FOSS4GNA is happening May 14-16 2018 in St Louis Missouri. Speaking of – I’ve only accidentally driven in to Missouri once so this should be fun.
They also put out the call for Papers and I won’t bore you with a rehash of what papers they are looking for – I will only bore you with the dates:
- October 13, 2017: Submissions open
- January 15, 2018: Workshop submission deadline
- January 16 – 22, 2018: Community review for workshops
- January 26, 2018: Workshops announced
- February 8, 2018: Talk submission deadline
- February 9 – 20, 2018: Community review for talks
- February 28, 2018: Talks announced
Why the dates? Because that’s the one thing I’ll forget but I’ll see this post until I make about 6 more and it will force me to submit something.
If you haven’t been to one of these things I’ll make my case here – you need to go.
- It’s not a sales conference. You get a chance to talk to people – not talked at by people. demos tend to go horribly wrong which is awesome. Developers are also users so they have to eat what they make.
- You get a chance to talk to the developers and users about anything. It’s not one ecosystem of products. It’s everything from LIDAR to Desktop GIS to Server side things.
- Even if you are an ESRI only shop – there is something here for you. I will even hazard a bet you’ll walk away going “I think we could use <insert idea here>……” and you might change your life.
- You aren’t a customer – your part of a community.
- It’s a nice change of pace. Interactions are pleasant. People are fun. A good time is had by all.
So show up. Toss this into your budget and go – you’ll learn something I swear.
