Hi
That counter on the web site says that it is now under 5 weeks until we kick off FOSS4G! The organising team are getting a bit frantic and trying to fit in some holiday before Maptember is upon us but the stream of info and announcements continues.
There is quite a lot in this week’s mail covering the nearly final final program, hacking, pledges, prizes, parties, silly clothing, software, keeping fit, confirmations of your bookings and a football game (phew!) So read on and enjoy.
Programme
With enormous thanks to our technical wizard, aka Barry Rowlingson, we have launched our searchable interactive all singing and dancing nearly final final programme at http://2013.foss4g.org/conf/programme/. You can search, sort by tags, star your choices and then download your selection as an iCal. Please remember that a few things may change in the programme between now and the start of FOSS4G.
Geohack @FOSS4G
“Free software is a matter of liberty, not price — you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.” — Richard Stallman
Next month, Geohack at FOSS4G brings you the best of both worlds – be part of the birth of innovative new solutions to interesting challenges (shared freely, as open source, with the rest of the world) – whilst allowing us to provide for you with free food and refreshments.
Spaces are limited. Visit geohack.org to register your interest.
If you’ve not been to a hackathon before, see the FAQ section, or email Ian Edwards via info@geohack.org with your questions.
Make a pledge and help us create a legacy from FOSS4G 2013
Making a pledge at FOSS4G is an easy and fun way to commit to doing something at FOSS4G or for the wider OSGeo community either during Maptember or in the following year. All you have to do is pop along to http://2013.foss4g.org/conf/pledge/, have a look at the pledges to get an idea, some are serious commitments and some are less so, maybe you would like to “like” a few, then submit your own pledge. After a tiny bit of moderation it will appear on the pledge page. We hope to have a way of letting you tell us when you have fulfilled your pledge and the conference team will be awarding some prizes for the pledges that most appeal to us.
Opening up the Map
Remember that the Opening up the Map gallery is open for submissions until 6th Maptember so submit your maps at http://2013.foss4g.org/programme/opening-up-the-map/
Partying
On Saturday night the team from BrewDog will be coming over to the GeoCamp to lead us through a speciality beer tasting session. We will have a mountain of pizza, some fun activities and an opportunity for you to become part of the entertainment. If you are not leaving until Sunday why not join us? You can book at http://2013.foss4g.org/additional-options/
On Thursday night at the Gala you will get to see the Festival of the Spoken Nerd (@fotsn) they are going to be amazing and are currently smashing it at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Details of all of the entertainment at FOSS4G is here http://2013.foss4g.org/programme/entertainment/
Don’t forget that it would be great if you brought along a bit of Robin Hood clothing.
OSGeo Live 7.0
A lot of dedicated people are working very hard to get the latest tested releases of all the OSGeo projects built onto a DVD for you. We will be giving a copy of this fantastic resource to every delegate at FOSS4G.
Keeping fit
If you are staying in the Orchard Hotel there is a fitness centre available to you and even if you are not there is a swimming pool nearby on the site which is free to use for all delegates (you will need a £1 coin for the lockers which will be returned to you).
There is also some very good advice about getting fit for Maptember here
Confirmation of your booking
By now you should have received an email from Claire Gilmour confirming the details of your booking. You need to check this. If you haven’t received a mail or it is incorrect you should mail Claire at claire@agi.org.uk now, please don’t leave it till later.
Football on Tuesday night
That’s Soccer for the North Americans. Jeff Johnson of OpenGeo is organising a trip to see the Nottingham Forrest vs Middlesbrough football match on Tuesday night. He says “The more the merrier”. General tickets go on sale on Sept 3rd and he is finding out about a a group sale from the club. If you are interested in joining the football fans contact Jeff at jjohnson@opengeo.org
t-shirts
Thanks to everyone for helping us work out the sizing ratios, the shirt order is about to go off so I will be taking down the survey but don’t worry everyone will get a FOSS4G t-shirt regardless of whether you filled in the survey or not.
We are also printing a limited edition Maptember t-shirt, these will be available for sale during FOSS4G with the profits from the sale of these t-shirts being donated to Map Action
That’s about it for this week except to remind you that we still need a few more volunteers, so please step up and offer your skill and time at http://2013.foss4g.org/volunteering-at-foss4g/
There may be a slight interruption to the flow of delegate news over the next couple of weeks but rest assured that we will be back before the conference with at least a couple of more mailings.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Nottingham in Maptember for the #BestFOSS4Gever
If you are a twitterer you can follow us at @FOSS4G and it would be great if you decided to temporarily change your avatar to use one of these FOSS4G badges
Cheers
–
Steven
