Live GIS Disc Press Release 11

__ DRAFT __

=Building OSGeo Live DVD for FOSS4G 2010=

25 November 2010

We are starting to build the 4.5 OSGeo-Live DVD and want to hear from all included projects, translators, packagers, users, testers or others who wish to help improve OSGeo-Live. OSGeo-Live 4.5 will be released mid March 2011, ready for a number of big GeoSpatial conferences soon after.

Focus on this next release will be on improved Quality and Translating documentation.

Packaged projects - which version?
Could each project please tell us which version is intended to be included. Status is maintained here. Understanding what will, or will not change helps us coordinate reviewers and testers. We will be building from the Xubuntu 10.04 base, which is the same as last release.

If you have a established, stable project which you would like included on OSGeo-Live, then please talk to us about it.

Use Natural Earth dataset for examples
In order to ensure consistency and reduce disk space used, we ask that, where appropriate, examples use the common Natural Earth dataset.

Todo: Provide a link to details about the Natural Earth dataset.

Translations
People have started translating documentation into German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Greek. For this next release we'd like to see translations for the main web pages and Project Overviews as a start.

Please contact us if you are able to help with translation, or start translating a new language.

Quick Starts
Half the packaged projects had Quick Starts written for the last release (4.0) and we'd like to see Quick Starts for all projects for the next release.

We'd really like help from geospatial users to ensure each Quick Start is run by new users to verify they are understandable. Users could also help with adding screen grabs to the Quick Starts where missing.

User Testing
With ~ 50 applications to be packaged on the next OSGeo-Live, our core OSGeo-Live team have not had time to run all the Quickstart applications. We would really like some help. If you have very little experience with OSGeo software, then all the better, as you would be like a typical first time user of OSGeo-Live.

Running this user testing is one of the best ways to become familiar with the breath of OSGeo Software available. If interested, please let us know, then join the OSGeo List, and start running Quick Starts as soon as they have been completed by projects.

OGC Standard Overviews
The OGC have already written one page overviews for half the OGC standards and have committed to writing up the remaining standards for then next release. We will be calling on the standards community to help review these standards to ensure they are accurate, clear and understandable.

Key Milestones

 * 24 Jan 2011 Application Overviews ready for Review
 * 31 Jan 2011 Application Feature Freeze
 * 21 Feb 2011 Deliver to User Acceptance Test
 * 14 Mar 2011 Final sent to printers

[http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Al9zh8DjmU_RdE1SYUN3YWJ2N1NpSUczbW9IRWZNclE&hl=en_GB ... full schedule]

About OSGeo-Live
OSGeo-live is an XUbuntu based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD, Virtual Machine and soon to be released USB. You can use OSGeo-Live to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.

Contact Us?
Website: http://live.osgeo.org

Mailing List: http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/live-demo

or contact Cameron Shorter directly at: cameronD O TshorterATlisasoftD O Tcom.