Twin Cities Chapter Report 2009

• Contact name: Pericles Nacionales
• Period covered: January - December, 2009

Key Accomplishments

• Participation--several workshops and presentations--at the annual Minnesota GIS/LIS conference
• Birds of a Feather discussion of open source applications at the MN GIS/LIS conference
• Participated at the OSGeo code sprint in Toronto (GeoMoose and MapServer representatives)
• Members actively involved in Red and Mississippi Rivers flood response
• Helped promote use of the US National Grid
• Recognized the relevance of Open Street Map and its uses in private, and local and state government agencies
• Increased member participation in local chapter meetings and social events

Areas for Improvement

• Need more effort in promoting local chapter
• Need more effort in promoting open source geospatial tools
• More outreach to end users (as opposed to developers, although that is also desired)
• Be more inclusive (reach out to other open source projects)

Opportunities to Help

• Help with GeoMoose project
• More Open Street Map participation needed
• Help to secure booth space at the 2010 MN GIS/LIS conference
• Help to promote OSGeo and open source geospatial tools at said conference, and other local conferences
• Spread the word to increase local chapter membership
• Identify local open source geospatial projects and resources

Outlook for 2010

• Paul Ramsey will be keynote speaker for 2010 MN GIS/LIS conference
• More presentations of importance geospatial topics in meetings
• More outreach to local open source geospatial projects and resources
• Demo/Installfests
• Collaborations with other open source groups in the twin cities area
• Increase use of social networks
• Mapping parties
• Get Bitner more involved