GSDI

From the GSDI Website:
 * The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association is an inclusive organization of organizations, agencies, firms, and individuals from around the world. The purpose of the organization is to promote international cooperation and collaboration in support of local, national and international spatial data infrastructure developments that will allow nations to better address social, economic, and environmental issues of pressing importance.

GSDI 10 Conference
The GSDI Association organizes the International Conference for Spatial Data Infrastructure 2007. OSGeo will submit proposals for Workshop sessions to demonstrate the FOSS SDI stack. Please help to put together a comprehensive proramm, submission deadline is June 1st.

There is interest from several projects:
 * GeoNetwork opensource
 * GeoServer
 * Mapbender
 * gvSIG (will request OSGeo entry soon)
 * please add more only if you can contribute

OSGeo can highlight the whole software stack and present how it interoperates plus explain FOSS advantages beyond the obvious.

Workshop Proposal
1. Proposed Workshop Title

2. Organizer/Contact Person (name, title, address, country, phone, fax, e-mail)
 * Open Source Geospatial Foundation
 * Arnulf Christl Board Member, (event owner)
 * Siemensstr. 8
 * 53111, Bonn
 * Germany
 * Germany

3. Workshop Description and Goals (250 words or less suitable for posting on the web. Please include in the description if the session will involve lecture, hands-on exercises, group exercises, etc. and whether any take-home materials will be supplied and indicate whether participants should bring a laptop computer or anything else to the workshop.)

4. Workshop Topics in First Session (90 Minutes)
 * This workshop gives a technical introduction to OSGeo SDI software projects given an overview of features, programming languages used, interfaces, standards and cross project activities. In a short introduction the scope of the projects is described and what level of proficiency is required to install, maintain and operate the packages. All projects have in common that they are licensed as Free and Open Source Software and are operated with an open governance model. The second part of this Workshop will focus on how to participate in the processes of these projects and how to find out which level of involvement gives best return on investment.

5. If needed, Workshop Topics in Second Session (90 Minutes)
 * Hands-on demonstration of how to set up a map and a feature services, add meta data, publish and use services from GIS client and orchestrate all of it.

6. Tentative Workshop Instructors/Speakers (list name, title, affiliation - these do not have to be confirmed at this time)
 * Arnulf Christl, OSGeo, Mapbender, WhereGroup
 * Christ Holmes, The Open Planning Project
 * Jeroen Ticheler, FAO, GeoNetwork opensource
 * Salvador Bayarri, IVER, gvSIG Project

7. Intended Audience (technicians, managers, policymakers, introductory, advanced, etc.) and any required skills or interests they should possess
 * Policymakers
 * Managers
 * Technicians
 * Introductory

8. Indicate Preferred Room and Size: e.g. prefer computer lab with 40 person capacity, prefer classroom style with tables and 80 person capacity
 * Anybody feel like having an opinion? The larger the better. If people are connected they can follow the links given in the workshop and potentially follow the workshop online (if we have it online until then - but that should be posible).

Letter from the Organizers
Workshops this time will be offered under a slightly different arrangement that we hope will attract strong attendance. We are requesting workshop proposals by the end of this month so that people registering for the conference will be able to sign up for specific workshops in advance. In this manner instructors will know the number of people attending their workshops and have the contact information for their participants in advance.

We highly encourage you to submit a workshop proposal. For reference, the description of the workshop you presented in Santiago in 2006 may be found at http://www.gsdi.org/gsdiconf/gsdi9/english/09_Act_Work_Sched.htm. Submit your proposal on or before 1 June 2007 to onsrud@gsdi.org with a copy to astevens@gsdi.org. If you submit, you should have a decision by the evaluation committee in early June.