The Where 2.0 conference is all about the geospatial realm - tools for finding things, developer interfaces, slick new technologies and, perhaps most important of all, networking with those who are making it all happen.
One group that is helping advance mapping and geospatial tools is the Open Source Geospatial Foundation - OSGeo.org. If you are going to be at Where 2.0, I encourage you to check them out. This non-profit organisation is breaking new ground in both the geospatial domain and the open source world.
A First For Geospatial
The goal of the foundation is to support the development and up-take of geospatial technology; in particular, open source geospatial technology. This is nothing new for open source (where several non-profit groups have been established) but for the geospatial industry it is a first. Geospatial technologies have been dominated by a handful of commercial products, but that continues to change as open source projects prove their maturity in the non-profit, government and business worlds. The foundation acts as a catalyst for some of these great alternatives, where members are commited to collaborate on making these the best tools available.
A First For Open Source
The foundation is also breaking new ground in the open source domain. Many projects have existed over the past 10 years. They cover the range of applications (web mapping toolkits, data access API's, spatial databases, desktop GIS, etc.) but with limited, informal, commitments to collaborate.
All that changed in February 2006 when 25 representatives (plus dozens more in IRC) from more than 10 different open source projects met face-to-face and committed to working together. Thus, with some generous help from Autodesk, the foundation was formed.
Why is this ground-breaking for open source in general? Because most of the projects represented are already mature and stable. This wasn't an effort to breathe life into some dying corporate product or to come up with some new tools to beat others. Instead, it was a way of finding common ground between successful products with a bright future and seeking ways to collaborate to make that future even brighter. The magnitude of collaboration is ground-breaking.
At Where 2.0, the OSGeo group will be leading presentations, a birds-of-a-feather meeting, a developers roundtable and will have a booth. Several members will be in attendance. If you need tools, educational material, geospatial data or a business case for using geospatial technologies, then check out the foundation. Better yet, sign up and get on board with the many other volunteers who are helping make the foundation a success.
Talk with members of the foundation through the discussion mailing list (discuss@mail.osgeo.org) and the #osgeo IRC channel on freenode.net. Members will also be at several other conferences this year.
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