FOSS4G2008 Call for papers

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Call for Papers

We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the 2008 Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference, incorporating 'GISSA 2008', being held from 29 September to 3 October, in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. For more information, please see the FOSS4G 2008 site: [1]

This conference gathers developers and users of open source geospatial software from around the world to discuss new directions, exciting implementations, and growing business opportunities in the field of open source, mixed and propriety geospatial software. FOSS4G is presented annually by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). The local host for FOSS4G2008 is the Geo-Information Society of South Africa, GISSA. FOSS4G 2008 incorporates 'GISSA 2008'. While Free and Open Source GIS is our focus, you are also welcome to submit papers for the 'applied' topics that use proprietary or mixed GIS. We want to encourage exposure, debate and understanding among FOSS and proprietary communities. Talks will be marked clearly on the programme as FOSS / Proprietary / Mixed / Peer Reviewed.

Topics which must have a FOSS component or perspective are:

New FOSS GIS developments
Interoperability and standards - OGC, GEOSS
Web processing services, Sensor Web enablement and the like
Using FOSS with proprietary software
Making the transition to FOSS GIS
FOSS GIS support and training
FOSS GIS business models
FOSS GIS implementation and deployment
Open data, open content, open architectures, open everything!
Case studies of open source implementations
Improving FOSS GIS cartography and map production
Use Case driven FOSS GIS development and improving the user experience
FOSS GIS Internationalisation and Localisation

Topics for applications, methodologies or theoretical geospatial work are not limited to a FOSS perspective:

Sustainable development and the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)
Disaster management
Health
Energy
Water
Climate change
Weather
Ecosystem management
Agriculture
Biodiversity
Land reform
Education
Government
Local economic development, poverty alleviation
Participatory GIS
Semantic Web and ontologies in GIS
Location based services, logistics, routing
2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa
NGOs, CBOs (Community-based organisations) and community development workers
Mining, exploration, beneficiation
Spatial economics
Military
Land information and administration (cadastre, address data, etc.)

Academic Papers Track

This year we are thrilled to announce the first academic track for peer-reviewed papers. The date for submission of abstracts to the academic track is 12 May 2008. Abstracts have to be 500-600 words in length and will be reviewed by the Program Committee of the academic track of FOSS4G 2008. Abstracts will be judged on the basis of significance, relevance, correctness, originality, and clarity. If your abstract is accepted for the academic track, you have to submit a full paper by 18 August 2008 for inclusion in the proceedings. The Programme Committee will compile a short list of high quality papers addressing substantial research questions. Authors of these papers will be invited to submit a revised paper in response to reviewer comments and suggestions for inclusion in the South African Computer Journal.

Presentation Track

The date of submission for abstracts of 500-600 words to the presentation track is the 12 May 2008. The abstracts submitted to this track will be chosen by an open community process. If your abstract is accepted for the presentation track then you will be required to submit your presentation by 18 August 2008 for inclusion in the CD proceedings.

Important Dates

	Presentations	Peer reviewed papers for the academic track
Submission of abstracts	12 May 2008	12 May 2008
Notification of acceptance	17 June 2008
Submission of presentations / papers	18 August 2008	18 August 2008
FOSS4G2008 Conference	29 September – 3 October 2008

General Information

All FOSS4G 2008 papers/presentations take the form of 25 minute talks, with 5 minute question and answer sessions at the end. Anyone can submit a presentation or paper and take part in the conference as a presenter. Author guidelines for the formatting of the paper or presentation will be made available online on the conference website. Please note that your paper or presentation will only be included in the proceedings once your registration to the conference has been received in full. We are making use of an online submission facility. Please visit the website to submit your paper. Submit early, submit often! For more information, see the FOSS4G 2008 site: http://www.foss4g2008.org

Guidelines for Authors

In order to keep things simple, for both you the Authors and us the Technical Programme Committee, we have decided to keep the Authors Guidelines for both the Presentations and the Academic Papers the same. You can download a pdf version of the Authors Guideline here.

The Authors Guidelines for the Poster Presentations will be posted shortly.