Ok, this just seems strange.. maybe it is because I am not a fanboi.. but you have the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), OpenGeo .. these two are for the pushing of free and open software and open data, yet…

On the OpenGeo DVD you have this.  Open source software and ways to use the data openly… yet they put Google Earth on there which is closed source, and not open data (yes you can see it, but you can’t use it openly outside of Google Earth).

Maurizio has finally gotten to writing a recap of his first ever FOSS4G presentation.

[21:33]	<maurizio>	T_Servo: ping
[21:33]	<T_Servo>	pong
[21:34]	<maurizio>	you are the one who likes stories? here is one http://madmappers.com/news/?p=64
[21:36]	<maurizio>	I’m really no good at this blog stuff

While he says he is not good at “this blog stuff”, it is an entertaining writeup and does have a good ending since he got to do several 1on1 demos.  (Doesn’t pay to be first one going most times)

Well, trying to gather postmortem’s on yesterday’s presentations that Maurizio gave (I got some out of him last night and he wasn’t not in a good mood, says they did not go nearly as well as he had hoped).  Though I guess WorldWind did come up at other locations.. but I don’t have any real good report information.

If anyone has any recap information, or know where it is hidden (IRC logs are darren on what I was looking for), let me know.

Paul Ramsey has some interesting FOSS4G information up, but mainly he has the links to the labs and presentations up and there are several interesting presentations that will be going on this year, but these perked my attention.

Wish I had the time and funds to go up there this year.

First up, I found a presentation that deals, in part, with NASA World Wind:

User-customized environmental mapping and decision support using NASA World Wind and DOE Genie software
Andrew Pilant, US Environmental Protection Agency

Here is one for James Fee, since he says everything is better (even Manifold) on a stick:

Portable GIS: GIS on a USB Stick
Jo Cook, Oxford Archaeology North

Another Open Source and free virtual globe is also getting presented:

ossimPlanet - a collaborative open source virtual Earth
Mark Lucas, RadiantBlue Technologies Inc

As well as these labs that look interesting as well:

W-01: GIS for Web Developers

W-02: Shuffling Quantum GIS into the Open Source GIS Stack

Passing this information around.  I have an idea for 2 to 3 presentatyions myself that I will be submitting.

Anyway, starting today and going until June 29 FOSS4G is accepting presentation submissions.  Presentations are 25 minutes long with 5 minutes for questions and answers.

What makes a good presentation:

• Case Studies: Relate the experiences of you and your organization using open source geospatial. Where do things work well? Poorly? What problems did you solve, and at what cost? What do you recommend for others? Why?
• Benchmarks: Comparisons between pieces of geospatial software. How do features compare? Speed? Ease of use? What do you recommend for others?
• Visualization: Tell about your tips and tricks for effective visualization. How do you present information in a compelling way? 3D? Cartographic tricks? Labelling and naming ideas? Graphs and hybrid map/data combinations?
• Development: What are the new developments in your open source geospatial software product? How does it work, how do people use it, what are the technical issues you are running into?
• Hacks and Mashing: Have you put together something novel or cool this year? What did you stick together, how did it work, show us your gizmo!
• Collaboration: What techniques are you using to improve collaboration between organizations and between individuals. Public geodata, collaborative data collection, data sharing, open standards, de facto standards, and more!

Presentation information can be found here: http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations 

The FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) conference is pleased to announce the Call for Workshops for the 2007 conference, being held September 24-27 in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

FOSS4G is the premier conference for the open source geospatial community, providing a place for developers, users, and people new to open source geospatial to get a full-immersion experience in both established and leading edge geospatial technologies.

This is your chance to showcase your favorite application, integration solution, or other topic. You will use your superior classroom skills to lead a group of attendees through your chosen topic in either a half-day or ninety minute lab or classroom format. Half-day workshops will be delivered on Monday, September 24 (the Workshops day), while the ninety minute workshops will run concurrently with the presentations during the remainder of the conference.

While we are open to workshops on a wide range of topics, we strongly encourage workshop submissions on the following topics:

• Practical Introduction to ___________
• Interoperability
• NeoGeography and NovelGeography
• Using a Software Stack
• 3D Worlds

In the tradition of previous FOSS4G events, we expect that the majority of workshops will be “hands on”, with participants seated in front of computers and able to follow along with the instructor, working directly with the software and applications under discussion.

Be prepared to spend considerable effort in creating your workshop. Past experience has shown that a high quality workshop requires about three days of preparation for each hour of presentation time. As part of this preparation you will be expected to develop material for attendees to take away with them, such as handouts, a ‘workbook’, CDROM, etc.

In recognition of this effort, workshop presenters will receive a reduction in the price of conference registration:

• free registration for delivering a half-day workshop
• half-price registration for delivering a 90-minute workshop

Because of limited space, you may want to consider submitting two versions of your topic, one for each length format.

Please visit the workshops page on our website to download the submission templates and instructions for sending them in:

http://www.foss4g2007.org/workshops.html

The deadline for workshop submissions is February 28, 2007. Submit early, submit often!