It is our great pleasure to share the excellent development of the
American Geographical Society's endorsement of the “Geo for All
Initiative”, developed by the International Cartographic Association
(ICA) and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). “Geo for All”
aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open
Source Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centers across the world
for supporting development of open-source geospatial software
technologies, training, and expertise.
Established in 1851, the American Geographical Society
http://americangeo.org is the oldest professional geographical
organization in the United States. It is recognized world-wide as a
pioneer in geographical research and education in geography for over
163 years. The mission of AGS is to advance geographic knowledge and
the recognition of its importance in the contemporary world. AGS
promotes the use of geography in business, government, science, and
education with a goal to enhance the nation’s geographic literacy so
as to engender sound public policy, national security, and human
well-being worldwide. AGS is the only organization focused on bringing
together academics, business people, those who influence public policy
(including leaders in local, state and federal government,
not-for-profit organizations and the media), and the general public
for the express purpose of furthering the understanding of the role of
geography in our lives. AGS provides leadership to frame the national
discussion of the growing importance of geography and geo-spatial
tools. The Society maintains its headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, New
York.
More details at
http://americangeo.org/7142015-american-geographical-society-announces-endorsement-of-the-geo-for-all-initiative/
This endorsement from the American Geographical Society comes at an
important phase in our development. We crossed our 100th lab milestone
last week with UCL as our 101st Open Source Geospatial Lab bringing
together staff and students from the Department of Civil,
Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, the Centre for Advanced
Spatial Analysis, the Department of Archaeology and the Department of
Geography at UCL . Details at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/gis/OSGeo
Right now at Como in Italy at FOSS4G-Europe
http://europe.foss4g.org/2015/ , our colleagues are meeting to discuss
our future expansion plans in particular for discussing GeoForAll
expansion to thousands of schools globally and expand our teacher
training initiatives with collaboration from governments , industry
and universities globally.
This endorsement from the American Geographical Society is a great
boost to all our "Geo for All" colleagues worldwide. "Geo for All"
started from nothing and it is 100 percent the efforts of all our
colleagues from OSGeo, ICA and ISPRS who joined together on a common
education mission that made this all possible. I am grateful to each
and every colleague for their hardwork and dedication for our mission
for building a better world and better future for all our future
generations.
This is just the start and we look forward to working with all for
making education and opportunities accessible to all.
Best wishes,
Suchith Anand
http://www.geoforall.org