FOSS4G 2011 Call for Workshops

= Press Release =

FOSS4G 2011 Call for Workshops and Tutorials
Denver, CO, USA. 14 January 2011. The Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference is pleased to announce the Call for Workshops and Tutorials for the 2011 conference, being held September 12 - 16, 2011, in Denver, CO, USA. FOSS4G is the premier international conference focused on open source geospatial software. Users and developers are encouraged to present their latest projects and software to demonstrate the power of open source geospatial solutions through a series of workshop sessions and tutorial presentations. Sessions may cover systems that are solely open source, or a combination of open and closed source solutions.

Workshops
Workshops are 3 hour hands-on experiences with participants following along with the instructor, working directly with the application under discussion. All workshop rooms will be equipped a projector, and with computers for participants to use. Instructors will need to discuss pre-installation requirements with the Conference Organizing Committee if required.

Workshops are expected to require considerable effort to create, with past experience showing that three days of preparation per hour of presentation are required to produce a high quality workshop. Additionally you will be expected to develop material for attendees to take home with them, such as handouts, workbook, CD-ROMs, etc. Due to the effort involved in producing and presenting a workshop, instructors will receive a single complimentary registration to the conference for delivering a workshop.

Tutorials
Tutorials are 90 minute sessions during the regular presentations portion of the conference. Tutorial rooms will not be equipped with computers. However, presenters may make use of delegate laptops and the FOSS4G LiveDVD. Preference will be given to hands-on tutorials. Any hands-on aspects to a tutorial will be the responsibility of the presenter and needs to be described in the tutorial description. Presenters making use of the LiveDVD will be expected to contribute to testing pre-releases to ensure material and software is properly installed. To discuss your requirements for LiveDVD, please contact the LiveDVD community: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc#Contact_Us

Topics of Interest
All submissions will be considered, but particular interest will be shown in the following topics:
 * Practical Introductions to FOSS4G software
 * Interoperability / Spatial Data Infrastructure
 * Integration between open and closed source solutions
 * Free and open geospatial data
 * Performance tuning

Application form
Follow this link to submit your proposals: http://2011.foss4g.org/workshops Please add a 300 word abstract, in plain text format (pasting a text with style markup could make the process fail). The deadline for workshop / tutorial submissions is January 30.

Communication
All workshop and tutorial applicants are encouraged to use the workshop mailing list to ask questions to the workshop committee: http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference-workshops

General FOSS4G 2011 questions and discussion should occur on the main conference mailing list: http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2011

= Information to Capture through Web Form =


 * name of workshop / tutorial
 * Would you prefer to give a workshop (3 hours with computers) or a tutorial (1.5 hours without computers)?
 * name of presenter(s)
 * contact info (email, twitter handle)
 * user level of workshop (beginner/advanced)
 * 300 word abstract
 * list of presenter's workshop experience (have you ever given a workshop before? if yes, where?)
 * Why should this workshop be included in FOSS4G2011?
 * why does this workshop matter?