FOSS4G2008 BOF Sessions

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Introduction

During the FOSS4G2008 conference in Cape Town, South Africa, there will be conference rooms available for people to hold Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. These are groups who self-organise informally around something in common, like a project, interest, local chapter, or language.

Note: Times are subject to change until the main programme is finalised (around mid-August)

Timetable

A timetable will be posted when BoF sessions firm up. Changes and new sessions will be posted on announcement boards during the event. In the meantime start your planning below.

BoF primetime is on Tuesday 30th after presentations end. We have the rooms till closing time around 11pm so you can go on as long as you like or we could set up two 'shifts'. Your BoF could even turn into a codesprint.

Tuesday September 30, 2008

This is the primary BOF time slot.

• BOF sessions can be scheduled from 17h15 till late
• Labs and Presentations are scheduled to end at 17h00
• Venues available: 5 x presentation rooms.

Wednesday October 1, 2008

• The session after tea has 2 x Labs running but no Presentations.
• BOF sessions can be scheduled from 15h30 to 17h45
• the buses for the Gala Event at Moyo in Stellenbosch leave at 18:00
• Please only use this time slot if necessary. Many people will need to leave by 17:45 to catch the bus on time.
• Venues available: 5 x presentation rooms.

Conference Rooms available for BOF sessions

• The seating capacity that is listed is a maximum number, that may be reduced.
• The rooms will be set up with chairs, but not tables.

1. 2.6a (120)
2. 2.6b (120)
3. 2.4a (120)
4. 2.4b (120)
5. 1.6 (260)(could hold more than one BoF?)
6. Overflow rooms or if you really need PCs - these are the workshop rooms and it might be preferable not to use them for BoFs.
   1. Roof Terrace (100)
   2. Room 1.40 (96)

BOF organization

You can use this page to organize your BOF session:

• create a section below for your BOF
• have people edit this page to indicate they will be attending
• you must provide a contact person who is managing the meeting
• also make your description as clear as possible, for many attendees it will be the only thing they read before choosing one

BOF sessions

Tuesday from 17h00

Room 2.40a

• 17h15 - 18h30: (South) Africa OSGeo Local Chapter formation. For those on the africa@lists.osgeo.org list plus anyone from Africa who's interested in pursuing the OSGeo agenda locally. User:Gfleming

Wednesday

Room 1.60

• 15h30 - 17h00: Tentative NSIF meeting.

Room 2.40a

• 15h30 - 17h00: GIS Education at tertiary institutions exploratory workshop.
• Anyone with an interest in tertiary GIS tuition is welcome, not only academics.
• What is the market demanding? should specific software packages be taught? should open source now be included as an option? will this impact on institutions getting their courses accredited by PLATO? how should we be dealing with short courses to assist people who want to upgrade from technician to professional GIS practitioner? are correspondence courses an option and who will run them? are there enough short courses for the industry?
• Contact Carrin Martin carrin.avri@iceeafrica.co.za or Bongiwe Masabalala BAMasabalala@sli.wcape.gov.za