Spanish Chapter Report 2007

Project Name

• Period covered by report: Jan-Dec 2007
• Contact name: Jorge Sanz, Lorenzo Becchi and Víctor Olaya

This text is a short version of the bigger article  written by OSGeo Spanish group for the Girona meeting.

Note of the Author: I've not placed any link as this text is going to be placed in a PDF, if that's not true or it's still 
interesting having links, please feel free to add them.

Key Accomplishments

Community support

Mailing list

The center of our activity, like for any other OSGeo group, is the mailing list. Thank to this tool, all subscribers can interact discussing, resolving technical doubts, promoting local events, chatting about interesting news, links and so on. Regardless their location and technical skills, anyone can ask for help about geomatics and FOSS4G software.

wiki

We have set up a category for Spanish contents called Español. Every content we have to write about finds its place in the wiki and everybody is invited to contribute or share his opinion (using talk pages). We use it to plan and manage the Free GIS Book, the contents, the authors subscription and so on.

OSGeo site translation

It's very important to maintain and update the Spanish version of the OSGeo site. Coordinated with the Web Committee, the translation of the most important pages of the web is completed.

Presentations

FOSS4G2007

Lorenzo Becchi presented the initial movements of the Local Chapter at FOSS4G in Victoria, Canada.

3rd gvSIG meeting

The Local Chapter was presented to the gvSIG community in their annual meeting

2nd Free GIS meeting in Girona

This is the annual meeting for Spanish FOSS4G users and developers, where this Local Chapter was formed.

Free GIS Book

The Free GIS Book is one of the most important initiatives of the Spanish Local Chapter. With the leadership of Victor Olaya, a group of authors have organized a common effort to create a book about Geographical Information Systems from the theoretical point of view, agnostic of any specific software and covering the main areas of that discipline. This is a Free content project, using a Creative Commons license (2.5 CC-BY-SA) and supported by OSGeo infrastructures.

Collaborative structure

We have elected a PSC and a set of rules to participate in the book. Every chapter has a main author, responsible of coordinating their contents with other authors as usual in collaborative books.

Parts

The book has six main parts, everyone with several chapters:

• Introduction: First concepts and fundamental ideas about GIS, its history and a global overview
• Data: Geographic data particularities, representation models, data storing, data bases and quality among other topics
• Processes: Formulae and algorithms related with geographical analysis from simple queries to network analysis or terrain models algorithms
• SDI: The Spatial Data Infrastructures play an important role in the way we use and produce data
• Technology: This part presents the main types of GIS softwares, their characteristics and technical fundamentals as well as the main representatives of any type.
• Applications: How GIS are applied to specific fields. How previous topics apply to any case, and how other particular elements also support that fields.

Tools

The book is being written in Spanish, using LaTeX as editing tool and OSGeo SVN repositories as a version control.

Areas for Improvement

• We need to present OSGeo in more areas as geomatic meetings, journals and events.
• We have to formalize the Local Chapter electing a PSC.
• We should contact with other Spanish spoken communities related with specific projects.

Opportunities to Help

• We need translators for:
  • OSGeo website
  • OSGeo flyers and marketing stuff
  • The Journal
  • ...
• Discuss on the mailing lists!
• If you want to start translation into Spanish of one of the OSGeo projects, we can work as a contact with the project communities
• Present OSGeo projects in your local community

Outlook for 2008

• Formalize the Local Chapter
• Improve our presence in South America
• Continue the Free GIS Book effort
• Keep translations