Australia/New Zealand Chapter Report 2009

OSGeo Australia / New Zealand

• Period covered by report: Jan-Dec 2009
• Contact name: Bruce Bannerman

Key Accomplishments

FOSS4G-2009

FOSS4G-2009 dominated AustNZ activities for 2009. We had a strong team of local volunteers from Australia and New Zealand as well as from the International OSGeo family.

We were excited to see our international colleagues travel to Sydney for the event and to introduce FOSS4G to the Australian community.

There was definitely an exciting vibe in the air, and there has been much follow up interest from within Australia.

It was a surreal experience for a number of the Local Organising Committee who had been dealing via phone and email on a daily basis for two years to finally meet face to face at the Sydney Convention Centre.

Local contributions were made to the Arramagong Live DVD which was provided to all delegates at the conference (http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc_Quick_Start)

OSGeo-AustNZ List

We now have 123 subscribers to the OSGeo-AustNZ list.

This number includes a few people who have multiple email addresses subscribed.

Victorian Government Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data

Bruce Bannerman and Cameron Shorter prepared a submission for Australia's Victorian Government's Parliamentary Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data on behalf of OSGeo-AustNZ in August 2008.

The Inquiry released its final report, citing the OSGeo-AustNZ submission at a number of places. The report was very favourable towards open access to data.

Presence at conferences

• • 2009-6, Canberra - Autodesk Australia (thanks Milton) kindly allowed OSGeo-AustNZ to share their stand at the successful Spatial@Gov conference. Cameron Shorter presented on Geospatial Open Source.
  • 2009-08? Brisbane - Lightening presentation on Open Source (and Lisasoft) by Jody Garnett to the CRCSI, and distribution of 250 Arramagong GIS Live DVDs to delegates.
  • 2009-10, Sydney - Tyler allowed us to share the OSGeo booth at FOSS4G-2009. http://2009.foss4g.org

Areas for Improvement

• We have still not incorporated as a legal entity.

This needs to be addressed. There is some debate and a few ideas, but little effort to step forward and help move things forward.

• Most of the work by the local chapter is still being done by a few key people. We need to find a way to encourage more involvement.

Outlook for 2010

• There is a lot of momentum building for the use of open source spatial software in the Australian and New Zealand regions:

• Local groups are starting to self organise and hold regular get togethers, e.g.:

• • Melbourne Pub Nights; and
  • Brisbane user get togethers.

• It is anticipated that these could evolve in a number of ways:

• • regular show and tell events where organisations hold regular site visits to see what their peers are doing with FOSS4G;
  • Code Sprints to Introduce FOSS4G (aka Developer Advocacy). This was an idea initiated by Jody Garnett at the latest Melbourne Pub Night; and
  • general FOSS4G Advocacy.