[open-geodata] Welcome to the open-geodata list!

Mon Mar 1 17:50:21 UTC 2010

Dear all,

Welcome to the open-geodata list. For now we hope this list will be
the main point of contact for the new Working Group on Open Geospatial
Data:

  http://wiki.okfn.org/wg/geodata

As it says on the WG page, the purpose of the new WG in the first
instance is to:

  1. Bring together representatives from existing groups for regular
calls, to identify areas of potential collaboration, to undertake
projects pertaining to geospatially referenced data
  2. Maintain registry of open geodata and geospatially referenced
data on CKAN and improve CKAN's support for metadata for geospatial
datasets.

In the medium to long term, I hope the Working Group can be orientated
towards simple, practical things that can be done to promote (i) open
geospatial data and (ii) the technical infrastructure to support the
growth of an decentralised ecosystem of geospatially referenced
datasets.

With these objectives in mind, does anyone have any suggestions for
others we should invite to the new Working Group?

With respect to 1. I'm particularly interested in strengthening
relationships between community driven open geodata initiatives/users
such as Open Street Map and geospatial data experts in academia and
official institutions.

With respect to 2. one immediate thing is that Jo Walsh of EDINA and
the OKF is going to be looking into funding from JISC:

  http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2009/12/1409researchdata.aspx

All the best,

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg