Two busy weeks touring Asia

Asia Geospatial Forum has come to an end. It is a pretty large and very well organized event by Geospatial Media (formerly known as GIS Development) with many interesting presentations and an extensive exhibition area. One session was dedicated to Open Source and Cloud Computing (an interesting mix) where I gave the presentation "The OSGeo Foundation: Professionally Leveraging Open Source". It starts with my proven introduction to Free and Open Source software in the geospatial domain and then introduces the OSGeo Foundation – always steadily continuing to spread word and furthering our mission. Over the past years I have given so many talks on the topic that I sometimes wonder whether I am still good at it. (No worries, this is no crisis, just regular quality control). And as if to answer my concerns today I received an award for best presentation. For me this was the first time ever that I received an award for a presentation making me feel honored and happy. As always there were many other presenters who would have deserved this recognition as much as me, but today it was my turn.

To completely make my day Dr. Markus Müller a long time friend who I have not met in person in more than five years also received an award for best presentation. He presented his latest project, a Web GIS for forest protection and monitoring which he built (obviously) using an Open Source stack.
We both studied at the University in Bonn and discovered the beauty of Open Source around the same time (actually he was a little earlier) and also shared interests in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) where he was (now inactive) editor of the SLD SE specification. And if there is any complaint in this blog post then that there are still no Open Source tools to convert ArcSomething cartography to match with Open Source software. Markus now works for GIZ, the recently formed merger of GTZ, DED and Inwent, three German organizations working in development aid for many years.

Markus and I also met with Dr. Shahnawaz, Director (S & SE Asia) for UNIGIS International who manned the UNIGIS booth in the exhibition area of the conference. Markus worked on the UNIGIS module about standards many years ago and I am currently working on the SDI and standards module (still a working title) to reflect recent development in technology. I am really looking forward to bring new technology, standards and also more Open Source content to the UNIGIS courses. Prof Strobl from UNIGIS and the University of Salzburg (and well known for organizing AGIT is already waiting patiently (maybe too patiently) just nudging me every now and then. My temptation is to push it off longer and longer because every day brings more great new stuff which I could use...

Tomorrow I will unfortunately have to work (every now and then this is unavoidable) but will take off Friday to at least take a short tour of Jakarta.

Then I am off to my next mission at the "First High Level Forum on United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management". I was invited as OSGeo president to discuss the options in Open Source and will make a pitch for our cause with – well – hopefully open minded high level officials from all around the world. On the next day I will give a presentation at the OGC interoperability day presenting the results of ESDIN and talk about INPIRE.

Later that week on the 28th I will attend the local FOSS4G organized by the Korean Local Chapter of OSGeo who have invited me to deliver a keynote explaining OSGeo's vision and mission to a broader group of interested professionals.

Last but not least I am honored to give the keynote at the 2011 conference of the Korea Spatial Information Society where I will meet with university professors and scientists who have a growing interest in using Open Source technology and joining the community.

This week is definitely one of my busiest trips this year. So busy that I will miss Athina's birthday which is inexcusable! But because I asked her whether it would be OK and she knows that I would have been there if not she was so kind to move her party to the 30th so that I have a real chance to join in (if the connecting flights all work out right and I don't fall asleep right after arriving).

Have fun,
Arnulf