“Toward Diversity! FOSS4G Bigbang in Seoul!!”
Seoul (South Korea) selected to host the 2015 international conference
for "Free & Open Source Software for Geospatial" (FOSS4G).
OSGeo Korean Chapter www.osgeo.kr
Contact: Sanghee Shin shshin@gaia3d.com
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The OSGeo Korean Chapter is pleased to announce that we have been
selected to host the 2015 FOSS4G international conference. The
conference will be hosted in Seoul in September 2015, and is expected
to attract the leading developers, users and business people in the
open source geospatial community from Asia and all over the world.
Holding the FOSS4G conference, the biggest open source GIS event in the
world, for the first time in the Asia will bring countless benefits to
the region and provide geospatial communities, local businesses, and
wider society with a great opportunity to learn about the potential of
open source geospatial technologies.
Sanghee Shin, CEO at Gaia3D and Representative of OSGeo Korean Chapter
explained his motivations for leading Seoul¹s bid to make Seoul the
starting point of a FOSS4G big bang extending the FOSS4G throughout the
region via this conference. He said, ³When I tried to introduce Open
Source GIS to South Korea in 2008, no one was willing to listen to my
opinions. However five years later, the Korean government has recently
launched a bid for an Open Source GIS R&D project with a budget of USD
9.5m. This means that that Open Source GIS is set to become a key part
of the GIS landscape in South Korea. I¹m absolutely sure that FOSS4G
2015 will ignite and strengthen this trend.²
The OSGeo Korean chapter has organised a FOSS4G Korea event each year
since 2011 with attendance growing year on year. FOSS4G Korea events
run alongside Smart Geo Expo, the biggest geospatial event in South
Korea attracting many people from Government, universities, institutes
and industry; these delegates also had the opportunity to attend the
FOSS4G Korea conference.
In support of a successful FOSS4G 2015 conference, KSIS (Korea Spatial
Information Society), the academic society with members of geospatial
professional, researchers, students, and policy makers regarding
geospatial field, will closely cooperate with OSGeo Korean Chapter.
Additionally, KAOS-G (Koeran Alliance OpenSource for Geospatial), an
alliance of open source GIS companies in South Korea has committed to
actively helping OSGeo and KSIS deliver the FOSS4G 2015 event.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) for FOSS4G 2015 looks forward to
the FOSS4G Seoul 2015 conference increasing awareness and usage of Open
Source GIS in South Korea, throughout Asia and of course to the rest of
the world where it is already being used.
About OSGeo
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation has been created to support and
build the highest-quality open source geospatial software. The
foundation's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development
of community-led projects, data development and education.
About OSGeo Korean Chapter
The OSGeo Korean Chapter applies OSGeo principles locally. In
particular, we focus on promotion and outreach in Korea.
About FOSS4G
FOSS4G is the annual international conference on Open Source geospatial
software. From its beginning the FOSS4G conference has been the
gathering of the spatial tribes and has a reputation of being a melting
pot for great ideas in the spatial industry and a catalyst for many
successful geospatial products, standards and protocols. In 2014 the
conference will be hosted in Portland, USA, the 2013 conference was
held in Nottingham, United Kingdom and was a huge success. FOSS4G Seoul
2015 will be the eleventh "formal" gathering of the Open Source
geospatial community. 2015 will be a key year for South Korea and Asia,
and FOSS4G will be the best place to see the Free and Open Source
(FOSS) way to make an SDI work.