Quebec Chapter Report 2008

Quebec Local Chapter

 * Contact name: Daniel Morissette

Key Accomplishments

 * 2008 was the year of the creation of the chapter. We went from a few ideas exchanged at the GeoEvenement in Paris in April to official chapter status at the November 14th board meeting
 * A first meeting was held in June to gauge interest. There was indeed lots of interest: the Reflexions Quebec meeting attracted 42 participants.
 * The Quebec Portal has been created in the OSGeo wiki
 * We established the Quebec Chapter Steering Committee
 * A first "5 à 7" took place in Quebec City on August 29th and attracted about 20 participants
 * A second "5 à 7" was held in Magog on November 6th and attracted over 40 participants
 * Publication (| article, presentation, etc.) on OSGeo-qc and accomplishment/application of open source GIS in the community
 * Presence of OSGeo-qc representatives at GeoCamp 2008, CLLAP 2008 and at a round table on open source geospatial technologies organised by Laval University and AFiGéo
 * Presentation at CIT-S (see Activities of the Quebec local chapter for further details in French)
 * Nomination of one Quebec Chapter representative (Dr. Thierry Badard) as a member (in charge of the free software committee) of the OSGeo-fr board

Areas for Improvement

 * We need to keep the momentum, there is growing interest for Open Source Geospatial software (and data) in Quebec, we should take advantage of that.
 * We need to expand the network by attracting more professionals from the provincial/municipal government and university/CEGEP community
 * We need to work on our objective of maintaining a strong link with the Francophone chapter, and get the Quebec chapter participants to also participate the Francophone community
 * We need to work on our objective of maintaining a strong relationship with other north-american local chapters (Ottawa, BC, US chapters, ...) for the organization of canadian or north-american activities or events

Opportunities to Help

 * Share your success stories in the Quebec Chapter Portal
 * Participate in the local "5 à 7" meetings
 * Present your OSGeo-related project to your peers in a future Quebec Chapter activity
 * Spread the word about OSGeo and the Quebec chapter in your own community
 * Help with the translation efforts of the Francophone Chapter

Outlook for 2009

 * More local meetings (5 à 7) to come in 2009! The first one is planned for March 19th in Trois-Rivières
 * Presence in some GIS events in the province of Quebec and outside the province, starting with an OSGeo stream in the AGMQ Conference of April 30th and the participation to GeoCamp 2009