Oceania

Organisation

Our purpose is to support and grow the open geospatial community in the Oceania region, including the oversight and stewardship of the FOSS4G SotM Oceania conference series.

We recognise the well established Pacific Islands Chapter and work closely with them to build a strong community across our region.

How to learn more & get involved

The best way to stay up to date on what we're doing is to join our mailing lists:

• Oceania - discussion about OSGeo Oceania and the regional open geospatial community
• FOSS4G-Oceania - FOSS4G SotM Oceania conference planning

There's also a lot of informal chatter on the Maptime Oceania Slack group: join here

And you can head to the conference website (link below) and join the conference updates mailing list there.

If you want to talk about how you can get involved, feel free to post on any of these lists, or drop us a line at admin@osgeo-oceania.org.

Membership

Membership of OSGeo Oceania is an opportunity to engage more actively with the support of open geospatial software & data in Oceania. Members can support OSGeo Oceania in a variety of ways:

• Helping to organise the annual FOSS4G SotM Oceania conference series
• Organising local geospatial events
• Editing in OpenStreetMap
• Active discussions in Oceania related mailing lists
• Writing developer documentation for open source geospatial projects
• Contributing to open source geospatial repositories

Becoming a member allows you to run for the board of OSGeo Oceania and/or vote in the election process.

Membership for Q4, 2019 has closed but follow [1] to be notified when membership nominations for Q1, 2020 open up.

Member list here: Oceania Membership (only includes those who have agreed to be listed).

Documents & policies

• Constitution, 2019-11-07
• OSGeo Oceania Terms of Reference, 2018-12-17
• Budget 2019-2020
• Membership Policy, 2019-10-14
• Finance Committee Terms of Reference, 2019-10-03

Board of Directors

OSGeo Oceania is governed and managed by a Board of Directors (the board). The board can delegate responsibilities to sub-committees as needed.

Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of the board are to:

• govern and manage OSGeo Oceania, with regard to finance, risk, and sustainability of the organisation
• provide oversight of the conference committee, and ongoing stewardship of the conference series
• coordinate other related outreach activities, including local FOSS4G and State of the Map events
• maintain a relationship with OSGeo and the OpenStreetMap Foundation, and maintain OSGeo & OSMF chapters in good standing
• hold accounts, domain names, and other administrative tools, data, and assets as needed
• enter into agreements with other parties as needed.

2020

Objectives

The incoming board will articulate its objectives for 2020 early in the year.

Directors

Directors will be chosen by members in the Dec 2020 election. See Oceania_Elections for more details.

Meeting minutes

2019

Objectives

In order to guide the organisation towards a mature state, in 2019 this board will aim to:

• determine a process for recruiting and managing an appropriate general membership
• determine a process for renewal of board membership, including accountability to the general membership, and clarify such items as term limits and staggering of terms
• determine a process for inviting expressions of interest and selecting groups wishing to host the annual FOSS4G SotM Oceania event
• determine and formalise an appropriate non-profit structure
• submit an official expression of interest to the OSGeo board to form an OSGeo local chapter
• apply to the OpenStreetMap Foundation board to form an OpenStreetMap local chapter.

Directors

• Alex Leith - OSGeo Oceania Treasurer - OSGeo Charter Member
• Daniel Silk
• Edoardo Neerhut
• Greg Lauer - OSGeo Oceania Secretary
• John Bryant - OSGeo Oceania President - OSGeo Charter Member
• Jonah Sullivan
• Kerry Smyth
• Martin Tomko
• Trisha Moriarty

Meeting minutes

• 2019-01-25
• 2019-03-26
• 2019-05-16
• 2019-07-30
• 2019-09-12
• 2019-10-16

Board elections

OSGeo Oceania needs an engaged Board of Directors to guide the organisation and help it meet its mission, while being accountable to the membership of the organisation. As per our constitution, we will hold elections annually. Details of process, current and historical election records can be found on Oceania_Elections.

Committees & working groups

• Membership Working Group (Edoardo Neerhut, Adam Steer, Emma Hain, David Garcia, Daniel Silk)
• Finance committee (Alex Leith, Greg Lauer, Edoardo Neerhut, John Bryant)
• 2020 conference committee (Vasiti Soko, Jonah Sullivan, Nicholas Rollings, Edwin Liava'a, Elizabeth Lomani, Dan Lomata, Julie Callebaut, Joeli Varo, Nemaia Koto, Saleshni S. Naidu)
• 2019 conference committee (Daniel Silk, Matthew Fry, Dionne Hansen, Tania Hibbard-Nitz, Edoardo Neerhut, John Bryant, Dr Mairéad de Róiste, Jan Ducnuigeen, David Garcia, Emma Hain, Greg Lauer, Richard Law, Alex Leith, Adam Steer)
• Travel Grant Program working group (John Bryant, Greg Lauer, Jonah Sullivan, David Garcia)

Events

• FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2020
• FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2019
• FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2018

Call for Expressions of Interest for FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2021

We are seeking Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from the Oceania community for hosting FOSS4G SotM Oceania in 2021. This is a wonderful opportunity to bring the open geospatial community to your city, drive the growth of your local community, and contribute to a regional and global phenomenon.

EOIs need not be full proposals, as we can work with you to develop your plans further. They should at least show us that you have people committed to organising the conference, and have given some thought to the financial aspects of the event. It would be helpful if you can provide some information on potential venues. Basically, tell us why your location is a good choice for FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2021. Please see the 2019 Letter of Intent for an example.

You won't be alone - we anticipate a conference organising committee that includes a mix of new and experienced people, and it's very likely that people from the 2018 and 2019 events will be interested in participating in this committee.

Strong preference will be given to a city in a country that did not host the previous year.

Additionally, see this email thread for a bit of extra background information.

EOIs should be submitted to the public OSGeo Oceania mailing list by 16th September. Please feel free to ask questions!

Timeline

Date	Item
2020-09-02	Accepting expressions of interest
2020-09-16	Deadline for expressions of interest
2020-09-16 - 2019-10-07	Questions & clarification period
2020-10-21	Decision
2020-11-14	Public announcement at FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2019 in Wellington

History

See the Aust-NZ wiki page for an earlier incarnation of this community. OSGeo Oceania picks up where Aust-NZ left off, and aims to build on that foundation.

Some notable open geospatial events in the region:

• 12-15 November 2019: FOSS4G SotM Oceania, Wellington [2]
• 20-23 November 2018: FOSS4G SotM Oceania, Melbourne [3]
• 17 November 2017: Australian QGIS user group meetup, Sydney [4]
• May 2017: QGIS Noosa Hackfest [5]
• 1 March 2017: NZ QGIS User Forum, Wellington [6]
• 23 September 2015: NZ QGIS User Conference, Wellington [7]
• 22 September 2015: NZ GeoNetwork Users Meetup, Wellington
• 12 May 2015: QGIS Forum, Perth
• 14 May 2015: QGIS Forum, Melbourne[8]
• 18 April 2013: Melbourne QGIS User Conference [9][10]
• 14 March 2013: Perth QGIS User Forum/Group [11]
• 15-16 November 2012: FOSS4G-AU 'unconference', Brisbane [12][13][14]
• 20-23 October 2009: FOSS4G international conference, Sydney [15]

Also see the Pacific Islands Chapter page for history of events and developments in the Pacific Islands.