FOSS4G 2015 Press Release 00

Seoul to host FOSS4G conference in 2015

“Toward Diversity! FOSS4G Bigbang from Seoul!!”

Seoul (South Korea) selected to host the 2015 international conference for "Free & Open Source Software for Geospatial" (FOSS4G).

Monday, 19 May 2014

OSGeo Korean Chapter <www.osgeo.kr> Sanghee Shin <shshin@gaia3d.com>, +82-10-9686-2630

---

The OSGeo Korean Chapter is pleased to announce that we have been selected to host the FOSS4G 2014 international conference. The conference is planned for Seoul in September 2014, and is expected to attract the leading users and developers in the open source geospatial community from not only South Korea but also all over the world.

Holding the FOSS4G conference - the biggest Opensource GIS event in the world - first time in the Asia will definitely bring countless benefits to the region and provide the geospatial communities, local business, and societies with the great opportunities to know the greatness of Opensource geospatial technologies.

Sanghee Shin, CEO at Gaia3D and Representative of OSGeo Korean Chapter explained his motivations for leading Seoul’s bid were to make Seoul the starting point of FOSS4G bigbang and widely spread out FOSS4G to the local and region via this conference. He said, “When I tried to introduce to Opensource GIS to South Korea in 2008, no one even tried to listen to my opinions. However, over five years passed and now the Government opened a bid for Opensource GIS R&D project in May 2014, meaning that Opensource GIS has a sign to become mega trend in South Korea. I’m absolutely sure that FOSS4G 2015 will ignite this trend.”

OSGeo Korean chapter has held FOSS4G Korea event every year since 2011 and the attendants of the event steadily grows. Especially, FOSS4G Korea events always come with SmartGeo expo, the biggest geospatial expo in South Korea, so many people from Government, universities, institutes, companies, and so on had a chance to attend FOSS4G Korea conference when they came to SmartGeo expo.

For the successful conference of FOSS4G 2015, KSIS(Korea Spatial Information Society), the organization with members of geospatial professional, researchers, students, and policy makers regarding geospatial field, closely cooperates with OSGeo Korean Chapter. Also, KAOS-G(Koeran Alliance OpenSource for Geospatial), community of various companies for Opensource GIS in South Korea actively helps OSGeo and KSIS for better FOSS4G 2015 event.

LOC of FOSS4G 2015 thinks FOSS4G Seoul 2015 conference could increase the awareness of Opensource GIS and raise the bar for Opensource GIS in South Korea and the experience and knowledge will spread out to the Asian countries from Seoul.

About OSGeo

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation has been created to support and build the highest-quality open source geospatial software. The foundation's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development of community-led projects, data development and education.

About OSGeo Korean Chapter

The OSGeo Korean Chapter applies OSGeo principles locally. In particular, we focus on promotion and outreach.

About FOSS4G

FOSS4G is the annual international conference on Open Source geospatial software. From its beginning the FOSS4G conference has been the gathering of the spatial tribes and has a reputation of being a melting pot for great ideas in the spatial industry and a catalyst for many successful geospatial products, standards and protocols. The 2013 conference was held in Nottingham, United Kingdom and was a huge success. The 2011 conference was held in Denver, USA. FOSS4G Seoul 2015 will be the eleventh "formal" gathering of the Open Source geospatial community. 2015 will be a key year for South Korea and Asia, and FOSS4G will be the best place to see the Free Software way to make an SDI work.