Hello everyone,
My name is Vishmayraj Zala and I am a Semester 4 B.E. Computer Engineering student at Gujarat Technological University in Ahmedabad, India.
I am glad to share that my GSoC 2026 proposal for istSOS Metadata Connector for Data Spaces and STAC has been accepted under OSGeo / istSOS. My project involves building a connector that harvests metadata from istSOS4 via the OGC SensorThings API and transforms it into STAC and DCAT-AP 3.0 formats, making sensor observation datasets discoverable across data spaces and spatial data infrastructures.
Community bonding period so far:
- Set up my OSGeo Profile
- Reviewed the GSoC student guide and OSGeo contributor instructions
- Explored the istSOS4 codebase and the 2024
istSOS4-STACproject to understand the architectural precedents that my connector builds on - Read through the team’s EGU General Assembly 2026 presentations (EGU26-9152 and EGU26-11300), which gave me much better context on how FAIR-by-design and STA-based infrastructure connect to real monitoring deployments, and where a metadata connector fits in that picture
- Drafted early STA-to-STAC and STA-to-DCAT-AP mapping references based on that research
- Contributed to istSOS4 via several open PRs, fixing tests and utility functions
An unresolved blocker I need help with:
I want to be transparent about something that has been holding me back, since the community bonding period is almost over.
On May 1 (the day after selection results), I emailed all three mentors (Claudio, Massimiliano, and Daniele), introducing myself and asking two things: which communication channel they prefer, and whether I should set up the project repo now or wait. I haven’t received any response.
On May 10, I followed up again, specifically flagging that the other istSOS contributors (Bhudev and Kinshuk) already had their repos and wikis live on the accepted students page, while mine was the only one still missing. I pointed to the 2024 pattern (istSOS/istSOS4-STAC) as the likely right structure and asked for the repo to be created. Still no response.
Today is May 14, two weeks into the bonding period, and I still do not have a project repo or a communication channel. I have been making progress on the work I can do independently, but I cannot complete the OSGeo wiki entry, finalize the project scaffold, or push any connector code without the repo being in place.
I am not raising this as a complaint, the mentors may simply have been occupied with EGU and other commitments. But since discourse seems to be where the community is actually active, I am hoping someone can help unblock this, either by pointing me to the right person or by one of the mentors seeing this and creating the repo.
I am ready to move the moment it is set up.
Looking forward to collaborating with everyone this summer!
Best regards,
Vishmayraj Zala
GitHub: Vishmayraj