PDX-OSGEO

Welcome to the PDX-OSGEO Local Chapter!

News

Details on 2011 Open Source GIS unconference

Progress on OSGeo Local Chapter recognition

About the PDX-OSGEO Local Chapter

Introduction

PDX-OSGEO is a proposed Local Chapter of OSGeo. PDX-OSGEO has a cachement area equal to the PDX airport, Oregon and SW Washington (Vancouver, WA / Clark County, WA). Monthly meetings are held in Portland.

History

PDX-OSGEO has been around and meeting in one form or another since before February 2009 under various names. Since September 2010, we have been recognized as an Oregon-URISA Special Interest Group (SIG). Since 2010, the local chapter has coordinated an open source unconference with ORURISA and GIS In Action. There are also deep roots with our sister OSGeo Local Chapter, CUGOS.

Mission

The OSGeo PDX-OSGEO Chapter strives to promote the local use of Open Source Geospatial software, particularly new users in the Oregon/SW Washington area. The group hosts monthly meetings providing presentation, discussion, and educational opportunities and focuses on materializing an annual Open Source GIS unconference.

Objectives

Monthly Meetings, usually totaling 10/year:

Presentations (Application and Technical)
Chapter business
Social gathering

Regional Events:

Open Source GIS unconference
Conference participation

Communication:

Mailing List
Wiki Development
Monthly meetings

Legal Status:

No real independent legal structure.
No real capacity to independently hold funds in other than ad hoc informal manner.
Affiliations with OSGeo and ORURISA help us with some of the tasks that require legal recognition as an independent entity.
There are currently no plans to seek any independent legal structure in the future.

Getting Involved

The PDX-OSGEO Local Chapter is a flexible organization, join us and help steer.

Mailing List

Please join our mailing list to make sure that you know what's going on. Sign up and participate (or just lurk for a while). You do need to answer the questions (what is your favorite map and something else I think) to the extent needed to demonstrate that you are a person and have the minimal amount of GEO knowledge to not be a random spammer. google email group

Membership

Anyone who wants to help support our mission is free to become a member. List yourself on the PDX-OSGEO Member Page and you're in!

Leadership

To the extent that we think that we need leadership, it is Percy. Mostly we expect everyone to step up and help on almost tasks resulting in a light load for all.

Meetings

We meet the 4th Wednesday of every month from 6:30-8:00 PM at OpenSourcery in NW Portland. No need to RSVP, all are welcome- our group ranges from the geo-curious to the überhackers. [Please arrive no more than 10 minutes early, as the developers at OpenSourcery are working up until the meeting time.] If our meetings are canceled or changed we will post this in Discussions, so please check there for the most recent information and activity.

I was hoping to get an OpenLayers map of where we meet, but haven't figured out how without creating a false user at that location. Here is me as a stand in.

{{#umSetParam: -122.688206|45.529986|Portland, Oregon|OpenSourcery|Meeting Location}} {{#umUserMap: EliL|300px|300px|6|4|y}}

OpenSourcery 1636 NW Lovejoy St. Portland, OR 97209

Wiki

How To Write WIKI

Check out WikiPedia, where else. This is a great resource for many wiki writing tips

How to Write Wiki

Unconference March 31st and April 1st, 2011

The annual Open Source GIS unconference will be coordinated in conjunction with GIS In Action. There will be a Open Source GIS Smackdown on Tuesday at 10:30am right after the Keynote. In addition to the unconference, there will be additional presentations on Open Source applications through GIS in Action that are well worth checking out.

Where

Portland State University, (45.5117, -122.6847) Smith Memorial Center Third Floor Rooms: 327, 328, 329, 333, and Vanport Room

How to Register

Please use the Eventbrite website to register. This is helpful for getting a general headcount for snacks and refreshments.
Register for the unconference at http://pdxgeounconference11.eventbrite.com/ --and feel free to pass on the link to anyone you think would be interested! Assure the uncertain that we welcome all, especially the curious.

Cost

There is no fee; it is free.
If you would like to sponsor the event by providing goods (food, beverages, office supplies, etc) or money for other expenses, that would be greatly appreciated.

Schedule

March 31, 2011 Unconference

Unconference starts at 9am (intros, how-to, coffee) Sessions start at 9:30am

Potential Topics (this is where you chime in)

Open Data
LiDAR
Cascadia data NW Open Data
LBS
gis.stackexchange.com, lightning talk?
Desktop GIS Apps
File GDB is open! * see Eli's statement
GDAL
PostGIS
Crowdsourcing
Grassroots Mapping
Japan/Libya Crisis Mapping, CUGOS discuss their OSM mapping on March 16th?
Creating a GIS Intern Group for local governments
State of Oregon Standards for Services kickoff meeting from 1:15 to 2:45ish - a fixed time for this is better since some people will be coming especially for this.
Getting started with open source GIS tools for "data journalists" (telling stories with data on a deadline)

April 1, 2011 April Fools' Hackathon

The Hackathon is OPEN. Submit your ideaz here.

Documenting and How To's
For people who don't want to do Hackathon activities, they could help with mapping the (Japan) crisis area for OpenStreetMap. See also, OSM wiki
I've got a fairly complete open source GIS stack built as an openSUSE Linux appliance. It consists of R plus the R "Spatial" task view plus all of its dependencies (Proj4, Grass, GDAL, PostGIS) plus QGIS. But not all of us run openSUSE Linux - yet ;-). I'd like to see this stack ported to Windows and MacOS X. I can do Ubuntu and Fedora ports myself if anyone's interested, and I can help with the Windows port. The scripts are on Github at [1] and [2] if anyone wants to get a head start on this.

March 29, 2011

8:30am - Keynote 10:30a-12p - Smackdown see GIS In Action site for more info on the schedule.

Volunteers

Want to volunteer? Sure you do! See Google Spreadsheet for times you can volunteer.

Social Media - Following the Unconference

Twitter aggregators - suggested tags: #GIA, #pdxosgeo
Foursquare
Geoloqi - Log in with your Twitter ID or sign up: Geoloqi site

Google Group google email group

Organizing Notes

**Supplies**
What	How many	Have it/who	Comments
Name Tags	?	Rafa	Apparently, OR Conv. Ctr. has some. Trying for 100+
Markers	2-3	Yes, Eli will bring
Sticky notes (large)	2 pads	No
Masking tape	2-3 rolls	No
Scrap paper	1 stack	No
Dry erase board and markers	1-2	No	Do we really need this? This or foamcore
Foamcore	4	Yes, Rafa

Needs

We need an OSGeo Exhibition_Pack for conference booths. We can try borrowing CUGOS's.

Resources

SPRING GIS

This documentation was translated and written by USFWS. At one point it was downloadable from the internet although I can't find it now.
Some seems excellent. Some still has areas that could use polish. It is listed as a draft.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to various OSGeo local chapters and other wiki contributors whose work we borrowed and particularly CUGOS.