Francophone Chapter Report 2007

= Francophone Chapter Report 2007 =

Contact: Yves Jacolin (President of Francophone Local Chapter)

OSGeo-fr Board: Gwenael Bachelot, Vincent Picavet, François Van der Biest

Introduction
This report aims to show what Francophone Local Chapter realized in 2007. The Francophone mailing list has been created in October 2006 and first actions began in 2007 by discussing about the organization of the Local Chapter. Currently, we are close to be a truly legal organization and act on GFOSS problematic. This doesn't meant that nothing has been done yet, just it should easier to act and contribute to the GFOSS Francophone Community.

This report covers the period from January to December 2007.

2007: one year to create the Francophone local chapter
After joining into a mailing list, it was necessary to organize ourself:
 * local chapter structure: who manage the local chapter? how?
 * write clearly on the wiki our objectifs: what?
 * how organize ourself and who could join the local chapter: who?

This not easy but OSGeo Guideline and OSGeo organization help us a lot: most questions are the same for both of us, and so the answer was always similar. We are now organized in three committees: free organization, free data and free software committee. A Board of 4 people has been elected and manage all actions of the Francophone Local Chapter. For bigger project which need more time, a project manager can be elected by the board.

In september 2007, OSGeo Board accepted the Francophone Local chapter proposal.

Actions in 2007 focused on visibility of OSGeo, aka marketing missions. Three mains actions have been undertaken: two tradeshows and the translation of the OSGeo journals. The first two volume are now published and can be downloaded from the home page of the Journal. With two tradeshows (Geoevenement 2007 and GeoTunis 2007), OSGeo-fr ...

2008: one year to improve our organisation
any weaknesses in process, software, management, etc. that you plan to address or recognise need some help


 * Improve process: working groups
 * Creation actions list for 2008
 * Creation of the legal Francophone LC association
 * Géoévénement 2008
 * Keep contact with others association

Conclusion
Opportunities to Help


 * list areas that could use some help from members and readers of the report
 * this is the motivational part that is meant to inspire readers to keep their eyes open for great stuff in 2008 :)