Africa Local Chapter

Use this page as scratch pad to design activities within the Africa domain, project, local chapter, etc. Maybe it is a good idea to start with a member list with some a short introduction or link to the all members page.

Please join the Africa mailing list, and review the archive.

A RoadMap for OSGEO Africa

Here follows a brain dump of how we can start to get organised and effective.

Advocacy:

People don't know they have FOSS alternatives - we need to make them aware - including by making press releases, press materials, attending industry events, making contact with academic, municipal and state bodies and letting them know we exist and want to collaborate.

Volunteer: ?

""Education:""

We need to get FOSS GIS into schools, and provide open (e.g. creative commons) curriculum.

Volunteer: ?

""Training:""

• We need to train people to use FOSS GIS.
• First we need to train create a tier of experts / power users, second they need to train people in their local areas.
• We need to start this ""soon"".
• We need to do this on a free / cost recovery basis.
• We need to establish suitable venues in each regional center that can be used for training.
• We need to build up sets of Free (unencumbered) data that can be used by anyone
• We need to build up training materials that can be used to ease the process of training people.

Volunteer: ?

""Professionals:""

We need to create a body of professionals who can provide on the ground support - there is a huge business opportunity here - we need to take advantage. We will call this the OSGEO Africa Professional Association (or something along those lines). The group will among other things provide a directory of FOSS support and solution providers (along the with their location). The group will act as an advisory body to organisations wishing to deploy FOSS GIS.

Volunteer: Tim Sutton

""Community:""

We need to build a community - this means building up a responsive, friendly mailing list. We also need to curate our area on the OSGEO wiki and build up other online resources that will allow new and established members in the OSGEO AFRICA community to find up to date relevant and helpful information to address their needs.

Volunteer: ?