Europe

=Europe=

Welcome to the wiki page of the Europe OSGeo chapter.


 * formal request to the board of OSGeo to recognise OSGeo.eu as a local chapter xx June 2016
 * next board meeting: 15 October 2015 (decision about the acceptance of the proposal)

todolist

 * Decide about the legal structure

Introduction
FOSS4G Europe is rooted in the FOSS4G Central and Eastern Europe conference series, back in 2012. The latter evolved in 2014 as the first edition of FOSS4G Europe in Bremen. The conference is now becoming the main european FOSS4G event, gathering people and OSGeo local chapters from all over Europe and beyond.

Since the conference in Bremen, thoughts and ideas where exchanged to organise OSGeo more on a European basis. The Industry group was started, a platform of people supporting the idea arose, but there was no real initiative for action.

This year we (OSGeoEU) have the ambition to organise a legal entity OSGEO-EU to create a stronger software group in Europe to defend the rights of open source from the perspective of the Geo-ecosystem.

In preparation for this official expression of interest, a couple of meetings have already taken place. a physical BOF @FOSS4G 2014 in Bremen, some mails, a BOF @FOSS4G 2015 in Como and some one physical meetings.

Why should OSGeo have a European local chapter

 * Europe has specific needs in terms adoption rate of open source software.
 * An important initiative called 'INSPIRE' needs specific localised attention.
 * OSGeo.EU is a sparring partner and representation (Single point of contact) for the European institutions in Brussels on behalve OSGeo, the other committees, local chapters and projects. Giving the existing local chapters a voice in Brussels.
 * Europe also has specific business ecosystem.
 * more than 99% of all the European businesses are SME's
 * software industry in Europe is as big as the software industry in the US, but the driving forces are more divided
 * FLOSS can be used as an opportunity to create a strong industry leadership in Europe
 * OSGeo.EU can play a supporting role in this process

Mission and objectives
After discussion amongst the active local chapter members we come to the following list of mission objectives:


 * Community-building and networking around specific European themes


 * support the European OSGeo members using FOSS4G software, help them to organise and bring into contact with governmental agencies and research institutes. Help them with European funded projects.


 * encourage interoperability in European projects


 * support European open standards and European directives such as INSPIRE


 * provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via European curriculum development, outreach, and capacity building


 * to encourage communication between the different European local chapters


 * to encourage different communities to work together where relevant


 * Organisation of events


 * Networking with other typically European organisations and groups (notably OSM, JRC, European projects, FIWARE, EUROGI, SMESpire, ... )


 * Being logical parter to European Commission to discuss about open source software for geospatial and open geospatial data

List of initial members
The European OSGeo Chapter has the support of the following initial founding members (alphabetic - first name):


 * Dirk Frigne - Vice president
 * Vasile Crăciunescu - board member
 * Jáchym Čepický - Secretary of OSGeo
 * Stephan Meißl - charter member
 * Till Adams - charter member
 * Marc Vloemans - Charter member
 * Markus Neteler - Charter member
 * Jorge Gustavo Rocha - Charter member
 * Alexander Bruy - Charter member
 * Oliver May - Charter member

Some early stuff
Local_Chapter_EU_History History

SMESpire

 * Goal: look if SMESPire is a good platform to organise the European FOSS Geo-ICT industry
 * action: contact Giacomo Martirano / action: Dirk Frigne - ongoing

FIWare

 * []
 * action: investigate if structural relationship can be of interest for OSGeo.

new entry

 * reference to the event
 * register your name if you will participate

Tradeshows and events

 * European Events where OSGeo is represented

ISPRS
ISPRS 2016
 * contact: Jachym

FOSSDEM
FOSSDEM 2016
 * contact: Johanvdw

GWF2016
GWF 2016
 * contact: Dirk Frigne

FOSS4G 2016
FOSS4G 2016 Bonn
 * contact: Marc Vloemans

Meeting minutes
meeting 24 May 2016: workshop on the initial wiki page - discussion mission and goals change the status from draft to final decide for formal proposal to the next board meeting attendees: Till Adams (Fossgis) Marc Vloemans (Chair Marketing committee) Dirk Frigne (Vice President OSGeo) Pieter De Graef (Charter member) Gert-Jan van der Weijden (OSGeo.nl) Johan Van de Wauw (OSGeo.be)