New Mexico

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Chapter

The New Mexico OSGeo chapter is a collaboration envisioned by members from commerial, local government, and academic institutions in Albuquerque, NM.

• We would like any user or developer of geospatial software in New Mexico who believes in the advantages of open source to join our numbers. If you are not familiar with open source, check out some of the links below
  • Wikipedia on OS (the short of it)
  • Innovation Happens Elsewhere (the whole book)
  • Revolution OS (movie form)
• Our core members are in Albuquerque, but one of our primary reasons for formation is to collaborate with people everywhere who are interested in contributing to our projects.
• Our primary language is English but we welcome members to work in or translate projects into Spanish or any of the various American Indian languages in the Southwest.

Links

Our web site is still in formation, but you can view its development here

Mission

In addition to OSGeo's general mission, the local New Mexico chapter aims to:

• Provide a central server to host open source geospatial projects. Projects must be open source (or equivalent right) to be hosted, but do not have to be polished software applications. They can be useful algorithms, scripts, spreadsheets, or other tools for using geospatial data.
• Provide a network for collaboration between our developers and experts and users around the world, including contact information for our members, mailing lists, and discussion boards.
• Actively inform organizations in New Mexico that express an interest in open source geospatial software about OSGeo.

Projects

The New Mexico Chapter already has a few central projects it plans to start, including:

• Open Source Photogrammetry (OSP) (first up: orthorectification software based on GDAL)
• Open Source Geodesy (OSG) (first up: alternative high accuracy reprojection and datum shifts, next possibly tools for "Blue Booking" survey monuments for the US National Geodetic Survey)
• Metadata (sure ArcCatalog is great if you're making 1 FGDC compliant metadata file at a time, but how about 10,000? We think we can help bridge the gap)
• Miscellaneous Utilities since we have a few already in demand that need a home
  • World File Manipulator to change world files en masse
  • ImageLoad for loading images with world files into MicroStation and AutoCAD
  • Feral for reprojecting points and datum shifts
  • And more as we dig them up...

Meetings

No meetings have been planned yet, but we intend to hold an introductory meeting and show Revolution OS to prospective members. Oh, and there will be open source (free) beer.

Members

Right now there are only a few members, and we encourage others to get in touch with Zack to sign up:

• Ballard, Amy – chair of the Geographic Information Technologies (GIT) program at CNM
• Benedict, Karl – Senior Research Scientist and IT Manager at the Earth Data Analysis Center (EDAC) at UNM
• Nipper, John – software developer at BHI
• Stauber, Zack – photogrammetrist at BHI and part-time instructor at CNM
• Wilkie, R. Cliff – Geodetic Surveyor for the City of Albuquerque

People

Once again we encourage anyone who's interested to sign up on OSGeo's site and add their name to the list below Anchorite, or at least get in tough with Zack about joining.

• User:Anchorite - I say full speed ahead!