In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

We informed you a few times already about the upcoming FOSS4G-NA 2013 conference in Minneapolis in May 22-24, what's new is Slashgeo is going to be a proud media partner of the event!

Reminder: "FOSS4G brings together public and private-sector stakeholders, innovators and developers who are at the forefront of free and open source software for geospatial applications. FOSS4G-NA 2013 will offer a broad program to discuss and build tools to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems and business needs. FOSS4G-NA 2013 follows on the success of the 2012 conference held in Washington, DC.  This regional event complements the larger FOSS4G International Conference, the leading global conference organized by OSGeo focusing on Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial."

It might feel like a long way off, but Maptember (the month formerly known as September: www.maptember.org) is fast approaching, and the key dates for ensuring your participation are perhaps nearer than you might think. As a community led event, the content for FOSS4G is driven by user submissions, which is then reviewed and voted on by the community! A truly democratic process that ensures that the programme reflects the latest developments, trends and issues affecting the OSGeo Community in 2013. The final programme is then shaped and moulded by the Local Organising Committee and published in May – early enough to whet the appetite of anyone holding back on making their final travel arrangements! In order for all this to happen in good time for September, sorry, Maptember, deadlines for submissions are:

• for Workshops: 31st March
• for Presentations: 12th April, and
• for Maps: May 31st (details to be announced!)

Also of note is the end of the Early Bird Registration: 31st May

The FOSS4G-CEE 2013 conference will be held in Bucharest, Romania, on June 17-19. It was mentioned in a recent press release, and today I'm glad to announce that Slashgeo will be a proud media partner of the event!

From the press release: "This year's edition has a target of approximately 300 participants interested in geospatial open source applications. They will enjoy the presence and talks given by important personalities in the geospatial field, that have already confirmed their attendance. The event will take place in Bucharest in the newly built National Library of Romania. Activities will unfold during three days (17-19 of June), being shaped as oral presentations and hands-on workshops. All of these will address, in detail, the way in which free and open source software for geospatial (FOSS4G) can be successfully applied in the following:

• Application development;
• Interoperability and open standards;
• FOSS4G implementations for INSPIRE;
• Transition to FOSS4G;
• Case studies of FOSS4G implementations:
• FOSS4G in education;
• Analysis, manipulation and visualization of geospatial data;
• Open geodata;
• Digital and historical cartography"

16th - 18th September 2013: East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham

The period for submission of papers for the AGI GeoCommunity '13 conference is now open. We encourage all of our members, and indeed non-members, to submit a paper on an area of interest to you. If your paper is selected, you will be invited to deliver this paper at the conference on either 17th or 18th September. The call for abstracts is structured around the topic idea areas identified here (http://www.agi.org.uk/call-for-abstracts-2013/).

To start with, we are simply asking for abstracts. These are summaries of what your talk will be about. We are requesting that these abstracts should be submitted electronically by the due date.

The topics are suggested to provide some ideas to shape the event and spark the imagination of contributors. AGI GeoCommunity is your conference, so please get involved. The conference programme is built from the content we receive. If we don't receive content that matches your particular interests then we will have no chance to include it. So why not make a submission yourself. These topics are not meant to form a 'straitjacket' so please feel free to submit a paper on a subject not listed here.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: Friday 29th March 2013

AGI GeoCommunity is the largest and most comprehensive independent conference in the UK digital mapping and data calendar. The conference provides tangible insight and leadership in current geographic information and location based issues via a range of keynote addresses and conference papers, a showcase exhibition, as well as by hands on training and face to face delegate networking. The event is already a 'must attend' for decision makers, practitioners and thought leaders from all aspects of the public and private sectors.

AGI GeoCommunity '13 will open on Monday the 16th September with the popular pre-conference 'Icebreaker' evening event and offer two full days of thought leadership, practical education, knowledge transfer and real world best practice and case studies.

AGI GeoCommunity '13 will also offer a select number of sponsorship spaces (http://www.agi.org.uk/sponsor-packages/) to showcase new products and services and network with delegates both at the sponsors' exhibition pods and in the conference sessions and social events. Companies that are AGI members can get additional booking discounts. The conference format will offer our sponsors an unrivalled opportunity to meet and network with the key practitioners and influencers across government and the commercial sectors.

To register as a delegate or sponsor at AGI GeoCommunity '13, click here (http://www.agigeocommunity.com/).

Platinum Sponsors

Esri UK and Ordnance Survey

Silver Sponsors

Leica GeoSystems and Oce UK

We mentioned in January the upcoming FOSS4G-NA 2013 conference in Minneapolis May 22-24. Yesterday, the organizers announced the preliminary program and early bird registration deadline.

The keynote speakers according to the preliminary program pdf:

• "Eric Gundersen, CEO at MapBox. With names like USA Today and Foursquare leaving Google Maps in favor of MapBox, Eric will be discussing the business proposition and value of commercial open source geospatial. Hear why “giving away the code” does not mean giving away the farm.
• Bibiana McHugh, IT Manager of GIS and Location­Based Service, Portland TriMet. A true instigator, Bibiana started what became Google Transit. Her team has made nearly all TriMet data accessible for anyone to use and develop on. She will touch on aspects of making open source successful in government, working with the developer community and open data.
• Erek Dyskant, Sr. Analytics Engineer at Democratic National Committee. Regardless of your political affiliation, it is clear that the Obama Campaign must have done something right. Erek will provide a more technical discussion on how they used an open source geospatial stack to support the campaign and describe what drove the intentional choice of using open source.
• Paul Morin, Director of the NSF and NASA funded Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota. He makes maps for Wired, Scientific American and National Geographic and is co­author of “Exploring Geology” one of the best selling introductory geology textbooks. Morin contributed to David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet and is the US representative for geospatial data to the Antarctic Treaty System. His group of less than two dozen people are mapping both the Arctic and Antarctic at sub­meter resolution with a combination of open source and proprietary tools, and a lot of imagery."

11th March 2013 FOSS4G keynote speakers are announced: The Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference, the premier international conference focused on open source geospatial software, is fast approaching. The conference will be taking place in Nottingham, UK from 17th – 21st September 2013). It is therefore with great pleasure that OSGeo is able to announce four world renowned speakers from the open source community as keynote presenters.

Paul Ramsey co-founded the geospatial software company PostGIS in 2001 and has continued to support the open source geospatial community with his work in government and industry, winning the Sol Katz Award in 2008. Kate Chapman, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, is the Acting Executive Director of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping support communities, governments and humanitarian responders in their utilization of the free and crowd-sourced map OpenStreetMap for crisis response and contingency planning.

They will be joined by Ian James the Chief Architect at Ordnance Survey responsible for the overall systems architecture. His 20 years’ of working in information systems has enabled him to work on a wide variety of Geospatial production systems, but more recently as the Technical Architect for the UK Location Programme. Finally we will hear from Edward Anderson (Open Development Technology Alliance at the World Bank) who coordinates the World Bank’s ICT Knowledge platform’s programme to use digital engagement tools for building greater public transparency and civic participation, as well as more accountability around public services.  His varied carrier from aerospace engineer has led him to working and building new technical communities between NASA, Google, Random Hacks of Kindness, and CrisisCommons amongst others.

Further information on the speakers is available at: http://2013.foss4g.org/programme/keynoters/

Each of these speakers will be bringing with them a wealth of knowledge of working with open source tools and data in a wide variety of application areas that will act to set the tone of the entire conference. As thought leaders in their respective fields, expect to be challenged in how Open Source software and data is being used, and can be used in the future, to change the world to a better place.

The theme for FOSS4G’13 is “Geo for All” which reflects an aim to encourage attendance from anyone considering using open source and geospatial software for the first time. The numerous current initiatives propelling Open Data have highlighted to an even wider audience the benefits of using geospatial data to gain additional insights into their data, Add the current economic climate, and the interest in open source geospatial solutions grow ever stronger. These speakers provide an excellent opportunity to provide insight into the rising prominence of Open Source software and data.

About FOSS4G (2013.foss4g.org): FOSS4G is the global conference for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, hosted by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and organised by a Local Organising Committee. FOSS4G will be held in in the United Kingdom for the first time in 2013, at the East Midlands Conference Centre (http://www.nottinghamconferences.co.uk/emcc/) in Nottingham, from 17th to 21st September. FOSS4G 2013 will follow on from the Association for Geospatial Information (www.agi.org.uk) annual GeoCommunity event held in the same venue. These two conferences form a part of the geospatial focused events happening across the UK in September (www.maptember.org).

About OSGeo (www.osgeo.org): The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. http://www.opensource.org/licenses/The foundation's projects are all freely available and useable under an OSI-certified open source license.

Media Sponsorship: FOSS4G would welcome the support and encouragement of media sponsors. Full details are available at http://2013.foss4g.org/media-sponsorship-package/

You can now register to the FOSS4G 2013 conference.

The details: "There are three things you will need to plan:

• Which conference package do I want to book – Full, Day or Student?
• Which extra items do I want to book – workshops, icebreaker, closing party?
• Where am I going to stay – hotel on site, university accommodation, somewhere else?

Details of all the options are shown here. Note that the accommodation options are available once you’ve ticked your registration options checkbox(es), so you don’t need to book accommodation separately. It’s easiest to pay by credit card but if your organisation requires an invoice to pay you can tick that box when you register and we will send you an invoice.

• Please note that you must pay the full amount in £ sterling including any bank charges. 
• Invoices must be paid within 14 days of receipt to secure your room reservation and delegate place.

Early Bird prices are available until 31st May 2013 but we recommend booking as soon as you can as there are only a limited number of hotel rooms on the site."

Slashgeo is a proud media partner of FOSS4G 2013.

3D GeoInfo 2013- 8th 3D GeoInfo Conference & ISPRS WG II/2 Workshop

“Advances in Multi-scale and multi-dimensional modeling and data representation”

27-29 November 2013

http://www.3dgeoinfo.com

CALL FOR PAPERS

Topics

Amongst others, the following subjects will be addressed by the conference

3D geo information requirements

3D spatial data infrastructures and 3D data integration

3D data acquisition (LiDAR, photogrammetry) and processing

3D GIS and time / 4D models

3D in spatial databases

3D standards for geospatial technologies

3D open source development

3D city models and building modelling

3D geometry and topology

3D visualisation, augmented and virtual reality

3D spatial analysis and simulation

3D indoor and outdoor navigation

3D applications (e.g., cadastre, utilities, city and urban planning, geology, disaster and risk management, environmental simulation, etc)

Publications

Researchers are invited to submit full papers (up to 6000 words) or extended abstracts (1000-1500 words) describing original and unpublished fundamental scientific research and application.All manuscripts will be subject to peer review process.

Full Papers:

Researchers are invited to submit full papers (up to 6000 words), selected set of full papers will be published within the  Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography (LNG&C) series by Springer. All accepted  abstracts will be published in the ISPRS Annals/Archives with ISBN/ISSN reference.The authors will be given regular slots for oral presentation.  A set of papers will be selected for Special Issue of  International Journal of 3D Information Modeling (IJ3DIM).

Extended Abstracts:

Researchers are invited to submit extended abstracts (1000-1500 words) describing original and unpublished fundamental scientific research and application. All manuscripts will be subject to peer review process.All accepted extened abstracts will be published in the ISPRS Annals/Archives with ISBN/ISSN reference.The authors will be given short slots for presentation.

ISPRS Workshop:

Researchers are invited to submit full papers (up to 6000 words).All accepted  abstracts will be published in the ISPRS Annals/Archives with ISBN/ISSN reference.  The authors will be given regular slots for oral presentation. Workshop papers will be included in  WG II/2 Workshop Issue of  International Journal of 3D Information Modeling (IJ3DIM).

Guidelines for all forms of submissions are according to templates are provided on the submission page. Please submit all abstracts and papers through the website according to the following deadlines:

Full Paper Submission (Regular Presentation) Route :

Abstract submission : 15 March 2013

Notification of abstract acceptance :20 March 2013

Full paper (6000 words) submission: 1 May 2013

Notification of acceptance  :15 June 2013

Camera ready submission: 1 July 2013

Extended Abstract (Short Presentation) Route:

Extended abstract (1000-1500 words) submission: 1 May 2013

Notification of acceptance  :15 June 2013

Camera ready submission: 1 July 2013

ISPRS Workshop Submission Route:

Abstract submission : 15 March 2013

Notification of abstract acceptance :20 March 2013

Full paper (6000 words) submission: 1 May 2013

Notification of acceptance  :15 June 2013

Camera ready submission: 1 July 2013

http://www.3dgeoinfo.com

Submission for papers in the Academic Track of FOSS4G 2013 is now open at http://2013.foss4g.org/ojs/

The FOSS4G 2013 Academic Track is bringing together researchers, developers, users and practitioners carrying out research and development in the geospatial and the free and open source fields.

With the Academic Track motto “Science for Open Source, Open Source for Science”, we aim to attract academic papers describing:

• The use of open source geospatial software and data, in and for scientific research
• Academic endeavours to conceptualize, create, assess, and teach open source geospatial software and data.

Based on these categories, to promote a strong connection between the Academic Track and the other elements of FOSS4G 2013, we hope for contributions within the following themes:

• Data Quality, Software Quality and Service Quality
• Community Building
• Doing more for less: Assessment of costs and benefits of open source applications and open source business models
• Use of Open Data to inform public services
• FOSS and FOSS4g: Is spatial special?
• Architectures and frameworks for open source software and data
• Teaching Geospatial Sciences with open source solutions
• Open Source GIS application use cases: Government, Participatory GIS, Location based services, Health, Energy, Water, Climate change, etc.
• Human Computer Interfaces and Usability in and around Open GI systems

We invite academics and researchers to submit full papers in English, of maximum 6,000 words, before the deadline of 1 February 2013. Templates for submissions in a variety of formats can be found here, and detailed requirements, regarding layout, formatting and the submission process, can be found on the FOSS4G 2103 Academic Track submission pages at http://2013.foss4g.org/ojs/

Your contributions will be reviewed (double-blind) by a diverse reviewing committee of experts in the field, who will be asked to assess the papers on originality and academic rigour, as well as interest for the wider FOSS4G community. We expect to select 20-25 papers for presentation and publication. From this selection, a maximum of 8-10 papers will be given the opportunity for inclusion in a special issue of the renowned international journal Transactions in GIS [1]. The remaining papers will be published in the online OSGEO Journal [2].

We would like to specifically invite “early stage researchers” (PhD students, PostDocs) to use this opportunity to aim for a high-ranking publication.

Authors of all selected papers will be expected to present their work in detail in a separate Academic Track (with 20-30 minute slots), and will also be given the opportunity to pitch the central theme of their paper in short ‘lightning’ talks to the larger community, to generate attention and cross-pollenate with industry, developers and users.

Important Dates:

NOW: Submission open at http://2013.foss4g.org/ojs/
1 February 2013: Deadline for submission of full papers
1 April 2013: Reviewing decisions
1 May 2013: Paper revision deadline
15 September 2013: publication of selected papers
8-10 papers in Early View (on-line) Transactions in GIS
others in on-line OSGEO Journal
17-21 September 2013: FOSS4G Conference
early 2014: printed issue Transactions in GIS
For questions, comments and remarks, do not hesitate to contact the Academic Track co-chairs:

Franz-Josef Behr (Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences): franz-josef.behr [at] hft-stuttgart.de
Barend Köbben (ITC-University of Twente): b.j.kobben [at] utwente.nl
[1]: Transactions in GIS. Published by Wiley; included in ISI, with an impact factor of 0.54; edited by John P. Wilson, David O’Sullivan and Alexander Zipf. Print ISSN: 1361-1682 Online ISSN: 1467-9671. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-TGIS.html

[2]: OSGEO Journal, the official Journal of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation; http://journal.osgeo.org/index.php/journal

We mentioned the first JS.geo 2013 event and Peter Batty shares his wrap-up of the event. I strongly recommend reading the full entry if you have any remote interest in web mapping technology.

From the entry: "D3 supports a new format called TopoJSON, which is similar to geoJSON, but supports topology to eliminate redundancy. For polygon data this can reduce data volumes by around 80% (compared to regular geoJSON). It also lends itself to robust simplification of polygons. [...] Several presentations, including this one by Aaron Ogle, confirmed the impression I had that the Leaflet JavaScript mapping API has great momentum. [...] Brendan Kenny from Google gave an interesting talk on WebGL, which brings high performance 3D (and 2D) graphics to (most) web browsers [...]"