AAG 2009

Association of American Geographers annual conference.

=2009 Conference= Las Vegas, March 22-27, 2009 Meeting Homepage

OSGeo Sessions
We'd like to try and organize 2 or 3 sessions on Free and Open Source Software(FOSS) in Geography Alex Mandel and Stacey Ellis from the University of California, Davis will be organizing please contact them if you plan to give a talk and would like to be part of the sessions.

Deadline to submit for talks is Oct 16, 2008 (Extended until Nov 13, 2008), see the call for abstracts

The sessions are now being co-sponsored by the AAG Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group.

What's on the books: Proposed or Confirmed(+)

Session I: Papers
Title: Free and Open Source solutions for Geographers I Description:Case studies and general overviews of free software and data sources as applied to geography. Including neogeography tools, virtual globes, collaborative web portals, web mapping, GIS, remote sensing and statistics. This session aims to educate the general geography community about end user opportunities to implement cutting edge Free and Open Source solutions in your research. Anticipated Attendance:	50


 * 1) +Stacey Ellis - A Wiki for every Geography
 * 2) Michael Treichler - Using open source in the food distribution industry.
 * 3) +Ron Buliung - R aspace package - descriptive analysis of spatial point patterns using centrographics and home range metrics
 * 4) +Andrew Turner - OpenStreetMap
 * 5) placeholder

Session II: Panel
Title: Free and Open Source Software solutions for Geographers II (Text needs editing) Description:The Free and Open Source Software movement is built on the idea that software can be functional and free. Programs such as QGIS (a GIS program), GRASS (GIS and remote sensing) and R (a statistics program) offer the same tools, if not more, as their proprietary counterparts but without the expensive price tag. Panelist from university, government and private consulting backgrounds will discuss how everyone can use free sofware as tools in their research. Database programs, web mapping, GIS, remote sensing, and statistics software are just some of the topics that will be covered. Come with questions or just come to listen. Anticipated Attendance:	50

(Up to 6 panelists)
 * 1) +Alex Mandel - Graduate Student (University of California, Davis)
 * 2) +Eric Wolf - Federal Government (United States Geological Survey)
 * 3) +Andrew Turner - Private Industry (Geocommons)
 * 4) +Bruce Ralston - Professor (University of Tennessee)
 * 5) +Shriram Ilavajhala - University Researcher (University of Maryland)
 * 6) placeholder

Session III: Papers
Title: Free and Open Source Software solutions for Geographers III Description:Case studies and in depth technical discussions of free software and data sources as applied to geography. Including neogeography tools, virtual globes, collaborative web portals, web mapping, GIS, remote sensing and statistics. This session aims to explore the complexities and specifics of using cutting edge Free and Open Source solutions in geographical research. Anticipated Attendance:	50


 * 1) +Jay Parsons - NASA WorldWind
 * 2) +Shriram Ilavajhala
 * 3) +Dan Goldberg
 * 4) placeholder
 * 5) placeholder

Schedule of all FOSS speakers
There are at least 10 talks that identify Open Source or Open Standards, they will be added here when the AAG publishes it's schedule.

Other Ideas:
Ideas (Claim one and move it up above with your name, and submit your abstract ASAP)
 * Open Source - Community websites (Content Management, Wiki etc)
 * Open Street Map - Free Wiki Based Road Data
 * Open Source Business Case (slides available from lisasoft)
 * LiveDVD GIS
 * Helena Mitasova - Advanced Open Source GIS (Can't come)
 * Brian Hamlin - Intro to PostGIS

Other Ideas:
 * Plan A
 * Session 1:Introduction to FOSS in Geography
 * Session 2:FOSS Case Studies - What you did, what you used and why.
 * Session 3:Technical FOSS - talks that throw in the technical talk.


 * Plan B
 * Session 1:FOSS in Qualitative Geography
 * Session 2:FOSS in Quantitative Geography

OSGeo Booth
It's about time we have booth at the US's largest geography conference. Also note it does attract a considerable foreign crowd.

Volunteers

 * Alex Mandel
 * Stacey Ellis
 * Michael Treichler
 * Michele Tobias

Schedule
Should we set this based on session times for talks so people can go to talks when not at the booth? Exhibit hall is only open 3 days out of the 7 day conference.
 * Tuesday, March 24 	9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
 * Wednesday, March 25 	10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
 * Thursday, March 26 	9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Proposed Budget
List of Items we need and proposed budget request from the Marketing team.

Sponsors/Funding Sources
These are ideas for where to try and get funds for the booth.


 * OSGEO - ?
 * Universities - ?
 * Open Source specialized companies - ? CloudMade?

Sponsor

OSGeo Social
Anyone want to schedule a social?

Time: TBD

Place: TBD

Who: Anyone interested in Open Source Geo

Why: To get together to chat socially about stuff over some beer and bar food or maybe a buffet?

Directions:

To Do List

 * 1) Get support from marketing team for a booth
 * 2) It's $1000 for a non-profit and there are 8 spots left
 * 3) Get speakers for the sessions
 * 4) Ask the Edu group to talk about it at FOSS4G.
 * 5) Register the sessions

Last years AAG was in Boston, see the list of osgeo related speakers

Ideas

 * 1) Do we want to do a workshop, Deadline is Oct 1