Oceania

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Organisation

OSGeo Oceania's purpose is to support and grow the open geospatial community in the Oceania region, including the oversight and stewardship of the FOSS4G SotM Oceania conference series.

The Oceania region includes countries listed in the United Nations Geoscheme for Oceania. We have also included Timor-Leste in our Travel Grant Program. We recognise the important cultural and social connections with other countries in the broader region, such as the Philippines.

We recognise the long-established Pacific Islands Chapter of OSGeo, and work closely with them to build a strong community across our region.

How to learn more & get involved

The best way to stay up to date on what we're doing is to join our mailing lists:

  • oceania - discussion about the regional open geospatial community and OSGeo Oceania
  • foss4g-oceania - FOSS4G SotM Oceania conference planning
  • oceania-board - OSGeo Oceania board discussion (public)

There's also a lot of informal chatter on the Maptime Oceania Slack group: join here

And you can head to the conference website (link below) and join the conference updates mailing list there.

If you want to talk about how you can get involved, feel free to post on any of these channels, or drop us a line at admin@osgeo-oceania.org.

OSGeo Oceania Calendar

A calendar of both OSGeo Oceania and other similar events can be found on our website

OSGeo Oceania events are also available via

Membership

Membership of OSGeo Oceania is an opportunity to engage more actively with the support of open geospatial software & data in Oceania. Members can support OSGeo Oceania in a variety of ways:

  • Helping to organise the annual FOSS4G SotM Oceania conference series
  • Organising local geospatial events
  • Editing in OpenStreetMap
  • Active discussions in Oceania related mailing lists
  • Writing developer documentation for open source geospatial projects
  • Contributing to open source geospatial repositories

Membership is free, and you can apply for membership at any time. Becoming a member allows you to run for the board of OSGeo Oceania and/or vote in the election process.

Applications are reviewed by the Membership Working Group. Generally memberships are approved within a few weeks.

Public Member list: (only includes those who have agreed to be listed).

Community support

Grants Program: OSGeo Oceania provides grants in support of the open geospatial community across Oceania. Details here.

Documents & policies

Document Date
Founding Terms of Reference 2018-12-17
Constitution 2019-11-07
Membership Policy 2020-03-25
Finance Policy 2020-12-15
Sponsorship Policy 2022-08-10
Finance Committee Terms of Reference 2019-10-03
Communications & Outreach Working Group Terms of Reference 2020-03-16
Special Interest Group Guidelines 2020-10-21
Microgrants program 2021-02-19
OSGeo Oceania Annual Report 2019-2020 2020-12-14
OSGeo Oceania Annual Report 2020-2021 2021-12-14
OSGeo Oceania Annual Report 2021-2022 2022-11-01
OSGeo Oceania Annual Report 2022-2023 2023-11-11
OSGeo Oceania Annual Report 2023-2024 2024-11-07
Budget 2019-2020 2019-10-03
Budget 2020-2021 2020-06-30
Budget 2021-2022 2021-07-07
Budget 2022-2023 2022-06-20
Budget 2023-2024 2022-06-20
Budget 2024-2025 2024-06-07

Board of Directors

OSGeo Oceania is governed and managed by a board of directors. The board delegates responsibilities to committees as needed. As per the constitution, directors are elected by the membership in annual elections. Details of process, current and historical election records can be found on Oceania_Elections.

Responsibilities The primary responsibilities of the board are to:

  • govern and manage OSGeo Oceania, with regard to finance, risk, and sustainability of the organisation
  • provide oversight of the conference committee, and ongoing stewardship of the conference series
  • coordinate other related outreach activities, including local FOSS4G and State of the Map events
  • maintain a relationship with OSGeo and the OpenStreetMap Foundation, and maintain OSGeo & OSMF chapters in good standing
  • hold accounts, domain names, and other administrative tools, data, and assets as needed
  • enter into agreements with other parties as needed.

Motions/decisions Motions of the board are recorded in Loomio here.

2025

Directors

Meeting minutes

Proposed meetings

  • 17 January 2025
  • 14 February 2025
  • 14 March 2025
  • 18 April 2025
  • 16 May 2025
  • 13 June 2025
  • 11 July 2025
  • 08 August 2025
  • 12 September 2025
  • 10 October 2025
  • 07 November 2025
  • ~22 November 2025 (AGM)
  • December dates to be advised by election review process

2024

Directors

Meeting minutes

2023

Directors

Meeting minutes

2022

Directors

Meeting minutes

2021

Directors

Dionne, Greg and Emma are concluding their two-year term.

Meeting minutes

2020

Directors

As per this thread, Adam, Alex, John, Martin, and Trisha have a 1 year term and their seats will be open at the next election. All other directors have a standard 2 year term.

Meeting minutes

2019

Objectives In order to guide the organisation towards a mature state, in 2019 this board will aim to:

  • determine a process for recruiting and managing an appropriate general membership
  • determine a process for renewal of board membership, including accountability to the general membership, and clarify such items as term limits and staggering of terms
  • determine a process for inviting expressions of interest and selecting groups wishing to host the annual FOSS4G SotM Oceania event
  • determine and formalise an appropriate non-profit structure
  • submit an official expression of interest to the OSGeo board to form an OSGeo local chapter
  • apply to the OpenStreetMap Foundation board to form an OpenStreetMap local chapter

Directors

Meeting minutes

Committees & Working Groups

  • Finance Committee: Jonah Sullivan, Alex Leith
  • Communications Working Group: Ewen Hill, Joy Papao, Dawn Hendrick, Pierre Kurth, Rua Puka, Emma Hain, Lani Rokotuiwakaya, Elina Matarara, Elisa Toroca
  • Membership Working Group: Graeme Fitzpatrick, Jonah Sullivan, Carrol Chan
  • Grants Working Group: Elisa Puccioni (Chair), Jonah Sullivan, Carrol Chan, Nemaia Koto

Special Interest Groups

Special Interest Groups (SIG) are ad-hoc groups that have been established to support a specific topic. Their narrow, topic specific focus is what distinguishes them from the functionally focused working groups. Any member of OSGeo Oceania can propose the creation of a new SIG by following the SIG Guidelines outlined here.

OpenStreetMap Oceania

OSGeo Oceania has been recognised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) as the official local chapter in the region.

As the official local chapter, we are able to support the development of the OpenStreetMap community in Oceania while making sure our diverse range of interests are represented, supported, and promoted.

In 2020, a prospective working group was convened to focus specifically on OpenStreetMap and our role as a local chapter. Minutes from the inaugural meeting can be found here. The working group discussed long term priorities, so feel free to contribute to the discussion here.

The SIG is not currently active (as of February 2024).

Note, while OSGeo Oceania is currently the recognised local chapter in the region, we are fully supportive of other groups that may form in Oceania with the intent of becoming a local chapter. One example would be a national entity that determines their interests would better represented as an independent local chapter. If this was to occur, OSGeo Oceania would be fully supportive and will not claim to speak for groups who do not wish to be represented.

Events

History

See the Aust-NZ wiki page for an earlier incarnation of this chapter. OSGeo Oceania picks up where Aust-NZ left off, and aims to build on that foundation.

Some notable open geospatial events in the region:

  • 20 November 2020: FOSS4G SotM Oceania, Apia/Auckland/Cairns/Canberra/Christchurch/Hobart/Melbourne/Perth/Rarotonga/Suva/Wellington/online [1]
  • 12-15 November 2019: FOSS4G SotM Oceania, Wellington [2]
  • 20-23 November 2018: FOSS4G SotM Oceania, Melbourne [3]
  • 17 November 2017: Australian QGIS user group meetup, Sydney [4]
  • May 2017: QGIS Noosa Hackfest [5]
  • 1 March 2017: NZ QGIS User Forum, Wellington [6]
  • 23 September 2015: NZ QGIS User Conference, Wellington [7]
  • 22 September 2015: NZ GeoNetwork Users Meetup, Wellington
  • 12 May 2015: QGIS Forum, Perth
  • 14 May 2015: QGIS Forum, Melbourne[8]
  • 18 April 2013: Melbourne QGIS User Conference [9][10]
  • 14 March 2013: Perth QGIS User Forum/Group [11]
  • 15-16 November 2012: FOSS4G-AU 'unconference', Brisbane [12][13][14]
  • 20-23 October 2009: FOSS4G international conference, Sydney [15]

Also see the Pacific Islands Chapter page for history of events and developments in the Pacific Islands.

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 Elected at the last election
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 Continuing 2 year term
  3. Re-elected at the last election