We met in the Art and Design Building, room 308, on the well-decorated Landscape Architecture floor. We had a great mix of people, and enthusiasm is high. Department representation:
- three students from Geography & Anthropology (including myself)
- two faculty member from Geography & Anthropology
- three students from Landscape Architecture
- three students from Precision Agriculture
- one faculty member from English
As you may guess, people have a range of skills and experience.
After hearing everyone’s specific interest in open source GIS software, and in showing up to the meeting, there were some common themes:
- general curiosity about new GIS technologies
- interest in connecting less-experienced individuals with GIS and digital applications
- desire to recommend FOSS4G to clients with small budgets/low resources
- recognition of the need to keep teaching teaching material relevant
- excitement in hearing about how GIS is used in different departments around campus
I gave a short presentation about what I think the group can accomplish, and how I imagine it can proceed. Here are the slides.
Some important follow-up notes:
Growing this group should be very easy. Frankly it only took chatting with people in class and at happy hour last semester to get this many people interested so far. Actual advertisement around campus will do a lot, especially appealing to undergrads and grads in the these specific departments:
- Environmental Engineering
- Coast & Environment
- Geography & Anthropology
- Landscape Architecture
- History
At the next meeting (Feb 5th) Brendan Harmon and I will present some general background on open source GIS software and the organizations involved (OSGeo, etc.), and we may try and fit a second presentation in as well, TDB. Location also TBD. Stay tuned, and thanks again for participating.