Getting ready for FOSS4Geo Sydney Birds of a Feather edu meeting

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Charlie Schweik

Getting ready for FOSS4Geo Sydney Birds of a Feather edu meeting

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Dear OSGeo Edu colleagues

(Sorry for a longish email)

With the FOSS4Geo conference coming up next week, I thought I’d try and
help focus our group in preparation for the Birds of a Feather meeting.
I hope whoever is in Sydney and interested in furthering the
education/curriculum efforts, you’ll sign up on the wiki [1]. Thanks for
Scott Mitchell, Venka Ragavan and Maria Brovelli for helping run that
given I won't be there. Perhaps one of you could do a report back on Edu
activities and what we are planning now to the OSGeo open session if
there is one (I'm assuming there will be). Let me know if you want
talking points.

But before I go on, I’d like to apologize to the group for my lack of
leadership over the last six months. The short of it is I have been the
primary caretaker of my mother, who has been seriously ill and in and
out of hospitals 6 times since June. I’m hoping that situation will get
better, but it has taken up a lot of my time. If you’d let me, I’m quite
willing to continue my role as the OSGeo edu chair, but given my
performance of late I am quite willing to step down if the group would
like new leadership. This might be a topic of discussion for the BOF and
whether an election for a new chair is in order.

Now, to substance. I’ve edited our groups “to do list” on the OSGeo
wiki, and am suggesting that we as a group focus now on the “Curriculum”
discussion we’ve been having over email.

Please see [2]

What I’m suggesting is that people in Sydney have a discussion on this
proposal.

What do you all think? If you all agree, should we try rapidly to find
some possible curriculum guidance in advance of next week?

Lastly, a couple old tasks that I removed but still wonder about is:

1) Efforts to connect better OSGeo Local groups to education efforts;
2) Efforts to connect better to OSGeo software groups somehow; and
3) The FreeGIS Book - Victor's effort and the need for whatever is
written to be translated to English

Are these worthy of staying on our task list? And any other
tasks/initiatives people want to take on this next year that I haven't
listed? Feel free to add it to the todo list wiki page [2]

Finally, if anyone is willing to take on a kind of subcommittee chair on
any of these initiatives I would greatly appreciate it... ;-)

Charlie

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather
[2]
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Education_Committee_Work_Program#PROPOSED_INITIATIVE_FOR_2009-2010_-_OS_GEO_CURRICULUM 



[cschweik.vcf]

begin:vcard
fn:Charlie Schweik
n:Schweik;Charlie
org:University of Massachusetts, Amherst;Natural Resources Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration
adr:;;217 Holdsworth Hall;Amherst;MA;01003;USA
title:Associate Professor
tel;work:413 545 1824
note:Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government (www.ncdg.org)
url:http://people.umass.edu/cschweik
version:2.1
end:vcard



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Ned Horning-2

Re: Getting ready for FOSS4Geo Sydney Birds of a Feather edu meeting

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Charlie,

I guess I'm being a little slow here but I'm still trying to get a sense
for what an OSGeo curriculum development effort would look like. There
is a good deal of GIS curriculum out there so I'm not sure if redoing
that makes sense. There has been mention of developing a curriculum
around open source geospatial technologies but I'm not sure what that
means. If we use open source software to support any curriculum I think
we'd have to pick and choose which software to use and I'm not sure we
want to do that.

 From a users perspective I have a sense for what I'd like to see but
I'm not sure if this is in line with a broader group view. Would it make
sense to create a list of server and desktop (perhaps pick one for
starters) GIS, remote sensing image processing, and other geospatial
tasks and then illustrate how each of those tasks is performed using
different OSGeo software. I'm thinking of something along the lines of:
"How Do I Do This in ArcGIS/Manifold?: Illustrating Classic GIS Tasks"
(http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/165). We could develop
the framework and then work with each of the OSGeo projects to populate
it with examples. This would be a great resource that could be used by
teachers to more easily adapt existing curricula (private and public) to
open source software. It would also be helpful for users. It would also
get us working with the software projects more closely.

Whatever we decide to do I expect to be able to help out during the next
year.

All the best,

Ned

Charlie Schweik wrote:

> Dear OSGeo Edu colleagues
>
> (Sorry for a longish email)
>
> With the FOSS4Geo conference coming up next week, I thought I’d try
> and help focus our group in preparation for the Birds of a Feather
> meeting. I hope whoever is in Sydney and interested in furthering the
> education/curriculum efforts, you’ll sign up on the wiki [1]. Thanks
> for Scott Mitchell, Venka Ragavan and Maria Brovelli for helping run
> that given I won't be there. Perhaps one of you could do a report back
> on Edu activities and what we are planning now to the OSGeo open
> session if there is one (I'm assuming there will be). Let me know if
> you want talking points.
>
> But before I go on, I’d like to apologize to the group for my lack of
> leadership over the last six months. The short of it is I have been
> the primary caretaker of my mother, who has been seriously ill and in
> and out of hospitals 6 times since June. I’m hoping that situation
> will get better, but it has taken up a lot of my time. If you’d let
> me, I’m quite willing to continue my role as the OSGeo edu chair, but
> given my performance of late I am quite willing to step down if the
> group would like new leadership. This might be a topic of discussion
> for the BOF and whether an election for a new chair is in order.
>
> Now, to substance. I’ve edited our groups “to do list” on the OSGeo
> wiki, and am suggesting that we as a group focus now on the
> “Curriculum” discussion we’ve been having over email.
>
> Please see [2]
>
> What I’m suggesting is that people in Sydney have a discussion on this
> proposal.
>
> What do you all think? If you all agree, should we try rapidly to find
> some possible curriculum guidance in advance of next week?
>
> Lastly, a couple old tasks that I removed but still wonder about is:
>
> 1) Efforts to connect better OSGeo Local groups to education efforts;
> 2) Efforts to connect better to OSGeo software groups somehow; and
> 3) The FreeGIS Book - Victor's effort and the need for whatever is
> written to be translated to English
>
> Are these worthy of staying on our task list? And any other
> tasks/initiatives people want to take on this next year that I haven't
> listed? Feel free to add it to the todo list wiki page [2]
>
> Finally, if anyone is willing to take on a kind of subcommittee chair
> on any of these initiatives I would greatly appreciate it... ;-)
>
> Charlie
>
> [1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather
> [2]
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Education_Committee_Work_Program#PROPOSED_INITIATIVE_FOR_2009-2010_-_OS_GEO_CURRICULUM 
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu_discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss
>  

_______________________________________________
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[hidden email]
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Sunburned Surveyor

Re: Getting ready for FOSS4Geo Sydney Birds of a Feather edu meeting

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Ned,

I like your idea, and I think it would be very useful for a lot of
"traditional" GIS users.

I would only add that I find video can often be a much better medium
than print for software tutorials.

Landon

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 2:38 PM, Ned Horning <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Charlie,
>
> I guess I'm being a little slow here but I'm still trying to get a sense for
> what an OSGeo curriculum development effort would look like. There is a good
> deal of GIS curriculum out there so I'm not sure if redoing that makes
> sense. There has been mention of developing a curriculum around open source
> geospatial technologies but I'm not sure what that means. If we use open
> source software to support any curriculum I think we'd have to pick and
> choose which software to use and I'm not sure we want to do that.
>
> From a users perspective I have a sense for what I'd like to see but I'm not
> sure if this is in line with a broader group view. Would it make sense to
> create a list of server and desktop (perhaps pick one for starters) GIS,
> remote sensing image processing, and other geospatial tasks and then
> illustrate how each of those tasks is performed using different OSGeo
> software. I'm thinking of something along the lines of: "How Do I Do This in
> ArcGIS/Manifold?: Illustrating Classic GIS Tasks"
> (http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/165). We could develop the
> framework and then work with each of the OSGeo projects to populate it with
> examples. This would be a great resource that could be used by teachers to
> more easily adapt existing curricula (private and public) to open source
> software. It would also be helpful for users. It would also get us working
> with the software projects more closely.
>
> Whatever we decide to do I expect to be able to help out during the next
> year.
>
> All the best,
>
> Ned
>
> Charlie Schweik wrote:
>>
>> Dear OSGeo Edu colleagues
>>
>> (Sorry for a longish email)
>>
>> With the FOSS4Geo conference coming up next week, I thought I’d try and
>> help focus our group in preparation for the Birds of a Feather meeting. I
>> hope whoever is in Sydney and interested in furthering the
>> education/curriculum efforts, you’ll sign up on the wiki [1]. Thanks for
>> Scott Mitchell, Venka Ragavan and Maria Brovelli for helping run that given
>> I won't be there. Perhaps one of you could do a report back on Edu
>> activities and what we are planning now to the OSGeo open session if there
>> is one (I'm assuming there will be). Let me know if you want talking points.
>>
>> But before I go on, I’d like to apologize to the group for my lack of
>> leadership over the last six months. The short of it is I have been the
>> primary caretaker of my mother, who has been seriously ill and in and out of
>> hospitals 6 times since June. I’m hoping that situation will get better, but
>> it has taken up a lot of my time. If you’d let me, I’m quite willing to
>> continue my role as the OSGeo edu chair, but given my performance of late I
>> am quite willing to step down if the group would like new leadership. This
>> might be a topic of discussion for the BOF and whether an election for a new
>> chair is in order.
>>
>> Now, to substance. I’ve edited our groups “to do list” on the OSGeo wiki,
>> and am suggesting that we as a group focus now on the “Curriculum”
>> discussion we’ve been having over email.
>>
>> Please see [2]
>>
>> What I’m suggesting is that people in Sydney have a discussion on this
>> proposal.
>>
>> What do you all think? If you all agree, should we try rapidly to find
>> some possible curriculum guidance in advance of next week?
>>
>> Lastly, a couple old tasks that I removed but still wonder about is:
>>
>> 1) Efforts to connect better OSGeo Local groups to education efforts;
>> 2) Efforts to connect better to OSGeo software groups somehow; and
>> 3) The FreeGIS Book - Victor's effort and the need for whatever is written
>> to be translated to English
>>
>> Are these worthy of staying on our task list? And any other
>> tasks/initiatives people want to take on this next year that I haven't
>> listed? Feel free to add it to the todo list wiki page [2]
>>
>> Finally, if anyone is willing to take on a kind of subcommittee chair on
>> any of these initiatives I would greatly appreciate it... ;-)
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> [1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather
>> [2]
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Education_Committee_Work_Program#PROPOSED_INITIATIVE_FOR_2009-2010_-_OS_GEO_CURRICULUM
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Edu_discuss mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Edu_discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss
>
_______________________________________________
Edu_discuss mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss