As 2016 is nearly over, i wish to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your support and contributions which helped to build up the “GeoFor All” initiative. Our thanks to an incredible 2016. 2016 has been an important year for us as it exactly 10 years ago we started putting initial ideas for Open Geospatial Science [1]. We went through lot of hardships and struggles (some laughed at us initially!) but it has been an incredibly amazing journey over the last decade.
We had to take this one step at a time to make this possible . We started by building the community (started workshops, conferences), then we started establishing dedicated open source research labs in universities so we have universities globally invested to the idea, then we started dedicated journals etc for expanding the discipline and now we are working on implementing our vision 2030 [2].
Geospatial Science = Open Geospatial Science
We were very clear from the start that we will be supporting Open Principles (open standards, open data, open educational resources, open software, open access to scientific publications) for our mission to ensure sustainability and bring together academics, universities, industry, SMEs, NGOs together on this shared vision.
Geo for All is a shared idea whose time has come. An idea whose time has come is the most powerful force in the universe, and the time for “Access to quality education opportunities for everyone” has arrived.
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation is now the world’s largest Geospatial ecosystem .Open innovation is key in driving Digital Economy opportunities and we are determined to make sure that everyone benefits. We look forward your collaborations on our mission to make geospatial education and opportunities accessible to all.
It has been amazing to see our humble initiative grow rapidly and this has been due to the dedication of all of you and we would like to thank you for your continued contribution. We have now put strong foundations for our “GeoForAll” initiative from Australia to Uruguay and we are looking forward to working with you all in 2017 to rapidly build upon this.
On behalf of everyone at “GeoForAll” , we wish you and your families very happy holidays and Happy New Year 2017.
May the FOSS be with everyone…
Best wishes,
Suchith Anand
[1] https://opensourcegeospatial.icaci.org/2016/04/open-geospatial-science-2/