GINorden 2006

The call for participation to GINorden 2006 (PDF)

Ari Jolma will give a presentation under the tentative title: "International networking in the open source GI field".

Submitted abstract of the talk:

The “open source” is an approach to solve certain problems, which arise when information and ideas are considered property. Open source is based on the idea that greater common good is achieved when people can freely read, redistribute, and modify documents. Open source ideas have mostly been applied to computer programs, but they are increasingly been applied to other documents, data, and any digital information as well. The spreading of the idea of free software and documents coincides with that of the Internet and the web. The Internet has several roles for open source: (i) it is the main distribution medium for the free software and documents, (ii) it is a communication medium for developers and users of open source, and (iii) it hosts development platforms for open source developers. All these roles unite in web-based communities that have been borne around certain open source software and issues. A major step forward was taken in early 2006 with the founding of Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). OSGeo was founded exploiting the model of Apache Software Foundation, a successful foundation that provides support for the Apache community of open source software projects. OSGeo comprises a board of nine directors, 45 voting members, software projects, and several committees. OSGeo functions on the resources of people who participate on its activities in the Internet such as mailing lists, internet relay chat (IRC), collaborative websites, and in the real life, such as meetings and the conference “Free and open source software geoinformatics”.

update: The paper has been accepted for presentation. Extended abstract is due August 30. The website of the Nordic GIS conference in Helsinki 2006