Ottawa Chapter

Next Meeting


Date:     October 16 Time:    6 pm Location: The Fox and Feather pub, top floor, back room 

Topic: FOSS4G2008 - the South Africa conference - feedback from attendees: impressions, surprises, new directions? Business Items:


 * Eat, Drink, Be Merry.
 * Frank + others - what really happened in Cape Town?!

Mailing List
You can subscribe and review the archive of Ottawa_users@lists.osgeo.org.

About Ottawa OSGEO
The OGUG (Ottawa Grass Users Group) and OMSUG (Ottawa Map Server Users Group) have had a preliminary joint meeting and decided to pursue merging and broadening our collective focus to include all OSGeo projects, catering to any interested users or developers in the Ottawa (National Capital Region) area. We are now officially designated as an OSGeo chapter.

The Ottawa MapServer Users Group (OMSUG) began meeting during the winter of 2003. With a strong local user base in Ottawa, representing many diverse users and developers, these meetings provide a unique opportunity for members to meet and discuss how MapServer is being leveraged in Ottawa and ways we can work together to grow its use in the region.

OGUG formed in June of 2005 as a network of GIS practitioners interested in incorporating or replacing their proprietary GIS workflow with Open Source GIS Solutions. OGUG aimed to be a central body of knowledge and expertise for the GRASS GIS Community in the Ottawa area.

The Ottawa Chapter of OSGeo was formed by the combination of those original two groups, but also includes active local users and developers of at LEAST the following OSGeo projects: GDAL/OGR, GRASS, Mapbuilder, MapGuide, and Mapserver.

A Powerpoint presentation reporting on our chapter's formation and first year of activity is available for download in its original full version, or the condensed form created to squeeze into a tighter time constraint.

Mission
The OSGeo Ottawa Chapter exists to provide support for local users of Open Source Geospatial software, and to promote the goals and projects of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. The Chapter is focused on the National Capital Region around Ottawa with face to face meetings providing networking, support and educational opportunities to the local members.

Objectives

 * Monthly face to face meetings
 * Networking
 * Presentations
 * Workshops and Tutorials
 * User to user support
 * Job Opportunities
 * HowTos
 * Colaborative Projects
 * Documentation
 * Local Data Sets
 * Supporting OSGEO projects at large
 * Regional Events
 * Conference
 * Demonstrations
 * Communication
 * Active mailing List
 * Content Rich Wiki
 * Outreach to local Geo community
 * Documented Activities

Chairs

 * 2008 - present Ottawa chapter co-chairs: Scott Mitchell and Philippe Vachon
 * 2006 - 2008 Ottawa chapter co-chairs: Dave Sampson and Jeff McKenna
 * 2005 - 2006 OGUG Chair: Dave Sampson
 * 2003 - 2006 OMSUG Chair: Jeff McKenna

Chapter Sections
Ottawa Chapter Home: The WIKI Home Page for the Ottawa OSGEO Chapter.

Chapter Admin: Information of interest to the chapter at large concerning meetings, events, charter,etc.

MapServer: Information of interest to local MAPSERVER users (including old OMSUG content)

GRASS: Information of interest to local GRASS users (including old OGUG content)

MapBuilder: Information of interest to local MAPBUILDER users

Local Chapter Directory: Listing of companies, people, universities and government departments involved with or using OSGeo projects

Ottawa OSGEO Media Coverage: Links or snippets of media featuring activities of Ottawa OSGeo from various Sources

Chapter Resources
Data: Free and open data created by local chapter members

Tutorials: Tutorials supporting related FOSS4G projects

Related Links: A Clearing House of related links

Various associations related to Geospatial :

How To Write WIKI
Check out WikiPedia, where else. This is a great resource for many wiki writing tips
 * How to Write Wiki

Page Naming Conventions
Since the whole wiki uses a flat file structure instead of a directory structure there is a need to organize the pages relavant to our chapter's activities. To get this wiki area started I chose a simple page structure format

PREFIX: To keep the site clean and to make it easier to locate all WIKI pages connected with the Ottawa Chapter please not the appropriate prefix. Use this prefix when creating new pages.

Prefix= Ottawa_Chapter

The logic:
 * Ottawa_Chapter_(Project Area)_(Topic)_(Sub Topic)

Examples:
 * Ottawa_Chapter_OSGEO_meetings_072106
 * Ottawa_Chapter_GRASS_Datasets

Additionally you might want to consider adding to all pages tagging them for the Wiki Categories. Then add that category to the and have a category of categories. Or just go have some more beer.