FOSS4G 2015 Press Release 00a
Seoul to host FOSS4G conference in 2015
“Toward Diversity! FOSS4G Bigbang in 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>
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The OSGeo Korean Chapter is pleased to announce that we have been selected to host the 2015 FOSS4G international conference. The conference will be hosted in Seoul in September 2015, and is expected to attract the leading developers, users and business people in the open source geospatial community from Asia and all over the world.
Holding the FOSS4G conference, the biggest open source GIS event in the world, for the first time in the Asia will bring countless benefits to the region and provide the geospatial communities, local businesses, and wider society with a great opportunity to learn about the potential of open source 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 big bang and wide spreading out FOSS4G to the local and region via this conference. He said, “When I tried to introduce to open source GIS to South Korea in 2008, no one even tried to listen to my opinions. However, over five years passed and now the even Korean government opened a bid for open source GIS R&D project in May 2014, meaning that open source GIS has a sign to become mega trend in South Korea. I’m absolutely sure that FOSS4G 2015 will ignite and strengthen this trend.” Regarding the open source GIS R&D in Korea, Korean government - Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport - opened a bid for selecting a research team for open source GIS R&D in which Korean government would invest around USD 9.5 M for 3 years and 6 months.
OSGeo Korean chapter has held FOSS4G Korea event every year since 2011 and the attendants of the event grows rapidly. Especially, FOSS4G Korea events always come with Smart Geo Expo, the biggest geospatial event 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 Smart Geo Expo.
For the successful conference of FOSS4G 2015, KSIS(Korea Spatial Information Society), the academic society with members of geospatial professional, researchers, students, and policy makers regarding geospatial field, will closely cooperate with OSGeo Korean Chapter. Also, KAOS-G(Koeran Alliance OpenSource for Geospatial), an alliance of open source GIS companies 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 open source GIS and raise the bar for open source GIS in South Korea. The LOC also expect the experience and knowledge will spread out to the World over 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 in Korea.
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.