EGU Townhall 2024

Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo): Free Open Source Software and Open Data for Geospatial

Convener: Alessandro Frigeri Co-conveners: Peter Löwe

Abstract

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community-driven development.

The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open-source geospatial community.

It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding, and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open-source geospatial community and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. The foundation’s projects are all freely available and useable under an Open Source Initiative certified open source license. OSGeo has US 501(c)(4) legal status as a not-for-profit organization supported by GeoCat and other sponsors.

This year's town hall will discuss on the board the sense of cooperation between Free Open Source and Geoscientific Research. Free Open Source software and Open Data are critical elements of the Open Science framework growing worldwide.

The town hall will briefly summarize the characteristics of Free Open Source Software, including the legal aspects, introducing also the essence of scientific research.

We will discuss how the FOSS software and Open Data integrate into scientific research, touching the following topics:

Free Open Source Software usability in research: what are the general and specific characteristics of Free Open Source software for scientific research?

Free Open Source and Collaborative Development Environments. How concurrent versioning systems are changing the software development scenario?

Open Data accessibility: is Open Data all the same? Are there Open more open data than others?

Organizing team (Draft) [add your name!]

Peter Löwe, Alessandro Frigeri, yournamehere

Primary points of contact

at Copernicus (conference organizer): Katja Gänger (egu2023 AT copernicus DOT org) TBC!

for Copernicus: TBD

URL

Session details: __SESSION PROPOSAL UNDER REVIEW__

Convener Login

Overview over all EGU Townhalls

N/A

Venue / Time (requested)

Day: Tue, 16 Apr, 2024

Time: 19:00-20:00 (CEST)

Room: __SESSION PROPOSAL UNDER REVIEW__

Estimated number of attendees: 75–99 (optimistic assumption) - pragmatic guestimate for catering, etc: 50 pax (OLD NUMBERS FROM 2019)

Type of event

Townhalls are "networking events" hosted at the European Geosiences Union (EGU) General Assembly (GA) for up to 350 people.

EGU-wording: "Townhall Meetings are meetings open for all participants in the conference at which new initiatives or decisions are announced to a larger audience following an open discussion on the matter raised."

Townhalls are hosted in the evening following the conclusion of all scientific tracks. The events last one hour and usually have presentations / announcements taking up the first 20 minutes, to allow for an open discussion among the attendees. During this phase, refreshments are provided to ensure a lively and convivial atmosphere.

Expected Audience Size

50 - 80 people (optimistic guestimate from 2017 attendance numbers, we got less in 2018 due to competing events) (OLD NUMBERS FROM 2019)

Audience: Topical Background

Free Open Source Software from OSGeo projects affects most if not all EGU Divisions. Currently FOSS (OSGeo projects + R, GMT, etc.) is particularly strong in the Hydrology, Atmospheric Sciences, Earth and Space Science Informatics, and Tectonics Divisions.

Attendees are expected from the following fields (Academia, Research and Industry).

• Atmospheric Sciences
• Biogeosciences
• Climate: Past, Present & Future
• Cryospheric Sciences
• Earth Magnetism & Rock Physics
• Energy, Resources and the Environment
• Earth and Space Science Informatics
• Geodesy
• Geodynamics
• Geosciences Instrumentation and Data Systems
• Geomorphology
• Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
• Hydrological Sciences
• Natural Hazards
• Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences
• Ocean Sciences
• Planetary and Solar System Sciences
• Seismology
• Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Palaeontology
• Soil System Sciences
• Solar-Terrestrial Sciences
• Tectonics and Structural Geology

Audience: Professional Level

• Doctorate Students, PostDocs, Researchers, Activists, Leaders, Visionaries, Decision Makers, Funding Agencies

Venue

• EGU GA location at the Vienna International Conference Centre, Austria
• Townhall location: The townhall will be hosted in a dedicated lecture hall on the conference premises. Room capacity: Most likely up to 100 people.
• Date and time: __SESSION PROPOSAL UNDER REVIEW__
• Room: Room __SESSION PROPOSAL UNDER REVIEW__

Catering

Motto Group

Relevance for OSGeo (Draft / OUTDATED)

how will our participation help OSGeo

• Continuation and expansion of the "topical bridgehead" established within EGU by the first two OSGeo Townhalls in 2014 and 2015.
• Raise awareness at and reach-out to the European geoscience community by hosting a dedicated public OSGeo event at the largest European geoscience conference.
• Reach out to young scientists starting their careers.
• Meeting place for people already active in OSGeo ("meta-BoF") as a large number of people congregates every year at the EGU GA.
• Reach out to decision makers/elders/scientific activists within the EGU Divisions.
• 2019: Culmination of the "FOSS day" at the EGU GA: The organizers are urged to to schedule all FOSS / OSGeo - related events on the same day. This will ensure we have a large audience and niceties such as "FOSS flashmobs" can be arranged for poster sessions. The "FOSS day" could and should be finished off with the OSGeo townhall, as a "multiplier/bring them all together" event.
• Peaceful und friendly coexistence: Propiertary platforms including Microsoft, Google and ESRI are also staging dedicated events during EGU GA.
• Awareness on the decision maker level: Significance of OSGeo within the emerging Data Science / Open Science debate ("-> OSGeo-tailored research programmes ?")

Budget (2019 numbers. UPDATE NEEDED)

• Venue rental cost: none
• Catering cost: 2000 EUR / 2278 USD [Learned/Report for 2015] [required]
• Promotional material: 250 EUR / 285 USD (Posters/flyers announcing the event) [required] -> Lessons Learned from 2016 !
• Budget will be allocated within OpenGeoScience Committee budget as part of Open_Geoscience_Committee/budget_2019
• Costs: The total catering costs were 959,93 EUR (bill by Motto Catering, April 24 2019), which were paid via the OSGeo credit card (-> Treasurer/Mike).

Total requested amount from the upcoming OpenGeoScience budget: 2563 USD

Proposed Payment Method

• No seed money required
• All catering expenses (ca. 2000 USD) can be charged on the OSGeo Credit Card (as since 2014) before and after the event.

Support by OSGeo

• Finacial support
• Use of Logos
• Volunteers: Preparation phase, event hosting, presentations during the event (-> OpenGeoScience Committee).

Preparation

Timeline

• 2023-01-03: Townhall has been requested from Copernicus by PL.

OSGeo-related events at EGU GA 2023

• ESSI
• Early Career Scientists
• Data Helpdesk
• Planetary and Solar System Science
• Solar-Terrestrial Science
• Hydrology ?
• Tectonics ?
• Workshops ?
• Great Debates ?

Reach Out

Reach out to DLR, NASA, ESA, etc.

Points of contact:

• WHO: AGU Planetary Sciences Section: Rosaly Lopes, AGU Section President, Planetary Sciences
• PL: Dawn Wright, ESRI
• WHO: EGU ESSI division
• PL: EGU Data Helpdesk 2023

Mailing lists:

TBD

EGU Announcement Poster / Flyer

TBD

Meeting with local OSGeo/OSM chapter and activists

none

Lessons Learned from 2023

• Avoid conflicts with Medal Lectures ! This year, the TH coincides with the ESSI Medal Lecture for Kerstin Lehnert. ESSI medal 2018
• Sync timeslots with Research Software Engineer TH.
• Avoid time conflicts with ECS great debates !
• Plan for a meeting with the austrian OSGeo community ahead in time (4-6 weeks).
• Paper-based information material is becoming deprecated for reach out before the TH.
• Personally handed over printed invitations (business card size or slightly larger) still do work.
• A "swag-store" for OSGeo-Stickers and badgets works well AT the TH
• Bring a large banner to be hung in front of the room
• EGU doesn't do MoU like AGU.
• EGU has already a large number of medals, like the [[1]ESSI medal] which is already sponsored by ESRI - they will currently NOT yet another medal by OSGeo.
• Advertise well ahead on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), via OSGeo mailing lists, OSGeo webpage (news item) and related communities, like RDA, FORCE11, codemeta, etc.

Opportunities for 2023 (Lessons learned from 2019)

• The ESSI division is changing its overall approach. OSGeo should play a prominent role in the discussions.
  • OSGeo could sponsor a dedicated session in ESSI or cross-division.
  • OSGeo could sponsor a price / (lunch-)event /session for early career scientists
  • EGU intends to introduce a "data helpdesk" in 2019 or later, similar to the one introduced by AGU in 2017: OSGeo folks could participate by giving advice on particular software tools ("Ask a guru") - this would provide much more flexibility than normal EGU workshops, since it would be driven by real world questions of the attendees.

Execution (OUTDATED)

• Presentation by Peter Löwe [todo: upload & link]
• File:OpenPlanetaryPresentation(forEGU2019) small.pdf

Outcome 2019

• 20 persons attended and left their email-adresses (Nations: Great Britain, Netherlands,Austria, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Namibia)
• Catering was downsized for 30 pax, still plenty
• A quick show of hands received equal votes for keeping it as an evenin event, a lunch event, or undecied.

Lessons learned from TH 2019

• This year four "open themed" THs were held in parallel. This is really an issue. While it's good to see that "open" THs have picked up, the scheduling forces an unnecessariy XOR priorisation by the attendees. Need to talk to EGU/Copernicus about this (todo: PL).

• Paper-based hand outs/invites do still work, but because of the sheer number of attendees and the size of the value this does not carry far.
• Preemptive email-announces on mailing lists and twitter(?) seem to be much more effective.
• Make the presentations colorful & impressive.
• "Pointer signs" help to shuffle the attendees in the right room.
• TODO: Archive templates for Pointer Signs, Presentaions, and which mailing lists to be used in 2020.
• Sync with Research Software Engineers and other "open" THs well before EGU 2020.
• Do NOT order platters of food at Esterhazykeller for post-event get-togethers: It's way too much food and not cheap (bill was not charged on OSGeo, of course).
• Flag the event explicitly as "ECS-friendly" in the EGU-CMS.
• Do reach out to the ESRI booth staff
• Avoid timeslot collisions with:
  • Early career scientist events
  • Anything hosted by Kerstin Lehnert, Peter Fox,Lesley Weybourne, Jens Klump or Kirsten (GFZ)
  • ESSI medal lectures
  • Other "open/FAIR"-themed THs
  • Research Software Engineer THs
• Advertise the event at earlier ESSI sessions that day, including the ESSI Division meeting
• Advertise ahead of EGU on the ESSI blog.
• TH events at AGU GA are not necessarily as prohibitively costly as expected: Events at a hotel suite with alcoholic beverages ARE excessively expensive, but the AGU POCs (Shelley/Brooks) should be able (if contacted early) to help to get a room for a gathering.
• The ESSI medal is financially supported by ESRI, which receives due recognition and mentioning at the annual division meeting. Since EGU has is discouraging ideas for new medals, OSGeo could consider new ways to provide some funding support for the division to get public recognition: A price for ECS doing innovative software ?