FOSS4G2008 Call for papers

Back to FOSS4G2008 ...

Call for Papers
We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the 2008 Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference, incorporating 'GISSA 2008', being held from 29 September to 3 October, in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. For more information, please see the FOSS4G 2008 site:

This conference gathers developers and users of open source geospatial software from around the world to discuss new directions, exciting implementations, and growing business opportunities in the field of open source, mixed and propriety geospatial software. FOSS4G is presented annually by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). The local host for FOSS4G2008 is the Geo-Information Society of South Africa, GISSA. FOSS4G 2008 incorporates 'GISSA 2008'. While Free and Open Source GIS is our focus, you are also welcome to submit papers for the 'applied' topics that use proprietary or mixed GIS. We want to encourage exposure, debate and understanding among FOSS and proprietary communities. Talks will be marked clearly on the programme as FOSS / Proprietary / Mixed / Peer Reviewed.

Topics which must have a FOSS component or perspective are:

 * New FOSS GIS developments
 * Interoperability and standards - OGC, GEOSS
 * Web processing services, Sensor Web enablement and the like
 * Using FOSS with proprietary software
 * Making the transition to FOSS GIS
 * FOSS GIS support and training
 * FOSS GIS business models
 * FOSS GIS implementation and deployment
 * Open data, open content, open architectures, open everything!
 * Case studies of open source implementations
 * Improving FOSS GIS cartography and map production
 * Use Case driven FOSS GIS development and improving the user experience
 * FOSS GIS Internationalisation and Localisation

Topics for applications, methodologies or theoretical geospatial work are not limited to a FOSS perspective:

 * Sustainable development and the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)
 * Disaster management
 * Health
 * Energy
 * Water
 * Climate change
 * Weather
 * Ecosystem management
 * Agriculture
 * Biodiversity
 * Land reform
 * Education
 * Government
 * Local economic development, poverty alleviation
 * Participatory GIS
 * Semantic Web and ontologies in GIS
 * Location based services, logistics, routing
 * 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa
 * NGOs, CBOs (Community-based organisations) and community development workers
 * Mining, exploration, beneficiation
 * Spatial economics
 * Military
 * Land information and administration (cadastre, address data, etc.)

Academic Papers Track
This year we are thrilled to announce the first academic track for peer-reviewed papers. The date for submission of abstracts to the academic track is 12 May 2008. Abstracts have to be 500-600 words in length and will be reviewed by the Program Committee of the academic track of FOSS4G 2008. Abstracts will be judged on the basis of significance, relevance, correctness, originality, and clarity. If your abstract is accepted for the academic track, you have to submit a full paper by 18 August 2008 for inclusion in the proceedings. The Programme Committee will compile a short list of high quality papers addressing substantial research questions. Authors of these papers will be invited to submit a revised paper in response to reviewer comments and suggestions for inclusion in the South African Computer Journal.

Presentation Track
The date of submission for abstracts of 500-600 words to the presentation track is the 12 May 2008. The abstracts submitted to this track will be chosen by an open community process. If your abstract is accepted for the presentation track then you will be required to submit your presentation by 18 August 2008 for inclusion in the CD proceedings.

General Information
All FOSS4G 2008 papers/presentations take the form of 25 minute talks, with 5 minute question and answer sessions at the end. Anyone can submit a presentation or paper and take part in the conference as a presenter. Author guidelines for the formatting of the paper or presentation will be made available online on the conference website. Please note that your paper or presentation will only be included in the proceedings once your registration to the conference has been received in full. We are making use of an online submission facility. Please visit the website to submit your paper. Submit early, submit often! For more information, see the FOSS4G 2008 site: http://www.foss4g2008.org

Guidelines for Authors
In order to keep things simple, for both you the Authors and us the Technical Programme Committee, we have decided to keep the Authors Guidelines for both the Presentations and the Academic Papers the same. You can download a pdf version of the Authors Guideline [[Media:FOSS4G2008_AuthorGuidelines.pdf | here]].

The Authors Guidelines for the Poster Presentations will be posted shortly.