EGU Townhall 2015

Title of the event
TM5 OSGeo: Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in the Geosciences

Type of event
Townhalls are "power-networking events" hosted at the European Geosiences Union (EGU) General Assembly (GA) for up to 350 people.

EGU-wording: "Townhall Meetings are meetings open for all participants in the conference at which new initiatives or decisions are announced to a larger audience following an open discussion on the matter raised."

Townhalls are hosted in the evening following the conclusion of all scientific tracks. The events last one hour and usually have presentations / announcements taking up the first 20 minutes, to allow for an open discussion among the attendees. During this phase, refreshments are provided to ensure a lively and convivial atmosphere.

Expected Audience Size
100 - 150 people

Audience: Topical Background
Free Open Source Software from OSGeo projects affects most if not all EGU Divisions. Currently FOSS (OSGeo projects + R, GMT, etc.) is particularly strong in the Hydrology, Atnospheric Sciences, Earth and Space Sience Informatics and Tectonics Divisions.

Attendees are expected from the following fields (Academia, Research and Industry).


 * Atmospheric Sciences
 * Biogeosciences
 * Climate: Past, Present & Future
 * Cryospheric Sciences
 * Earth Magnetism & Rock Physics
 * Energy, Resources and the Environment
 * Earth and Space Science Informatics
 * Geodesy
 * Geodynamics
 * Geosciences Instrumentation and Data Systems
 * Geomorphology
 * Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
 * Hydrological Sciences
 * Natural Hazards
 * Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences
 * Ocean Sciences
 * Planetary and Solar System Sciences
 * Seismology
 * Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology
 * Soil System Sciences
 * Solar-Terrestrial Sciences
 * Tectonics and Structural Geology

Audience: Professional Level

 * Doctorate Students, PostDocs, Researchers, Activists, Leaders, Visionaries, Decision Makers, Funding Agencies

Venue

 * EGU GA location at the Vienna International Conference Centre, Austria
 * Townhall location: The townhall will be hosted in a dedicated lecture hall on the conference premises. Room capacity: Most likely up to 150 people.
 * Preliminary date and time: April 14 2015, 19:00 - 20:00 hours. The date will be synchronized with the FOSS-themend topical sessions (Hydrology and Earth and Space Science Informatics)

Relevance for OSGeo
how will our participation help OSGeo
 * Continuation and expansion of the "topical bridge head" established within EGU by the first OSGeo Townhall in 2014.
 * Raise awareness at and reach-out to the European geoscience community by hosting a dedicated public OSGeo event at the largest European geoscience conference.
 * Reach out to young scientists starting their careers.
 * Meeting place for people already active in OSGeo ("meta-BoF") as a large number of people congregates every year at the EGU GA.
 * Reach out to decision makers/elders/scientific activists within the EGU Divisions.
 * Culmination of the "FOSS day" (a new concept @ EGU, to be introduced in 2015) at the EGU GA: The organizers are trying to schedule all FOSS / OSGeo - related events on the same day. This will ensure we have a large audience and niceties such as "FOSS flashmobs" can be arranged for poster sessions. The "FOSS day" could and should be finished off with the OSGeo townhall, as a "multiplier/bring them all together" event.
 * Peaceful und friendly coexistence: Propiertary platforms including Microsoft, Google and ESRI are also staging dedicated events during EGU GA.
 * Awareness on the decision maker level: Significance of OSGeo within the emerging Data Science / Open Science debate ("-> OSGeo-tailored research programmes ?")

Budget

 * Venue rental: none
 * Catering: 2000 USD (based on last years experience) [required]
 * Promotional material: 100 USD (Posters/flyers announcing the event) [required]
 * Give aways: 500 USD (production of OSGeo-live USB-drives) [optional] (this is a guestimate due to lack of lessons learned on this from FOSS4G2014)

Total requested budget: 2600 USD

Proposed Payment Method

 * No seed money required
 * Catering bill (ca. 2000 USD) can be charged on the OSGeo Credit Card (as in 2014) after the event.
 * Promotional material / give aways (600 USD max): Money transfer to german bank account ?

Support by OSGeo

 * Finacial support
 * Use of Logos
 * Volunteers: Preparation phase, event hosting, presentations during the event.


 * Markus Neteler ?
 * Yann Chemin ?
 * Edzer Pebesma?
 * Madi ?
 * GeoForAll folks ?
 * OSGeo-Live folks ?

Related Documents
Summary Report for the OSGeo Townhall at the EGU 2014 GA

EGU Board Request for funding
Board meeting 2015-02-05: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2015-02-05#Minutes

and the motions:

- approve past meeting's minutes

- allocate 10k USD in OSGeo 2015 budget for the ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS Students Awards initative. The funds will be requested by the award's committee with a detailed fund request.

- approve the funding request of 2600 USD for EGU OSGeo Townhall meeting

THE FUNDING REQUEST FOR 2600 USD WAS APPROVED BY THE BOARD on 2015-02-05.

Team

 * Peter Loewe (Convener)
 * Alessandro Frigeri (Convener)
 * Margherita Di Leo (Convener)
 * Helli (local point of contact)

Prep Phase Timeline
Give-aways obtained from FOSSGIS e.V. by: End of FOSSGIS conference MARCH 16 (fallback giveaways acquired). Remaining give-aways be sent to hotel in Vienna by FOSSGIS

Give-aways: USB-drives with OSGeo Life 8.5 ready by: Will be sent to hotel in Vienna by FOSSGIS

Poster materials printed by: n/a

Steampunk A4-posterlets printed by: Mid-March (30 x)

Steampunk A5-flyers printed by: End of March

Catering money coming in from OSGeo by:

Catering planning completed by: 2015-03-23

Catering contract confirmed by: 2015-03-24

Important: Consider Easter Holidays !

Townhall Venue Details
(Copernicus 2015-02-09): Room R8 has a capacity for 122 people.

Catering
Catering planning will be based on lessons learned in 2014. The room holds 122 persons max. Catering guestimate: 100 attendees

2015-02-09: Copernicus announces new caterer: egu@mottogroup.at

2015-02-18: Request for catering proposal sent to Mottogroup

2015-02-27: First quote from Mottogroup available. POC: [s.mueller@mottogroup.at Sandra Müller]

2015-03-13: Mottogroup confirms that EGU credit card can be used

2015-03-19: Mottogroup quote repeatedly edited

task: Inform OSGeo about changes of payment model due to new catering company. Request seed money (Done: 2015-03-15)

Jeff McKenna & Michael (Treasurer): OSGeo credit card details remain with Mike. Caterer has to ocnatct Mike for billing details. Mike is informed about Mottogroups 1/3 1/3 1/3 billing approach (in our case 2/3 before - 1/3 post-event)

2015-03-24: Final quotation signed & sent to Motto Group (1.700 EUR max)

2015-04-02: Motto Group sends first invoice (2/3 of total amount). OSGeo Treasurer (Mike) is sent a heads-up message.

FOSS-related sessions during EGU GA
Monday: HS3.3 Open Source Computing in Hydrology - PICO Session is scheduled on Monday 13 Apr, 13:30–17:00 (23 abstracts). An EGU PICO session which combines a 2-minute oral presentation (2-minute madness) with an interactive poster presentation on dedicated touch-screens.
 * Detailed programme here.

Tuesday:

- ESSI Division Meeting

- Short Course on Open Science

- ESSI2.13/SSS1.8 Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Geoinformatics and Geosciences (co-organized) 30  Abstracts
 * Oral: TU3 (R14) TU4 (R14)
 * Poster: TU5

Copernicus
2015-02-09: To advertise your townhall meeting you can send us a DIN A3 poster (300 dpi) by the end of February at the very latest. C2: Katja Gaenger, Copernicus

2015-02-26: Poster was sent to COPERNICUS (based on OSGeo Design). COPERNICUS (Katja) confirms reception.

task: upload poster to wiki

Outcome: The townhall posters were integrated into the advertising/announcement pillars. Actual size of print: About A3.

Lessons learned: Great opportunity to place the steampunk / hellboy content. Will take pressure from guerilla advertising campaign.

Guerilla Marketing
2015-02-20: No response from the creator of the Pulp-O-Mizer Steampunk website regarding a hi-res poster 2015-02-26: low-res Pulp-o-mizer poster-handout was created for use during the conference.

task: upload pulp-o-mizer poster

task: Produce sufficent copies (A3/A4/A5) AHEAD of the conference, to be carried to Vienna.

- Done: 50 A4 prints + about 60 A5-take-aways were produced.

task: Mugs

- Mugs were ordered by an online printer in late March. Delivery within 48 hours. Uncritical delay due to postal strike in Germany.

- task: Upload picture of a mug (mug-shot).

option for 2016: buttons / patches

option for 2016: OSGeo patches to sew on apparel. OSGeo-stickers were used in this manner in 2015 (short lasting effect, but it worked).

option for 2016: Consider hand out of USB-sticks if a teaching event can be arranged.

Press / Media
To be considered: -Contact Östereichischer Rundfunk (national radio) in advance. Reference: Helli. -Contact FOSS-minded science bloggers.

Materials / Give-aways
2015-02-27: FOSSGIS e.V. Conference Team (Katja) confirms that surplus give-aways can be picked up at the end of the FOSSGIS conference in Münster, to be used up during the Townhall.

2015-03-13: Agreement with Katja Haferkorn (FOSSGIS) that the most of the FOSSGIS leftover material is sent by parcel to Vienna. A batch of fallback materials will be brought by Peter. Agreement to use the 40-something (?) USB-drives produced by FOSSGIS and to sell them for 5 EUR (don't make it too cheap..) at the Townhall. Revenue to be returned to FOSSGIS e.V.

todo: Allocate time and ressources to put OSGeo Life 8.5 images on blank FOSSGIS usb-drives. (n/a ?)

Programme
20 Minutes of presentations + discussion.

Speakers
Intro: Peter Löwe I: Markus Neteler II: Edzer Pebesma

task: upload presentation

execution: Markus and Edzer gave improvised lightning talks. Both are great speakers with deep knowledge in both Science and OSGeo. This sparked a lively discussion.

Pre-Event (until April 14 18:00 hours)
- Give aways remaining from the FOSSGIS conference + OSGeo-live USB-sticks were picked up @ Peters hotel in Vienna

- Confirmation for pricing of USB sticks was requested from FOSSGIS (suggested price: 5 Euro)

- Madi, Alessandro and Peter launched the guerilla marketing on Monday morning. A5 leaflets were deposited both on Monday and Tuesday at central points, PICO session and poster sessions.

- Personal invitations at the exihibition booths were well received (ICDP, Uni Kiel, etc. etc.)

- Organizers and speakers received their commemorative mugs shortly before the afternoon.

- Catering was provided about 15 minutes before the event

- Lesson learned: Include Townhall announcement poster in any preceding PICO sessions and oral sessions (this already worked well in 2014).

- Lesson learned: A mid-sized OSgeo-banner might be a good idea to bring.

Showtime April 14 19:00 - approx 21:00 hours
- Room started to fill up late (10 - 15 Minutes into the time slot)

- Bar was opened after introductionary talk. This was taken well, although most refreshments were consumed during the last 30 minutes.

- Madi did headcounts of attendees at the beginning, middle and closing of the event (about 50 people during the whole event)

- The event was officially over by 20:00 hours. Discussion continued. We had some latecomers which came in after other competing Townhalls closed on time.

- Security started shooing us out around 20:15

- Two USB-sticks were sold.

- Lesson learned: It suffices to book the catering until 20:15 hours (75 minutes).

Wrap-up
- After-Townhall Dinner at Bermuda Bräu on Wednesday (?), arranged by Helli.

- Most consumables like flyers, stickers, etc. were handed out / deposited for take away during the remaining days of the conference.

- Remaining FOSS4G-2015 stickers will be carried to FOSS4G-EU to be used there.

- Remaining USB-sticks will be returned to FOSSGIS (point of contact: Katja Haferkorn),

- Revenue from USB-stick sale (10 EUR) will be handed over to FOSSGIS.

- Caterer will charge for refreshments.

Short term outcome
- Follow-up discussion with ESRI researcher (-> EGU/AGI | FOSS4G 2016)

- GPlates project became interested to join OSGeo

- wradlib project became interested to join OSGeo

- Re-alignment of AGU ESSI session on FOSS: From "show and tell" to the strategic role/impact of FOSS in Open Science / Science 2.0

- Critical mass of OSGeo people sparked discussion sessions every evening.

EGU 2015 Statistics
Presentations: 4,870 oral, 8,489 poster, and 705 PICO presentations.

Scientific sessions: 577 unique scientific sessions Side events: 310 side events (including Townhalls)

Participants: 11,837 scientists from 108 countries participated, of which 23% were students

Options for 2016
- Townhall (saturation has been reached -> 50 participants). Competition with similar events in the same timeslot most likely to continue. Most attendees in 2015 were already familiar with OSGeo (-> Birds of a feather). No need to preach to the choire. Reach-out to newbies needs different channels.

- Option: Splinter Meeting (free software - free speech - free lunch) during lunch break to avoid Townhall-competition issue.

- Opportunity: Prepare a short course (one evening or multiple events), based on OSGeo-live, which gives introductions to several software tools. Great multiplier effect if attendees could take a USB-stick away for further self study.

- Opportunity: Set up a "EGU Survivial Guide for you OSGeo Scientists" in the OSGeo Wiki. Content: Phrases & wording how and why FOSS is significant in research. This avoids reinvention of the wheel and lowers the curb to include these topics in posters and presentations

- Opportunity: A EGU poster template by OSGeo.