AAG 2009

Association of American Geographers annual conference.

2009 Conference

Las Vegas, March 22-27, 2009 Meeting Homepage

Mini Report

Andrew chatting with a Professor and Student from UCSB, while Dirk shows the wonder of OSM to the gentlemen from Qatar

• Sessions were a success, we had 60+,50,20 for each respectively.
• The booth is going well and pictures will be posted later.
• Gave out ~400 Full Color Pro Brochures
• Dirk was interviewed by VerySpatial.com, Alex lost his voice and couldn't give an interview.
• Dirk gave out ? OpenStreetMap buttons.
• North American Cartographic Information Society(NACIS) invited us to submit an article to the 1st free online version of their Journal
• NACIS invited us to come to their conference - this year in Sacramento
• ESRI said they'll be at FOSS4G in Sydney, and their EDU division wants to find a way to host OSM data.
• Dirk Munson from Cloudmade/OSM live blog entries one, two
• We have a tentative booth reservation for AAG 2010

OSGeo Sessions

Tuesday March 24, Skybox 211, Riviera Hotel, 2nd Floor Starting at 1pm

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

Session I: Papers

Title: Free and Open Source solutions for Geographers I (#3439)
Details 3/24/09, from 1:00 PM - 2:40 PM in Skybox 211, Riviera Hotel, 2nd Floor
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 : Talk will be given by alternate speaker
2. Ron Buliung - Opening up the Geographers' Craft: Open Source Spatial Analysis with R - Cancelled
3. Michael Treichler - Case Study in Sales Territory Definition using Open Source Software
4. Andrew Turner - OpenStreetMap As A Successful Model for User-Generated Geospatial Content
5. Joshua Campbell - The Disruptive Potential of GIS 2.0

Session II: Panel

Title: Free and Open Source Software solutions for Geographers II (#3539) (Text needs editing)
Details Tuesday, 3/24/09, from 3:10 PM - 4:50 PM in Skybox 211, Riviera Hotel, 2nd Floor
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 (FortuisOne)
4. Bruce Ralston - Professor (University of Tennessee)
5. Shriram Ilavajhala - University Researcher (University of Maryland)
6. -Open Spot-

Session III: Papers

Title: Free and Open Source Software solutions for Geographers III (#3639)
Details Tuesday, 3/24/09, from 5:20 PM - 7:00 PM in Skybox 211, Riviera Hotel, 2nd Floor
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. Dan Goldberg - A Framework for Evaluating Geocoding Research and Practice
2. Jay Parsons - NASA World Wind Java
3. Shriram Ilavajhala - Providing Effective Fire/Hotspot Information Access through the Open Source Fire Information Resource Management System (FIRMS)
4. Eric Wolf - Functional Analysis for The National Map Server-side Computing
5. -Open Spot-

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.

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.

To Do List

Materials

1. Table Throw - Order(Design done)
2. Pop-up Banner - Order(done)
3. FOSS4G Postcards - Received
4. Printed Materials - Prepare for printing
   1. OSGeo Brochure - Overview/Case Study Bound Book (x5): spiral bound, anchored to the booth
   2. Bookmarks(x1000 ~ 250 pages) - skipping
   3. Business Cards(x2000 ~ 200 pages) - ready to print
5. Business Card holder(x1-2) - 2
6. Magazine Racks(x1-3) - 1
7. Configure Demo Machines
   1. Download latest live DVD
   2. Install and Configure partition

Booth

1. Get support from marketing team for a booth
2. Get booth
3. Send in final paperwork for booth
   1. Conference Personnel - Due Feb 23 - Tyler is submitting
      1. Figure out what to do with the 2 conference passes - Hurricane and Josh if they can come.
   2. Booth Items - Due March 9th
      1. Get a union exemption for setup by volunteers
      2. Money for Table and electrical outlet($150)
4. Volunteers for booth
   1. Volunteer Schedule
   2. Setup
   3. Take Down
5. T-shirts - Send size list to Tyler

Sessions

1. Get speakers for the sessions
   1. Ask the Edu group to talk about it at FOSS4G.
2. Register the sessions
3. Confirm speakers
4. Arrange for laptop in room
5. Bring some handouts to session

Volunteers

Name and specialty (These are all the people with exhibit hall passes for setup/takedown, other volunteers will be welcome during normal hours)

• Alex Mandel - QGIS, GRASS, R, Postgis, GDAL, OSM,
• Michael Treichler - QGIS, Postgis, Private Industry
• Michele Tobias - QGIS, R, Teaching, University
• Alyssa Nelson - Open Source Philosophy, Community Organizing
• Dirk Munson - OSM, public geodata
• Andrew Turner -?

Other Volunteers

• (Add your name here and contact Alex)

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.

• Setup is Monday 8am – 4pm
• Monday, March 23, 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
• 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. – 1:00 p.m.
• Tear down is Thursday, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Day	9:30-11:50AM	11:55-12:55 PM	1:00-2:40 PM	3:10-4:30 PM	6-8:30PM
Monday	Setup	Setup	Setup	Setup - Alex, Mike, Michele	Alex, Mike, Michele, Dirk
Tues	Mike, Dirk,Michele	Alex, Dirk	Alex, Dirk	Dirk, Alyssa	Closed
Wed	Mike, Dirk	Mike, Dirk, Alex	Andrew, Dirk, Alex	Andrew, Dirk, Alex	Closed
Thur	Mike,Dirk,Michele,Alex	Mike,Dirk,Alex	Clean Up - Alex, Mike, Dirk	Clean Up -	Closed

Proposed Budget

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

Item	Cost	Notes
Banner	$175/$295	Get an Exhibition Pack
Table Skirt	$250(Guess)/$0 Re-used old +$145	Get an Exhibition Pack
Handouts	$500/ $260 Business Cards + Brochures($260 used at AAG, $390 left for other conferences/chapters)	How many - 1000? there will be 7000+ attendees at the conference.
Booth	$1000+$150+120 (non-profit price)+(power & table & chairs)	Tables & power are the +150, Internet is too expensive. Booked, #620., moved to #618 actual spot
Booth Other	$32	Literature holder, business card holder, sign holder for announcements.
Live CD/DVD or Software	$200/$0	In the works, Live GIS Disc, how many?
T-shirts/hats/pins	$100/$0 Used what Tyler sent	How many tablers? New collared shirts?
Demo Machines	Personal Laptops $0	[Live DVD]
Comp Fees for Staffing?	$0	A few meals maybe?
Banner/Skirt to next event	$0	To be stored in California
Total	$2375/~$2002(+260 brochures)	Estimate/~Final

Sponsors/Funding Sources

These are ideas for where to try and get funds for the booth. We will be sending them a Media:Draft_Sponsorhsip_Letter_Jan09.pdf soon requesting funding, after a few more revisions.

• OSGEO - ?
• Universities - Davis, Berkeley,Santa Barbara
• Open Source specialized companies - ? CloudMade? FortiusOne?
• O'Reilly (Napa/Sonoma)
• CIRGIS members
• Other trade org members focused on GIS
• Google (Bay Area)
• Apress (Berkeley)
• Companies using OS - CoreMark,

Sponsor

Sponsor	Donation	Notes
OSGeo	$1000?	Initial Booth fee and subsidy on the Exhibition Pack
University of Calfornia, Davis - Information Center for the Environment	$?	Photocopies and Live DVDs, maybe a plotted poster
Cloudmade/OSM	Booth Staff	Maybe some OSM handouts?

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:

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

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