1. Criteria for admission to “Geo for All” Labs.
In September 2011, the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of developing on a global basis collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organizations in open source GIS software and data for enabling open education opportunities for all. The MoU aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Laboratories across the world for supporting development of open-source geospatial software, open data, open standards training and expertise. ISPRS joined this initiative in 2014.
The motto of Geo for All Lab initiative is “Geo For All”. Central to “Geo for All” mission is the belief that knowledge is a public good and Open Principles in Education will provide great opportunities for everyone.
The key requirements for joining “Geo for All” initiative are:
(A) Your local organization MUST BE COMMITTED TO CONTRIBUTE to the vision outlined in the ICA-OSGeo MoU [http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/MOU_ICA] to develop collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organizations in free and open source GIS software , FOSS, open data , open access (publications) and contribute to open education in the future. All participants should contribute to Education, Research and Service for the betterment of humanity as the key guiding principle and work towards the vision of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for building a better world.
(B) At least one person at your institution or organization should have strong knowledge in geospatial information science and vision to lead this activity and to build a team of people, locally. This person should act as a liaison officer to the initiative.
(C) There should be a website established for your Open Source Geospatial Laboratory listing current research, people, and training information. This web presence will allow other nodes in the network and the general public to understand and promote your local efforts around research and teaching of open source geospatial technologies and approaches. The website should be established within a year of the lab announcement and has to be maintained at least annually.
(D) GEO FOR ALL MAKES A COMMITMENT TO promote the initiative widely through OSGeo, ICA and ISPRS channels to help build up collaboration opportunities for the future. We will also do a joint press release to announce the initiative and start building collaborations. A primary collaborative initiative continues to be the creation and maintenance of shared open access educational resources and/or active participation in the open source software and data development. We will also add the information of all labs in the Open Geospatial Lab network node site within OSGeo website so that all participating labs urls are added and linked.
Open Education is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge. Open educational resources (OERs) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching and learning. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
We especially welcome applications from universities, educational institutes, government organisations in developing countries to help develop capacity building in geospatial education by establishing Open Source Geo Labs and support Open Education initiatives worldwide.
2. How to apply for joining the network
With the region wise thematic groups established, the chairs of this are now the contact points for any new labs to be established in that region to contact and the mailing list becomes the first point of contact for the new members and all regional members in the region can use the list for collaborating on regional funding calls, FOSS4G local conferences etc. They will also be the administrators of the mailing lists and they will use the wiki pages to develop their ideas with inputs from all members in their groups. This way we can make sure it is scalable and meets local/region requirements/needs. The nodal contact will make the decision on approval as now, but the whole process will be more efficient.
For Global/Strategic level enquirers please contact the GeoforAll mailing list [email – geoforall@lists.osgeo.org]
3. Regional Chairs and Contact Information
Africa Region
Chair: Msilikale Msilanga (Tanzania)
Subscribe at maillist: http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-africa
Website: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_Africa
Email: msilikalemsilanga@gmail.com
Asia Region (including Australia)
Chairs: Tuong Thuy Vu (Malaysia/Vietnam) and Venkatesh Raghavan (Japan/India)
Subscribe at mail list: http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-asiaaustralia
Website: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_Asia
Email: raghavan@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp; Tuongthuy.Vu@nottingham.edu.my
Europe Region
Chairs: Maria Brovelli (Italy) and Peter Mooney (Ireland)
Subscribe at mail list: http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-europe
Website: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_Europe
Email: maria.brovelli@polimi.it; petermooney78@gmail.com
Iberoamerica
Chairs: Sergio Acosta y Lara (Uruguay), Silvana Camboim (Brazil) and Antoni Pérez Navarro (Spain)
Subscribe at mail list: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-iberoamerica
Website: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_Iberoamérica
Email: geoforall-iberoamerica@lists.
North America Region
Chairs: Helena Mitasova (USA), Charles Schweik (USA), Phillip Davis (USA)
Subscribe at mail list: http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-northamerica
Website: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GeoForAll_North_America
Email: cschweik@pubpol.umass.edu; hmitaso@ncsu.edu; pdavis@delmar.edu
