Initial Ottawa Local Chapter Meeting 2006-07-20

Ottawa OSGeo Local Chapter Initial Meeting

Location

DM Solutions' office

Attendees

Dave Sampson
Jeff McKenna
Frank Warmerdam
Peter Brimacombe
Debbie Pagurek
Dave McIlhagga
Shawn Barnes
Yewondwossen Assefa
Zak James
Girma Gebrehana
Mark Sunohara
Robert Roberts
Paul Spencer
Dave Howlett
Christy Nieman
Regie Alam
Richard Alam
Grahame Cole
Pedram Karimi
Mike Adair
Scott Mitchell
Peter Pulsifer
Jean-Francois Doyon
Xiaoyuan Geng

Project Representation

GRASS
MapServer
Mapbuilder

Discussion

Introductions

round table introductions
- diverse backgrounds, including government, private, academic, NGOs, contractors, general interest
- background on Ottawa GRASS users group (OGUG) by Dave Sampson
- background on Ottawa MapServer users group (OMSUG) by Jeff McKenna
- background on Mapbuilder project by Mike Adair

OSGeo Foundation Background

Frank Warmerdam, the president of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGF), gave some background on the foundation:

OSGF now gives member projects credibility
OSGF is a common vehicle for open source geospatial projects
- projects and members have a stronger voice in the corporate world

Frank also discussed the possible benefits of creating a local chapter:

builds interest in the groups, and can sustain longer
as part of the umbrella organization, the groups gain instant credibility
chapter can use and build on the existing OSGF infrastructure (site, wiki, mailing lists etc.)

OGUG Background

Dave Sampson gave some backgound on the Ottawa GRASS users group:

currently packaging a new GRASS educational and training dataset
working on the Public Geodata License

OMSUG Background

Jeff McKenna gave some background on the Ottawa MapServer users group:

small group, that needs some life
members formed the organizing committee of the first ever Open Source GIS conference in north america, in June 2004