We're glad to announce that Slashgeo is once again a proud media partner of the FOSS4G conference, to be held in Portland, Oregon (USA) on September 8th to the 13th. Please find here the FOSS4G calls for workshops, presentations and academic papers.

"The annual FOSS4G conference is the largest global gathering for all those currently or potentially working with open source geospatial software. It brings together a mix of developers, users, decision makers and observers from a broad spectrum of organizations and fields of operation for six days of workshops, presentations, discussions, and cooperation.

Conference Dates

Sep 8th-9th: Workshops
Sep 10th-12th: Main Conference
Sep 13th: Code Sprint"

March 5

Portland, Oregon, USA

FOSS4G calls for workshops, presentations and academic papers

The FOSS4G organizing committee calls for presentations, workshops and academic papers.  FOSS4G, to be held September 8th-12th in Portland, Oregon, USA is the premier international conference on open source geospatial technologies.  With two days of workshops followed by three days of presentations and academic papers, FOSS4G features a diversity of attendees and participants spanning academia, industry, and government.

Dr. Franz-Josef Behr and Drs Barend Köbben have issued the call for academic papers.  

The first two days of FOSS4G are half day workshops.  Participants are invited to submit workshop proposals for audiences ranging from beginner to advanced users, with topics covering the FOSS4G stack from server to client and anywhere between.  Read the detailed call for workshop proposals or submit directly.  Workshop proposals are due by March 15th.

Presentations showcase some of the most interesting developments and uses of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial.  Read the details in the Call for Presentations.

Thanks to the many early bird sponsors that have already signed up.

See you in Portland,

FOSS4G Local Organizing Committee

About FOSS4G

Put on by OSGeo, the annual FOSS4G conference is the premiere global gathering for people working with and creating open source geospatial software. It brings together developers, users, decision makers, and observers from a broad spectrum of organizations and fields of operation for six days of workshops, presentations, discussions, and cooperation. From this melting pot of great spatial ideas and industry flow numerous successful geospatial products, standards and protocols.

FOSS4G has been held all over the world and draws attendees from over 40 countries. Nottingham, England hosted the conference in. In, Portland, Oregon, USA will host FOSS4G’s tenth year.

Conference Dates

Sep 8th-9th: Workshops

Sep 10th-12th: Main Conference

Sep 13th: Code Sprint and WhereCampPDX

About OSGeo

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation was founded in to support and build the highest-quality open source geospatial software. The foundation's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development of community-led projects, data development and education. Many projects live under the OSGeo umbrella, including FOSS4G.

About PDX OSGeo - Portland Area and Oregon OSGeo Chapter

The PDX-OSGeo chapter of OSGeo has been meeting, discussing and promoting the use of open source geospatial technology. Chapter members often organize or present on open source software at regional geospatial conferences. PDX is the airport code and like the PDX airport, the group has a wide catchment area.

Independent software developers, scientists, industry experts, and agency representatives will come to meet at the FOSS4-Europe conference held in Bremen, Germany from July 15 to 17. Contributions can now be submitted on the conference website until April 15.

Under this year’s motto “Independent Innovation for INSPIRE, Big Data and citizen participation” the conference series FOSS4G-Europe (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial - Europe) is uniting the GIS community from a broad spectrum of fields like geodesy, geo information, land management, and remote sensing. Industry and public authorities are expressly invited as they increasingly realize value and economic potential of free and open source products.

Several additional events make the FOSS4G-Europe in Bremen a unique event. A public viewing of the soccer World Championship final will kick off a week packed with events. The week will open with a workshop “Big Geo Data & INSPIRE” especially targeted at public authorities. INSPIRE Annex II and III will be discussed in relation to the pertaining standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Canadian Jeff McKenna, President of the OSGEO Foundation, will open the event with his keynote talk. As a charter member McKenna has got involved with spreading and usage of open-source software for geo information systems for many years. In a plenary, the winners of the international academic NASA World Wind Challenge Europe programming contest will be announced and honored at the conference.

Being in the tradition of the worldwide FOSS4G conference series, this event will bring together open-source experts and enthusiasts from all over Europe and beyond creating a unique, visionary atmosphere.

Conference Dates:

General presentations and workshops:

• Abstract submission: apr-15
• Review notification: apr-30
• Conference: jul-13

Scientific Track:

• Abstract submission: apr-15
• Full paper submission: apr-22
• Review notification: may-15
• Camera ready version: jun-15
• Conference: jul-13

Early bird registration deadline: may-22

This Monday started the Geospatial Advancement Canada conference. The conference aims at discussing Geospatial trends around a National Geospatial Strategy for Canada.

If you would like to follow the conference discussion on Twitter, search this tag: #gcan14.

Here are some of the main speakers and key elements of presentations held on Monday:

• Major General Christian Rousseau explain the role of its GeoSpatial Intelligence Group that needs to find ways of spending less time looking for information and more time for geospatial analysis;
• Julie Lefevbre expose the main projects of R&D in Defense & Security such as Arctic Intelligence and situation awareness (e.g. MASAS) in Canada, but also what she sees as the future of cloud-based architecture that might be built on collaboration (e.g. Virtual USA, US GeoSpatial platform) and knowledge;
• Steeve Guillemette present the case of health crisis management in Québec City during legionnaires disease outbreak and how geospatial analytics become the main integrator of information gathered by specialist;
• Gido Langen explain how he sees 3rd Generation of Web Mapping: establishing a network of REST end points, as the effective way of providing resources to increase quality control and improve capacity of apps deployment;
• Richard Akerman and Deena Yanofsky identifies current limitations of most of Open Data portal which undermines standardization (e.g. common licence such as the International Creative Common 4.0, stable & unique Digital Object Identifier, etc.) and lack of intermediate tools (less developer centric) for vizualisation and spatial analysis (that might help to decrease data illiteracy & improve data skills of the general public);
• Trevor Taylor expose his own definition of Big Data (e.g. Volume+Velocity+Veracity+Variety) and what OGC is promoting: One Open Architecture and Open Standards (e.g. not just OGC, but OASIS, W3C, Web3D) and what are the recent emphasis of OGC: Open Mobile, Internet of Things, cloud computing and privacy.

Based on the presentations made on Monday, the concept toward "built in collaboration" and "Service Oriented Architecture" is likely to be the way of doing things in the GeoSpatial world, in which at the same time the development of open and big data seems to overwhelm GIS managers and public users, but challenges the data skills of the tech guys for the good!

Slashgeo as media partner of this event will publish other articles this week on other hot topics of the conference.

This year again Slashgeo will be a proud media partner of the 9th International gvSIG Conference to be held from November 27th to 29th in Valencia, Spain.

From their objectives: "So what does this have to do with technology? Everything! In the XXI century, can anyone imagine technology as not part of strategic sectors? There is practically no activity or progress, whether industrial, social or within the business environment where technology is not a fundamental aspect. In this sense, and by following the example of where sovereignty lies, whether with the people or within the financial markets, what we need to ask ourselves is whether we govern technology or if technology governs us. [...] We are again talking about the need of having access to knowledge, and when it comes to software, knowledge is only possible if we are talking about free software, which provides us with technological independence, which enables us to at least aspire to be Sovereign. It is a Matter of Sovereignty, which is the main idea that we are claiming in the 9th International gvSIG Conference in Valencia."

I'm happy to announce Slashgeo will be a proud media partner of the 'Geomatics' event in Montreal, to take place on October 3 and 4. We've been a media partner of the 'Geomatics' event and I have personally missed it only once since year (I missed it because I was at the FOSS4G conference!).

The recurring Geomatique 20XY event in Montreal is the conference to attend in the Quebec province. It attracts about 700 participants. While most of the presentations are done in French, mostly everybody attending speaks English (Montreal is in North America after all ;-). From their main page: "Geomatics is:

• The most important event in Quebec’s geomatics industry, gathering close to 700 participants;
• Dynamic speakers who will present their accomplishments and discoveries in the field of geomatics;
• A vast commercial exhibition featuring over 40 exhibitors including key actors in the fields of equipment,
• software and services;
• A showcase of new technologies;
• Two conference lunches featuring prestigious speakers;
• And a networking event that is always highly awaited!"

I'll be on-site myself, and will give a presentation related to my real day job, the official worldwide weather and radar layers available in WMS and KML for free.

September, in the UK at least, is Maptember! The sheer volume of geospatial conferences and events has led to the month having to be renamed, with a dedicated website being set-up to guide delegates through the myriad of options open to them.

For the first time ever the global Open Source caravan, FOSS4G, comes to the UK. Co-located with the huge annual UK GI gathering, the AGI GeoCommunity, these two events will turn Nottingham University campus into the focus of the geospatial world. Also, for the first time since its inauguration event, State of the Map will return to the UK being hosted in Birmingham.

In addition the Society of Cartographers, British Cartographic Society and the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society all hold their annual conferences in Maptember, with workshops and Hacks for OpenStreetMap and QGIS aplenty.

As we all know, Geospatial Conferences are intense affairs and with this focus of activity in a single month we’re advising delegates to prepare for the onslaught with an appropriate training programme. A phased introduction of sleep deprivation, wifi-signal hunting, finger-strengthening exercises are recommended, with additional focus on #geobeer intake enlargement. On a more serious note, how about getting your social media presence ready? Make sure you are using the right #hashtags, connecting with the relevant groups, your profiles are up to date and start networking ahead of the event…or just have business cards at the ready. And don’t forget packing all the electronics – phone chargers.

Booking for FOSS4G remains open until 9^th September.

About FOSS4G : FOSS4G is the global conference for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, hosted by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and organised by a Local Organising Committee. FOSS4G will be held in the United Kingdom for the first time in, at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham, from 17th to 21st September. FOSS4G will follow on from the Association for Geospatial Information annual GeoCommunity event held in the same venue. These two conferences form a part of the geospatial focused events happening across the UK in September.

About OSGeo : The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. The foundation’s projects are all freely available and useable under an OSI-certified open source license 

GIS technology has proven to be powerful and effective in delivering  decision-making tools that help economic developers to conduct analysis, display and disseminate results to sustain economic recovery and growth.The Geo-Empower Middle East Summit scheduled to take place from 16th to 18th September, in Dubai aims at enriching the geospatial outlook in the Middle East, which comprises of the geospatial solution providers, users, policy makers and the academicians.
Industry veteran and speaker at the summit, Dr. Haidar M. Fraihat, Director-ICT Division from United Nations ESCWA, Lebanon, says "The space technology is becoming more and more recognized as an important resource in materializing more economic development for the various countries of the world, developed and developing. The purpose of my intervention is to outline the peaceful uses of outer space technologies and their impact on development. It falls under the universally adopted term of ICT4all. This is one of the areas that UN-ESCWA is recognizing as means of advancing its work program in the Arab region."
BAE Systems, a leading provider for Geospatial solutions, will exhibit at the summit by showcasing their entire line of geospatial products available to the region. BAE Systems is committed to developing advanced products to improve geospatial productivity. Their products such as Geospatial Exploitation Products (GXP) develops licensed software capabilities and geospatial technology for a global clientele.
While recognizing the increasing importance and benefits of geospatial technologies for all round development, it is crucial to foster an enabling, trustworthy, transparent and non-discriminatory environment that promotes the responsible and effective use of its capabilities. The summit offers extraordinary opportunities to solution providers in the geospatial industry to participate and meet over 100 attendees who are keen to adopt or revamp their current GIS assets. Sponsors of the summit include Microsoft UltraCam and Space Imaging Middle East, who will exhibit services and products that enable companies transform their GIS needs to business objectives. The summit is a confluence of a variety of streams, ranging from plenary sessions, technology workshops, panel discussions and case studies from across the world.

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