[Gfoss] Articolo per SlashGeo sul meeting?

[Cristiano Giovando]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Marco Cerruti <cerruti.marco at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cristiano, Piergiorgio ed io siamo editor su slashgeo per conto di FGI.
>
>  Se Cristiano, che dei tre è quello che è stato al meeting, prepara una
>  news la mettiamo al volo.

Una groupie gfossina ha deciso di scrivere un paio di righe su quello
che abbiam vissuto a Perugia nel bel weekend GFOSS e OSM. Non e'
tecnicissimo, ma una prima base per aggiungere poi i dettagli (tipo
nomi consiglieri, eventi giovedi', questione GPS strade strette, etc).
Modificate a dovere, poi passate a Marco che mette su Slashgeo.


C


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lauren Rizzo <>
Date: Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 11:40 PM
Subject: Perugia mapping conference article
To: Cristiano Giovando <>

IX Meeting degli Utenti Italiani di GRASS – GFOSS

The Ninth Meeting of Italian Users of GRASS (Geographic Resources
Analysis Support System) and GFOSS (Geospatial Free and Open Source
Software)

21-22 Feb 2008, Perugia, Italy

           The Italians are setting an excellent example with their
impressive interest in, and dedication to, open source software for
geospatial science.  The annual Meeting of Italian Users of GRASS and
GFOSS is a time for communication and collaboration among geospatial
open source enthusiasts in Italy.  These approximately 75 mapping
experts come together to present research, network and build
relationships, share new information about open source geospatial
software, and make adjustments to their very organized administration.

           This year, the ninth meeting was held during a sunny
weekend in the ancient city of Perugia, in the region of Umbria.  On
Friday, February 21, there were research presentations, a poster
display, and an administrative meeting at the University of Perugia's
Department of Engineering.  The presentation topics were diverse and
generated much interest from the attendees.  During the administrative
meeting, issues and concerns were discussed, next year's meeting was
planned to be in Sardinia, and Paolo Cavallini was voted the official
president for a new 2-year term.

On Saturday, February 22, there was a "mapping party" for
OpenStreetMap.org, which involved the use of GPS to log walking tracks
around the city's historic center.  Approximately 20 people, including
family members and friends, gathered together on Saturday morning in
Piazza IV Novembre – Perugia's most famous piazza – to team up, plan
routes, and program GPS devices.  The groups then dispersed and walked
all around different parts of the city center to collect GPS tracks.
These GPS tracks are meant to be converted into street data that will
be free and available on OpenStreetMap.org.  The idea of having
"mapping parties" is to create free and open source data covering
everywhere in the world.  On OpenStreetMap.org, you can see the
collaborative efforts of mapping participants by viewing an
interactive world map of newly mapped streets, and with a piece of
open source software, you can download street data.  This allows
cartographers and GIS users to create new maps without having to rely
on expensive and copyrighted data.

           Everyone enjoyed their strolls around beautiful Perugia
and much data was collected.  The only problem was that there was much
interference with the GPS signal due to Perugia's many narrow streets
surrounded by tall buildings.  Later in the afternoon, the mapping
participants met at an office outside the city center to download the
data and format it for use on OpenStreetMap.org.

           Overall, the "mappers" seemed very happy to get together
and share their information and enthusiasm for geospatial open source
technology.  The annual meeting is special opportunity for these
technologically apt, democratic-minded mapping experts to relate to
one another and make important advances in geospatial science.