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\title{Report on OSGeo Promotions at GIS-IDEAS 2006}
\subtitle{8-11 November,Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam}
\author{by Ho Dinh Duan and Venkatesh Raghavan}

\maketitle


The \textbf{G}eo\textbf{I}nformatics for
\textbf{S}patial-\textbf{I}nfrastructure \textbf{D}evelopment in
\textbf{E}arth \& \textbf{A}llied \textbf{S}ciences (GIS-IDEAS) 2006
Symposium was held in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam, 9-11 November
2006 (\url{http://wgrass.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/gisideas06/}). The symposium was
organised by Japan-Vietnam Geoinformatics Consortium (JVGC) and
Institute for Environment and Resources  (IER-HCMC) with support from
several other institutions and GIS Development as the Media Partner.
GIS-IDEAS 2006 Symposium was the third international GIS-IDEAS
Symposium to be held in Vietnam since 2002. The main theme of the
GIS-IDEAS 2006 was \textbf{Geoinformatics for
Regional Sustainable Development}. The GIS-IDEAS
2006 Symposium provided a unique opportunity for sharing of knowledge
and valuable experiences amongst the academia, researchers, industry
and students. The GIS-IDEAS 2006 attracted 150 participants belonging
to organisations spread over 9 countries Australia (1), (Belgium (2),
France (1) Germany (5), India (1), Japan (24), Russia (1), Thailand
(2), Vietnam(110)).


As a part of activities to increase awareness about Open Source Software
for Geoinformatics and promote OSGeo in Vietnam, a pre-conference
workshop entitled Open Source for
Geoinformatics was organised at the Vietnamese
Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) on 8th
November, 2006. The details of the workshop 
\textbf{Open Source Geoinformatics Workshop} at the 
Institute of Information Technology HCMC are as below:


Coordinators:
Dr. Tran Van Lang and Dr. Ho Dinh Duan, VAST-HCM by theme
Japan-Vietnam Geoinformatics Consortium, the  Institute of Information
 Technology, the  Institute of Physics, VAST HCMC and supported  
by  Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). 47 participants 
from Vietnam and 7 participants from Japan attended this workshop.


The pre-conference workshop on Open Source Software for Geoinformatics
attracted enthusiastic response with more than 50 participants
attending. The workshop provided an overview of GIS applications (Prof.
Mamoru Shibayama, Joint Secretary JVGC) and Open Source software tools
(Prof. Venkatesh Raghavan, Director, OSGeo). The afternoon session
included actual installation of Open Source software tools and
demonstrations including Vietnamese language localisation (Dr. Go
YONEZAWA, Kyoto University and Mr. Ninsawat SARAWUT, Osaka City
University) Participants were presented with the Osaka City University
(OCU) FOSS4G toolkit CD including GIS/RS and Web-GIS software for
self-learning.


The post-workshop meeting for establishing the Vietnam after the
workshop that was attended by more than 40 participants and members
decided to establish the Vietnam OSGeo Chapter. Mr. Dao Van TUYET,
Institute of Information Technology, VAST-HCMC was nominated as the
Vietnam OSGeo Chapter representative and Dr. Ho Dinh Duan, Institute of
Physics, VAST-HCMC was nominated as one of the coordinators of the
Vietnam OSGeo Chapter. The proposal for establishment of OSGeo Vietnam
Chapter is being prepared by the chapter representative and will be
finalised in January, 2007. The highlight of the workshop along with
the news about the proposed Vietnam OSGeo Chapter was broadcast on Ho
Chin Minh television news on 8th November, 2006. This
was perhaps the first official television news program in the world
wherein OSGeo was specifically mentioned several times
(\url{http://wgrass.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/gisideas06/foss4g_ws_on_hcmctv.swf}).


The OSGeo booth was operated on all the three days (9-11 November,
2006). The poster session was preceded by lightning-talk on proposed
activities of OSGeo Vietnam by Mr. Do Long Van. Details about
activities of OSGeo were also presented in the Technical Session by
Prof. Venkatesh Raghavan
(\url{http://wgrass.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/gisideas06/viewabstract.php?id=166}).
The OSGeo Booth at GIS-IDEAS 2006 included attracted attention of
almost all the symposium participants. Brochure and posters explaining
the activities of OSGeo and various OSGeo projects were made available
at the booth. 



\address{Dr. Ho Dinh Duan\\
Institute of Physics\\
VAST -- HCMC, Vietnam
}

\address{Prof. Venkatesh RAGHAVAN\\
Graduate School of Creative Cities\\
Osaka City University, Japan
}

