FOSS4G2007

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This is the main page for holding information for discussion on the upcoming FOSS4G 2007 conference. Links to resources and various ideas will be collected here.

Keynote Speakers

The keynote should in "somewhat related" to the conference focusses (geographic and/or open source) and should be entertaining. Here are some ideas for discussion:

Damian Conway - A terrific speaker and with a particular talk on open source for suits that might fit our mixed suit/geek attendance.
Bruce Perens - Topical on open source issues like patents and so on. Less interesting for non-open source people, since the issues will appear less relevant.
Schuyler Erle - As proven in past conferences, a very engaging speaker with a good view of the grassroots of web geospatial.

In addition to a full keynote, since Minnesota, a lightning round of short talks (5 minutes) has also been done. In providing an overview of the terrain, it's a handy thing. Contact hobu if you are interested in giving a lightning talk. He is the official lightning talk nag. Some topics:

Mapguide
Mapserver
Desktop GIS
GRASS
"Proprietary", "Open Source", "Commercial" and "Free"
Spatial Databases

Workshop Logistics

We have a limited number of laptops and a large demand for workshops. There are a few solutions:

Rent yet more laptops. Another $10K in the budget could net us another 40 or so laptops and probably drop our unit costs through volume.
String the workshops out over the conference. The rental is for a week, so only using the things for a day is pretty wasteful.
Go for UVIC labs. Hard to organize, requires transportation logistics, but could be doable.
What about "bring your own labtop" workshops? Attendees could be provided with bootable CD's ahead of time (download an image via web?). Requires presenters to get their act together sooner rather than later which isn't a bad thing.

New Ideas

Demo Studio

This conference will have the advantage of a tight layout in a conference center and dedicated show floor. As a result, we have the option of running a full-time demo studio on the show floor, with a big screen, sound and seating. There should be enough vendors with products to show and projects willing to take a 15 minute slot that we can keep it active through-out the exhibition.

Bear Pit

There is nothing so entertaining as watching people tear into each other on matters of principle. Rather than genial panel discussions, the Bear Pit brings two speakers together with a moderator charged with putting them at each others throats. Given the right combination of speakers, could be quite entertaining. The lecture theatre might make a nice venue for such a thing.

Integration 'o Rama

Use the show floor to show the Open Source stack all working together. Each vendor brings a part of the infrastucture.

Refractions - Big PostGIS server loaded with lots of data, uDig viewing and editing it
DM - Mapserver, Mapguide with Fusion
Autodesk - Mapguide
Camp2camp - CartoWeb
WhereGroup - Mapbender

Give away an architecture diagram and have people get each component stamped at the appropriate booth. Fully stamped diagrams get entered for a prize.

Hack'a'thon

On the Friday after the conference, arrange some empty rooms and internet connections for projects to have long format meetings and codings. If projects are interested in such a thing (a day of discussions, planning and coding) they should note themselves down here.

Geotools