Blogs

I've just got back from a trip to the UK and Italy last week for the OSGIS event and the OSGeo Hacking Event. It was a great time of connecting with so many people that it exceeded my expectations.

Before heading up to Nottingham I was able to meet up with Martin Daly from Cadcorp (a GDAL/OGR sponsor) in London. We hadn't met face to face before, so I was glad to get a firsthand chance to see their SIS GIS Desktop product in action. Our very own Mateusz also works there so it was treat to catch up with him as well. Of course he couldn't resist going to Nottingham too and overworking his camera - his flickr feed is always helpful after an event :)

From the word go, Suchith Anand, Mike Jackson and the rest of the University of Nottingham's Centre for Geospatial Science crew had us hopping. I didn't realise it was possible to pack so much into a single day event! Thank you for the opportunity to deliver a keynote there and for lining up so many good speakers and people to meet with the following day as well. Three cheers! I'm sure next year will be even better.

It was a truly international event with close to 20 different countries represented. It was really good to catch up with many of you from all over Europe, I'll be going through my notes this week, but still feel free to drop me if you remember anything in particular we should pursue together.

One recurring theme of interest from several groups and and individuals, was the interest to partner with OSGeo to write case studies relating to their domain. I'm really looking forward to following up on these. If you want to help write, please let me know.

The OSGeo UK Chapter held a meeting as well, with Jo Cook leading the charge. It's always fascinating to see how different each chapter is - each with their own interests, strengths and local challenges. This was only the second time they met...sort of. Last year there were less than a dozen who met up to discuss the idea of forming a chapter. This year it was more like 50 or more people with broad interest from around the UK. Coming from a Canadian, it might seem strange to say that the UK chapter is spread out over large distances, but it is large enough that some more regional local groups are likely to pop up. There were contingents from Scotland and Wales talking about meeting and I know there are some Irish interested as well.

They have high hopes, so if you are the UK, join their list and find a good reason to get together and chat.

(Photos from mlsoskot's photostream under under these terms - good job Mateusz!)

I've been working on a Marketing project to complete a new brochure and now it is finished. There are some more types of material being developed as well, some are templates, others are for equipping an exhibit/booth/table at an event. The end goal is to have a set package of material that a local chapter or a sponsoring organisation can order/ship to represent OSGeo at an event.

Here's a photo showing part of the great looking table and banner gear from a recent event...

And the main brochure is in an embedded viewer below, but if that doesn't work, you can download the vertical bi-fold brochure here in raw PDF.

Hi everybody, here is just a brief update of some of the things on my radar at the moment. If you see an opportunity to work together on any of them, or if you want to find a reason to get together, drop me a note.

Journal and Annual Report

As many of you already know, the OSGeo Annual Report compilation is underway. With a few days left to get reports in, I hope you will pester others in your project steering committee or local chapter to submit something - even something very brief. OSGeo has been pretty light on reporting requirements, so this annual requirement shouldn't be too much effort. In fact, I think it very beneficial for our groups to take a moment to reflect and consider how they've progressed during 2008. When compilation is complete, then it will be rolled together with a few other articles into OSGeo Journal Volume 5. Watch for it later in the month.

If you have extra time on your hands and want to help edit upcoming issues of the journal - join the Journal mailing list and introduce yourself. We're moving to a powerful online management system called the Open Journal System. It's taking some getting used to, but will really help make it possible to undertake peer review and easier submission/management between different editors.

Marketing

As noted in previous posts we have several projects on the go. The one that's mostly on my plate is to oversee getting design work completed for some brochures, templates and other items that are in high demand by local chapters and events worldwide. The aim is to have reusable file formats and ones that are easily edited or updated in the future. Watch for more on this in the upcoming month.

This month several of us had the opportunity to contribute to the Open Source Business Resource Journal. Edited by Dave McIlhagga, including contributions by myself, Paul Ramsey, Mark Lucas, Scott Bortman, Andrew Ross, Haris Kurtagic and Geoff Zeiss. Good work guys and thank you to the OSBR for the great opportunity.

OSGeo will have a booth at the (huge) upcoming American Association of Geographers (AAG) event 22-26 March. Thanks to Alex Mandel for taking the lead on organising this with his colleagues at UC Davis. Also to the other volunteers who are helping speak and maintain our presence there.

Paul Ramsey is also helping to organise our presence at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 event 19-21 May. There is always a stellar line-up of folks who are friends of OSGeo and our relatives. I'm not sure if I'll be attending, but if you are going to be then you might want to mention it on the OSGeo Discuss list to see who else is going.

Supporting Your Event

I'm always wary of giving a false sense of hope, but if you know of a critical event in your region or domain that OSGeo could make a splash at in the future - please join the Marketing mailing list and introduce your idea. We don't really sponsor events, but we do expect to help with a few different ones - usually not through sponsoring but through exhibiting, speaking or generally helping spread OSGeo project information.

One warning though, be prepared to help organise or develop the idea if you really want to see it happen. The Marketing group is focused this year on developing the material mentioned above, and making sure this gets into the hands of as many people as possible who will be at events around the world.

Sponsorship

This is the time of year where several of our esteemed OSGeo Sponsors come up for renewal, so I've had my head in the books a bit more than usual this past month. On the topic of sponsors, if you ever have any suggestions for sponsors that are a good fit for OSGeo (or any of the projects that are underway), I'd love to hear about it. We can chat about it, or you can drop me an email to get the ball rolling.

Events and Meetings

In a few months it will be about one year of reduced travel at my end. My wife had a nasty knee injury, but her surgery has worked out great. Now I'm starting to get any speaking opportunities and meetings lined up for later in the spring/summer.

• The next event I am planning to attend is the First Open Source GIS UK Conference in Nottingham, June 22nd. I have several opportunities for talks and meetings that are starting to line up. If you are nearby (e.g. anywhere in the UK) and would like to meet, please let me know, I'm always keen to see what people are doing with OSGeo software, local chapters, education and more.
• GeoWeb Vancouver is a great place to meet up with several OSGeo people. I expect to attend there in July and look forward to seeing others.
• FOSS4G Sydney of course... 20-23 Oct. The marketing group is just starting to talk about preparing for an OSGeo booth there. If you are interested in helping coordinate our exhibition floor presence, get a front and centre visible position, etc... there is an opportunity to help. Prior experience with such an effort would be ideal.

What else is on your agenda that I should attend or could help with in some way? I'm sure I've forgotten more than I remember!

This week there was a Marketing Meeting. Five of us met in IRC to discuss various items and to kick off our 2009 programme. Here are a couple of the highlights, with a bit more background information.

Local Chapter Logo Usage

Recently a few local chapters were wondering about how they could use the OSGeo logo and customise it for their local use. Historically, the guidelines for using the main logo have prevented alteration of the logo. Yet there was recent work done that would allow additional text describing the logos purpose:

These were primarily for users and projects to stamp on their web pages to easy identification back to OSGeo. But some local chapters are interested in doing more and taking parts of the main logo and incorporating them into their local version. Others are only interested in changing the text under the logo so it reflects the local chapter name, for example with the Japan chapter's rendition.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Australia-New Zealand chapter has a beautiful rendition of a logo based roughly on the shape and colours of the previous OSGeo logo, though not really remixing the logo in a new way. It's more unique than it is a remix.

There are several more interesting examples out there that bring up the main questions. For example the FOSSGIS German group is mixing the OSGeo compass symbol into various renditions, helping to bring together elements from their past. See here.

The question of logo usage has two faces. First a local chapter may always have their own unique logo - there is no restriction on this specifically and local chapters are encouraged to do their own branding and to use the OSGeo logo as part of it. The main question then is whether or not a local chapter (or project) should be allowed to use elements of the OSGeo logo and remix them for their purposes, as in the FOSSGIS example.

The Marketing mailing list had some discussion on this earlier in the month. One side of the discussion ( here ) gave some encouragement for loosening restrictions and several were in agreement. The main point being that free and open use and mixing of the logo should be seen a strength to our community - people like parts of graphics then let them use it since it doesn't detract from the main usage of the local in formal contexts.

The opposing view is centred around our trademark guidelines which seeks to protect the OSGeo brand from confusion and dilution. As one of OSGeo primary brand identifiers it is argued that it should not be used lightly or modified without approval. The core question then becomes whether OSGeo should relax the trademark guidelines or not.

Those discussing it during our last meeting were in agreement with loosening restrictions, with the expectation that local chapters would use their logo (in whatever form) when talking about their chapter, but when referring back to OSGeo in particular the main OSGeo logo would be logical to use. In some context it would make sense to use both logos - e.g. a news items or event poster - and would not necessarily dilute the main brand.

Further discussion was deferred back to the list to seek a consensus view. The main documents that would needs some attention are the trademark guidelines but also some direction for usage in the local chapter guidelines.

Assign Leads for 2009 Projects

The 2009 Marketing Budget approved last year identifies several of the main projects for the marketing committee. To help ensure some progress on each item, we discussed who might be interested in helping lead/coordinate each component. The hope here is to delegate responsibilities to members of the committee or community who would like to help see the project move along. Then others can join with them to help were they are interested. Everyone present at the meeting offered to take on a part:

• Communication and Branding - next stage of branding development and design. Tyler or other who is interested
• Website Redesign - co-ordinating with webcom, overseeing project with designers. Daniele with support from Cameron, Wolf, Jeroen.
• Material Production - overseeing production based on above branding development. Jeroen
• Exhibition Pack Prototype - following status of very parts of planning, development and production. Alex also coordinating with Tyler re #1 and #3 above.
• Event Support - reaching out to identify or find upcoming event opportunities. Cameron

Each person will help pull together a work plan and invite others to join in, as well as give a report at the next marketing meeting. If you are particularly interested in one area, please contact the person above or mention it on the Marketing mailing list.

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For more information on other items discussed during meeting, see the posted minutes.
The next meeting is the first Thursday of February. All are welcome to join us in IRC and participate.

Here are a few of the items from January's Board of Directors meeting. You can see the full set of notes and minutes here. Attending the meeting were Arnulf, Markus, Ari, Howard, Paul, Bob.

Approved Barcelona as 2010 FOSS4G site

The Conference Committee selected Barcelona's bid from the proposal process, then passed the choice on to the Board for ratification. This was already approved through an email vote over Christmas by the Board. Congratulations to the Barcelona team and thank you to the other bidders.

Official Status for Poland and UK Local Chapters

Two local chapters have been gradually developing over the past year or more. Both the Poland and United Kingdom chapters have moved to official status following their requests to the board.

If you are part of a local chapter that is not yet on the official list, you may request official status from the Board. If you wonder what this entails, you are welcome to contact me and I can help guide you through the process.

Chris Schmidt to Head Web Committee

A big thank you to Jason Birch for his work as former chair of the Web Committee (aka WebCom)! After Jason stepped down last month, Chris was elected as the new chair. The Board confirms the chair for each formal committee and acknowledged this change during their January meeting. Thank you for stepping up to the challenge Chris!

General Discussion

Each month the Board members review potential sponsors and those who have committed to follow up with specific ones. Several new sponsors are needed to be able to meet the 2009 budget.

Several board members will be at the Toronto Code Sprint in March, 2009.

Next board meeting will be held on February 6, 2009.

A great development between OGC and OSGeo.
Here's a snippet from the full press release:

"Arnulf Christl, President of OSGeo, said, "We look forward to collaborating with the OGC to identify open source technologies that can be used as reference implementations for OGC standards and to identify standards requirements that result from our open source geospatial software development programs."

The MOU provides for the assignment of up to six one-year Individual Memberships in the OGC. Memberships will be selected by OSGeo and are subject to OGC qualifications for Individual Membership.
"

Here are a few of the items from December's Board of Directors meeting. You can see the full set of notes and minutes here.

Local Chapter Approved: Cascadia

This request for official recognition as an OSGeo Local Chapter was approved.

Building on the Cascadia Users of Geospatial Open Source (CUGOS) group founded in February 2007, they applied to become an official OSGeo Local Chapter. Their geographic scope largely covers the US Pacific Northwest and, technically, into Southern British Columbia, Canada.

They meet monthly and also represent OSGeo at local events and are hoping to host a mini-conference in 2009. For more information see their OSGeo wiki page or contact one of the founders: Aaron Racicot, Josh Livni, Michael Gerlek or Dane Springmeyer.

Congratulations on becoming officially recognised and three cheers for being such an active local chapter!

MapServer Graduated from Incubation

The Incubation Committee recommended official graduation of MapServer, the Board accepted the recommendation and gave it official approval. Congratulations to the MapServer project and its team members.

2009 Budget Approved

The 2009 Budget was presented again for some discussion and final ratification. There was some discussion about increasing the budget in the future for the System Committee to possibly purchase new hardware. The budget also shows our dependency on setting up additional sponsorships to be able to meet the planned expenses.

Recently the question came up about where to find case studies and articles about open source geospatial projects and software. At first my foggy memory thought, oh yeah, we haven't got a list of them anywhere and we don't have any people with official roles collecting case studies. However we do have a team of volunteer editors and authors who are keen on spreading the word about projects and their usage.

Enter the OSGeo Journal. So far we've produced 4 information packed issues of the Journal. I pulled together some simple stats and was thrilled to see that we have enough for a small book. Thanks a lot to the editorial team that committed to pull these together. And a special thanks to the Francophone Chapter for translating them into French.

As we gear up for a run at another issue for the end of the year, this time hopefully including some peer review options, consider what kind of case study you might like to write. Drop our team a note if you have any questions or submit an article online and an editor will be in touch. There is also more room for any other interested editorial or review team members!

Tyler

p.s. We do have a short list of some case studies also in the wiki

I'm pleased to announce that IGN France is the latest OSGeo Associate Sponsor! The Institut Géographique National (IGN) is an administrative public institution under the authority of France’s Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development. They have a decades-long expertise especially in cartography, aerial imagery and geographic databases.

Their interest in open source comes first from improving tools such as Proj.4 and OSGeo-supported GDAL/OGR, in order to be able to reproject geographic data from the old French geodesic system (NTF) to the new one (RGF93). Hopefully these improved tools will help make the transition easier for the public.

Second, they have also been using OSGeo-supported OpenLayers as a foundation for Geoportail's new API. Given OpenLayers's widespread use, programmers should find it easy to use Geoportail's API.
IGN France looks forward to being involved in supporting OSGeo through the funding but also by continuing contributing code to the aforementioned projects.

Please join me in thanking them for their encouraging show of support for OSGeo.

You can learn more about IGN France at: http://www.ign.fr

The end of May marked one year of analysed web site logs for the OSGeo.org web site. Here are just a few of the highlights showing the (monthly) traffic increases between May 2007 and May 2008.

• Unique visitors: 14,582 to 41,429
• Visits: 26,280 to 85,861
• Pages viewed: 124,574 to 397,534
• Hits: 784,545 to 1,186,885

I won't draw too many conclusions from these stats except to note that since Sept 2007 the number of unique visitors per month has almost exactly doubled (20,546 to 41,429).

You may also find it interesting to know the trends about who views our site. These are based on totals for the year 2007 and the year 2008 to date:

Browser used

• 2007 - Firefox (37%) vs Internet Explorer (53%)
• 2008 - Firefox (46%) vs Internet Explorer (39%)

Operating System

• 2007 - Windows (84%) vs Linux (8%)
• 2008 - windows (78%) vs Linux (12%)

The OSGeo.org server has been fairly static in terms of content, though events, news and language translations continue to be updated. So increases in traffic are mostly tied to increased visibility not just new content.

There are also separate stats available for the OSGeo download server, they were not included here. Over the past year more projects are now hosting or mirroring their project downloads on that site, so the trends are somewhat less meaningful.

Tyler Mitchell
3-June-2008