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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>______________________________________________________________</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Gary L. Watry</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
GIS Coordinator<br>
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies<br>
FSU / COAPS<br>
</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>Johnson</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Building</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, RM 215<br>
</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>2035 East Paul Dirac Drive</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>Tallahassee</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, </span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Florida</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>32306-2840</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>E-Mail: <a href="mailto:watry@coaps.fsu.edu">watry@coaps.fsu.edu</a></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> Markus Neteler
[mailto:neteler@itc.it] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'>Monday, March 06, 2006</span></font><font size=2
color=black face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'> </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>1:25 PM</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> OSGeo-announce; OSGeo-discuss<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [OSGeo-Announce] Open
Source Geospatial Foundation Created to Strengthen Collaborative Development of
Open Geospatial Technologies</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Press release</span></font></b></p>
<h2><b><font size=5 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
18.0pt'>Open Source Geospatial Foundation Created to Strengthen Collaborative
Development of Open Geospatial Technologies</span></font></b></h2>
<p><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>OSGEO to provide an umbrella for community-led GIS and
mapping projects</span></font></b></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>March
06, 2006</span></font> - The open source geospatial community today announced
the formation of the <a href="http://www.osgeo.org">Open Source Geospatial
Foundation</a>, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and
promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data.
The foundation was formed in February to provide financial, organizational and
legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It will also
serve as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute
code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their
contributions will be maintained for public benefit.</p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>On
February 4th, OSGEO held its first meeting in </span></font>Chicago with 25
participants representing 18 groups and over 20 different open source
geospatial projects, and 39 other parties participating via Internet Relay
Chat. At this meeting, the participants took important steps in forming and
organizing a foundation to develop and support open source geospatial
technologies, including defining the foundation's name, structure and vision.
The consensus reached at the Chicago meeting paves the way to establish a
productive, inclusive foundation.</p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
</span></font>Chicago meeting also resulted in the appointment of an initial
board of directors that will be responsible for the drafting and execution of
the foundation's charter and bylaws. The initial five directors come from North
America and Europe and represent various open source projects and
technologies. The initial five directors of OSGEO are:</p>
<ul type=disc>
<li class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Arnulf Christl - <a
href="http://www.mapbender.org">Mapbender</a>, CCGIS, </span></font>Germany;</li>
<li class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Chris Holmes - <a href="http://www.geoserver.org/">GeoServer</a>/<a
href="http://www.geotools.org/">GeoTools</a>, The Open Planning </span></font>Project,
U.S.;</li>
<li class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Gary Lang - <a href="http://mapguide.osgeo.org/">MapGuide</a>,
</span></font>Autodesk, U.S.;</li>
<li class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Markus Neteler - <a href="http://grass.itc.it/">GRASS</a>,
Istituto </span></font>Trentino Di Cultura, Italy;</li>
<li class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Frank Warmerdam - <a href="http://www.gdal.org/">GDAL/OGR</a>,
</span></font>Canada.</li>
</ul>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
foundation expects to appoint four additional directors within the next several
weeks to serve as the full interim board until the next annual meeting of the
foundation membership at <a href="http://www.foss4g2006.org/">FOSS4G</a> this
fall.</span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>OSGEO
draws governance inspiration from several aspects of the <a
href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache Foundation</a>, including a membership
composed of individuals drawn from foundation projects who are selected for
membership status based on their active contribution to foundation projects and
governance. The initial membership consists of the five initial board members
plus 16 other participants who attended the </span></font>Chicago
organizational meeting. The foundation added recently further 24 members from
the broader open source geospatial community through a public nomination and
election process to reach 45 voting members.</p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Initial
OSGEO projects are <a href="http://www.geotools.org/">GeoTools</a>, <a
href="http://www.mapbender.org">Mapbender</a>, <a
href="http://mapbuilder.sourceforge.net/">MapBuilder</a>, <a
href="http://mapguide.osgeo.org/">MapGuide</a>, <a
href="http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/">MapServer</a>, <a
href="http://www.gdal.org/">GDAL/OGR</a>, <a href="http://grass.itc.it/">GRASS</a>,
and <a href="http://www.ossim.org/">OSSIM</a>.</span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
foundation will not require that OSGEO software projects to be licensed under
any one particular open source license, but will require that all OSGEO
software be released under an open source license approved by the <a
href="http://www.opensource.org">Open Source Initiative (OSI)</a>. The long
term goal is to encourage licenses that allow the different foundation projects
to work better together and permit for code exchange among them. The foundation
will implement contribution and intellectual property policies designed to
avoid the inclusion of proprietary or patented code in OSGEO projects.
Foundation projects are focused on interoperability - both with one another at
the library level, and with other proprietary and open source projects through
the use of open standards. </span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
foundation will also be pursuing goals beyond software development, such as
promoting more open access to government produced spatial data, which is a
major problem outside of </span></font>North America. </p>
<p><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>About the Open Source Geospatial Foundation</span></font></b></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
<a href="http://www.osgeo.org">Open Source Geospatial Foundation</a> (OSGEO), is
a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the
collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The
foundation was formed to provide financial, organizational and legal support to
the broader open source geospatial community. It will also serve as an
independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code,
funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions
will be maintained for public benefit.</span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For
more information, write to <a href="mailto:info@osgeo.org">info@osgeo.org</a>
and see <a href="http://www.osgeo.org/">http://www.osgeo.org/</a></span></font></p>
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