Oceania

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Organisation

Our purpose is to support and grow the open geospatial community in the Oceania region, including the oversight and stewardship of a FOSS4G & SotM 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 of OSGeo Oceania

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

  • Helping to organise the annual conference series FOSS4G SotM Oceania
  • 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.

Documents & policies

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.

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

Meeting minutes

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.

Process

  • Seats & terms: In 2019, all directors will retire and there will be 9 seats up for election. After the election, half of the directors (ie. 4 or 5) will volunteer or be randomly chosen to serve a 1 year term, with the remainder having a full 2 year term. Director terms will thus be staggered, and subsequent annual elections will elect half of the board for 2 year terms.
  • Nominations: Any member may nominate a member (including themselves) to stand for election. Nominations should state the candidate's name, their usual place of residence (town/city/country), and a brief statement on why the person would make a good director. Please send nominations to admin@osgeo-oceania.org.
  • Candidate statements: Candidates will be invited to share some information about themselves, their aspirations for OSGeo Oceania, what they would like to change, improve, or introduce, and what role they would like to play on the board, in 150 words or less. This is designed to give members some insight into who they are voting for, and provides some accountability. Candidate statements will be posted on the OSGeo Oceania wiki page.
  • Voting: OSGeo Oceania members are eligible to vote. The election will be run electronically using an independent system (ElectionBuddy), and will run for one week. Members will be notified by email when voting is open, and provided with instructions on how to cast their ballot. Members' votes are secret - nobody can see who you vote for. At the end of the election, the winning candidates will be announced on the Oceania mailing list. Vote tallies will be kept private.

Timeline

Date Item
2019-11-29 open director nominations
2019-12-06 close director nominations
2019-12-13 deadline for candidate statements
2019-12-13 voting opens
2019-12-20 voting closes at midnight AWST
2019-12-21 results will be posted on the Oceania mailing list

Committees & working groups

  • 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)
  • Finance committee (Alex Leith, Greg Lauer, Edoardo Neerhut, John Bryant)
  • Travel Grant Program working group (John Bryant, Greg Lauer, Jonah Sullivan, David Garcia)
  • Membership Working Group (Edoardo Neerhut, Adam Steer, Emma Hain, David Garcia, Daniel Silk)

Events

Call for Expressions of Interest for FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2020

We are seeking Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from the Oceania community for hosting FOSS4G SotM Oceania in 2020. 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 2020. 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
2019-09-02 Accepting expressions of interest
2019-09-16 Deadline for expressions of interest
2019-09-16 - 2019-10-07 Questions & clarification period
2019-10-21 Decision
2019-11-14 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.

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