13 November 2020, Apia, Samoa – The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) will host the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) State of the Map (SotM) Oceania conference at the Pacific Climate Change Centre (PCCC) on SPREP compound in Apia on Friday 20th November 2020.
The conference is the regional chapter of a larger global community which merges the FOSS4G, an annual recurring global event hosted by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation with a mission to foster and promote the adoption of open sourced geospatial technology, and the SotM, the conference of the OpenStreetMap Foundation which supports the development of a free and open editable world map.
The conference was originally planned to be an in-person international event hosted in Suva, Fiji. Due to travel restrictions, it has been changed to a hybrid event where people can attend a local conference hub and also tune in to the regional livestream that will be broadcasted. SPREP, through the Inform project, has partnered with SkyEye to host the Samoa hub.
The conference aims to raise awareness on the importance and power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), open data, open source software, spatial data sharing, and data standards. In addition, the conference will provide an opportunity to revive the GIS user group in Samoa by bringing together all the GIS stakeholders and practitioners to share their use cases and experiences.
The SPREP regional Inform project will also share GIS applications and use cases from the regional perspective and give an introduction on the Samoa Environment Portal, showcasing freely available OpenStreetMap data for Samoa and the rest of the Pacific.
A broadcast of keynote presentations from across the region will also be livestreamed during the conference, connecting the local hub to the regional GIS community. To date, approximately 90 participants have registered for the conference.
The SPREP Inform project is a four-year Global Environment Facility-funded project, implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme and executed by SPREP in 14 Pacific island countries, including Samoa.
For more information on the FOSS4G SotM 2020 Oceania Conference, please contact Mr Tavita Su’a, Environmental Information Systems Developer and Analyst, Inform Project, at [email protected] or visit https://2020.foss4g-oceania.org/hubs/apia/