a really wonderful vector graphics program that makes it possible to do this in a beautiful way using common templates. If there is any interest, I'll share what I've got so far, and will move the conversation to the OSGeo standards mailing list. Thanks. Landon ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] Simple Topology File Format Specification
As part of my recent work for setting up a GIS for a small sanitary sewer district, I've been working on a simple way to share network topology information between GIS systems. The current method for storing and sharing network topology uses two delimited text files. The first delimited text file stores information about nodes in the network, and relates these nodes to simple features. The second delimited text file stores information about connectors (or edges) between the nodes and relates these connectors to simple features. The two files can be used together to represent network topology. In the future, the method will also store network topology rules. I'll start work soon on a set of open source plug-ins for OpenJUMP that uses these files to perform network topology analysis and operations on simple features. This includes tasks like simple network route tracing. I would like to split out the low-level code used by the set of network topology plug-ins into a GeoTools module so it can be used by other Java programs. At this point, some of you are probably asking why don't you just put all of this in a database?. There are two reasons: 1) I've got to work with ESRI Shapefiles. I can use OpenJUMP for the project at my day job, but only if my core data files are interoperable with ESRI. (This is horrible, I know, but it is the reality I'm currently dealing with.) I'm not using a geodatabase, and I'm not storing my simple feature data in a database. I need my simple features in Shapefiles and my topology data in stand-alone text files. 2) Databases are hard to share. :] If there is interest among other OSGeo members, I'd like to write and publish a specification for my topology data files under a Creative Commons License. (I wouldn't claim any intellectual property over the method or file structures either, if that was a concern.) I'd be willing to maintain and update the specification over time. I looked at CityGML for network topology, but it was way too complex. I don't want anything resembling XML. :] Perhaps my use case is too limited to benefit others, but I wanted to shoot something over the bow. I think it would be great to have a way to share network topology between program's like QGIS, UDig, and OpenJUMP. If there is interest in my work, I'll move this discussion to the OSGeo Standards Mailing List. Thanks. Landon ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
