 \title{Brief Notes}
 \subtitle{A collection of recent News and Announcements}
 \author{Compiled by Jason Fournier}

\maketitle 

\section{OSGeo's 1st Anniversary}
 
February 4th, 2007 was the first anniversary of OSGeo. At that time 25 people met face-to-face, and many more via phone and IRC, to discuss the possibility of starting an umbrella organisation. These participants represented over 13 different open source projects. The foundational purpose of the organisation was to help promote and continue to develop open source tools in the geospatial sphere. Since that time, much has happened and momentum around OSGeo continues to develop. 
 
For an overview of many of the highlights from the first year please visit Tyler's blog.\footnote{Tyler's anniversary blog article: \url{http://www.osgeo.org/tyler/osgeo_1st_anniversary}}

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\section{OSGeo Accepted for Google Summer of Code 2007}

OSGeo is pleased to announce that Google has accepted OSGeo as a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code 2007 program.  This program provides funding for students to work on open source projects under the support of experienced mentors.   The projects participating through
OSGeo are GDAL, GeoServer, GeoTools, GRASS, MapGuide, PostGIS, uDig, OpenJUMP and MapServer.
Students interested in participating can find more information on OSGeo project ideas on the OSGeo wiki\footnote{Summer of code project ideas:  \url{http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/2007_SoC_Merged_Ideas}} and more information about the program as a whole at on Google's SOC site \footnote{SOC web site: \url{http://code.google.com/soc/}}

Source: OSGeo-Announce list and OSGeo website\footnote{SOC online announcement: \url{http://osgeo.org/news/soc2007}}

%author: Frank Warmerdam \email{warmerdam AT pobox.com}

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\section{New Sponsors}

In addition to continuing Sustaining Sponsor Autodesk, new Associate Sponsors include Lizardtech, 1Spatial and First Base Solutions:
\begin{itemize}
	\item Autodesk - \url{http://www.autodesk.com}
	\item Lizardtech - \url{http://lizardtech.com}
	\item 1Spatial - \url{http://www.1spatial.com}
	\item First Base Solutions - \\\url{http://www.firstbasesolutions.com}
\end{itemize}
\subsection{GDAL Sponsors}
There are also several sponsors who have provided support for GDAL/OGR development through OSGeo's sponsorship programme.

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\section{PROJECT NEWS}
This section includes brief updates about various projects.  For more specific details see the Developer Announcements section on page~\pageref{ch:developer_announcements}.

\subsection{MapGuide}

March 2007 - MapGuide graduated from OSGeo Incubation, showing an acceptable level of participation, freedom from code encumbrances, and use of standard open source development methodologies.  MapGuide Open Source is currently at version 1.1.0. 

% commenting out since the exacts contents of the url are in the project updates section later on
%For more information please visit the MapGuide OSGeo homepage at \url{mapguide.osgeo.org/}

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\subsection{MapServer}

The MapServer development team plans to release version 5.0 by the end of summer 2007. The 5.0 Release Plan outlines a number of planned updates, including:

\begin{itemize}
	 \item Support for AGG, an up and coming image renderer as an alternative to GD
	\item Upgrade of WMS support to version 1.3.0
	\item Improved OGC SOS Server support
	\item New OGC OWS Common support version 1.0.0
	\item Dynamic charting capability
	\item Label prioritization
	\item MapScript memory management fixes
	\item Redesign of the LOG/DEBUG output mechanism 
\end{itemize}

\noindent The MapServer Release Plan\footnote{MapServer Release Plan: \url{http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/development/release_plans/mapserver_5_0}} for version 5.0 is online.

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\subsection{Mapbender}

Mapbender has recently announced a series of new features as well as future roadmap for new developments, including:

\begin{itemize}
 \item Integration of OpenLayers as an optional Mapbender module is scheduled for 2007
\item WFS-T / Digitizing enhancement: handling of complex geometries
\item Wider use of AJAX /JSON and OO technology: improvement of module interfaces to do justice to wider development audience
\item Evaluation of packing algorithms: due to traffic minimization, there are few source code comments. JSDoc and PHPDoc will be used to comment in the future. The traffic issue will be resolved by extracting the comments prior to deployment and by packing JS-code.
\end{itemize}

% commenting out since the exacts contents of the url are in the project updates section later on
%\noindent For more quarterly information see the Mapbender project update \footnote{Mapbender project update: \url{wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Mapbender_Project_Update_-_2007_Q1}}

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\subsection{GDAL/OGR}

GDAL/OGR has announced it's 1.4.1 release this past quarter.  It has launched a Sponsorship program through OSGeo.  The first sponsors are Analytical Graphics, Applied Coherent Technology, SRC, Safe Software, Cadcorp, Waypoint, MicroImages and i-Cubed. 

% commenting out since the exacts contents of the url are in the project updates section later on
%For more information on the current release please visit the GDAL homepage at: \\\url{trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/Release/1.4.1-News}

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\subsection{GeoNetwork}

Update on developments in the first Quarter of 2007. Work has been concentrated on a couple of aspects of the project lately. They are:

\begin{itemize}
	\item Development of GeoNetwork opensource version 2.1 resulting in beta releases
	\item Upgrading of the Community website
	\item Work related to the OSGEO incubation process 
\end{itemize}

% commenting out since the exacts contents of the url are in the project updates section later on
%\noindent For more quarterly information on GeoNetwork please visit: \\\url{trac.osgeo.org/geonetwork/wiki/1q2007}
 
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\subsection{GRASS GIS}

Project Update 2007 - Q1:

\begin{itemize}
 \item Italian GRASS and GFOSS Users Meeting - GRASS and GFOSS Users Meeting, Palermo (Italy), 14-16 Feb 2007
\item 12 Feb 2007: New GRASS bug and wish tracker - Gforge based
\item 10 Feb 2007: GRASS GIS 6.2.1 winGRASS/Cygwin binaries available 
\end{itemize}

% commenting out since the exacts contents of the url are in the project updates section later on
%\noindent For more quarterly information GRASS please visit: \\\url{grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/GRASS_Project_Update_2007Q1}

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\subsection{Quantum GIS}

The QGIS project officially enter OSGeo incubation in March 2007. This starts the incubation process to bring QGIS into full OSGeo membership. OSGeo is currently incubating a number of projects and QGIS joins GRASS and OSSIM in the Desktop Applications category.
 
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%  For future - would be great to include non-software project updates too
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\section{UPCOMING EVENTS}
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% Various Open Source-related events
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% TYLER: Not sure if you would like to see events listed here that are not intrinsically Open Source?
% Jay: Might as well :)  I've added a few now if we are going to have a presence at them one way or 
%  another.  Eventually I'd like to be able to have the visibility committee feed us this list
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These are only a few of the upcoming events that OSGeo and its members will be presence at over the next few months.

\subsection{III MapServer Users National Meeting, Brasilia}
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 \textbf{May 9-11, 2007}
This is the MapServer and open source geospatial conference held in Brasilia, Brazil. See \url{http://www7.univali.br/elis2/enum07/} for English and for Portuguese information.

\subsection{Where 2.0, San Jose}
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\textbf{May 29-30, 2007}
The O'Reilly Where 2.0 conference held in San Jose, California, USA.  More information: \url{http://conferences.oreillynet.com/where2007/}.

\subsection{OSCON 2007, Portland }
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\textbf{July 23-27, 2007}
The O'Reilly Open Source Convention held in Portland, Oregon, USA.   More information: \url{http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2007/}.

\subsection{Map Asia 2007, Kuala Lumpur}
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\textbf{August 14-16, 2007}
The 6th Annual International Conference and Exhibition on Geographical Information Technology and Applications.  The conference theme is \emph{Maponomics --- Economic Growth Thorough Geo-Information Technology}.  Map Asia leverages an international initiative aimed to provide an apt platform for the convergence, sharing and use of Geospatial technologies. Founded in the year 2002, Map Asia is the largest Annual Asian Conference and Exhibition in the field of GIS, GPS, Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing.  Held in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia.  More information: \url{http://www.mapasia.org}.

\subsection{FOSS4G 2007, Victoria}
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\textbf{September 24-27, 2007}
The annual Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference brings together the people who create, use, and support open spatial software. No other event brings together members of the open source development, open data creation, and open standards promotion communities like FOSS4G. The event will be held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  For more information please visit the FOSS4G 2007 homepage: \url{http://www.foss4g2007.org/}.

\subsection{INTERGEO, Leipzig}
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\textbf{September 25-27, 2007}
Conference and trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management held in Leipzig, Germany.    They expect over 17,000 visitors from more than 80 countries.  More information at: \url{http://www.intergeo.de}.

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\section{BOARD}
Highlights from recent OSGeo Board of Directors meetings:
\begin{itemize}
	\item Confirmed Howard Butler as new SAC chair
	\item Approved formation of New Mexico USA local chapter
	\item Approved motion for MapGuide OS to graduate from Incubation
	\item Approved motion for QGIS and FDO to enter Incubation	
	\item Support OSGeo participation in the Google Summer of Code
	\item Appointed Tyler as OSGeo secretary to replace Rich, and as Chief Returning Officer for to coordinate/monitor elections
	\item Approved Board and Membership Election Procedures
	\item Tasked CRO to start with Charter Membership election process
	\item Financial review
\end{itemize}
