Open Source Geospatial: An Option for Developing Nations

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Once you have registered your interest in actually attending the conference here, the PeopleSA site - click here - is where your accommodation, booking and payment arrangements will be taken care of.

Please consider exhibiting, sponsoring or otherwise supporting the conference. Download the Prospectus. Or contact gavinf at mintek dot co.za with any enquiries.

NEW! Bronze Sponsor category now available (~$1000)

Poster submissions are still open till 30 June. Please refer to the Call for Posters for the process as these are not submitted through this website.

You can now view an online conference MAP. And for South African news you might want to track this site

The 2008 Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference, incorporating GISSA 2008, gathers developers and users of open source geospatial software as well as managers and decision makers from around the world to discuss new directions, exciting implementations, and growing business opportunities in the field of open source geospatial software. FOSS4G is presented annually by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

Focussed on the practical "make it work, get it done" world of open source application development, this annual conference boasts a very high concentration of geospatial technical opinion leaders. Attendance at this event has grown at over 50% a year since its inception in 2003, paralleling the rapid growth and adoption curve of open source geospatial tools in the marketplace.

In 2008, FOSS4G comes to the Cape Town International Convention Centre, in the downtown heart of Cape Town, South Africa. The Conference Theme for 2008 is

"Open Source Geospatial: An Option for Developing Nations"

The local host for FOSS4G 2008 is the GeoInformation Society of South Africa, GISSA and this year FOSS4G incoporates GISSA's biennial conference. Besides being a defining event on the international GIS calendar, it certainly is the most important GIS conference in Africa this year.

Summary of important dates regarding submissions

• 23 May 2008: Submission deadline for workshop and lab proposals
• 23 May 2008: Deadline for abstract submission
• 6 June 2008: Notification of acceptance of workshop and lab proposals
• 17 June 2008 Notification of acceptance of abstracts
• 30 June 2008: Deadline for submission of posters
• 18 August 2008: Deadline for submission of presentations/ papers for the proceedings

Summary of important dates regarding registration

• Sponsor and Exhibitor registration is open
• June 20 2008: Early Bird Registrations close
• September 15 2008: Online Registration closes
• September 16-28 2008: Late Registration period
• September 29: On-site Registration opens

While Free and Open Source GIS is our focus, you are also welcome to submit papers for the 'applied' topics that used proprietary or mixed GIS. We want to encourage exposure, debate and understanding among FOSS and proprietary communities. Submissions with some reference or relevance to FOSS will be given preference, however and where appropriate, talks will be marked clearly on the programme as FOSS / Proprietary / Mixed.

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 (Millenium 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

Other features

• Hands-on workshops and labs on using and developing open source geospatial tools
• Education-related outreach day
• Developers' code sprint
• Technical visits
• Full exhibition hall and demonstration theatre
• Virtual market for FOSS GIS opportunities
• Launch of integrated '1-click' FOSS GIS Linux and Windows distributions
• Competitions
• Launch of FreeGIS books
• Launch of online FOSS GIS courses
• Poster session
• 'Birds-of-a-feather' sessions
• Great social programme!,
  
  • Icebreaker dinner and drinks
  • Gala dinner at Moyo in Stellenbosch
  • Tour and travel opportunities before, during and after the conference