GeoForAll (https://www.osgeo.org/initiatives/geo-for-all/) is the Research and Education Outreach of OSGeo, an initiative initially shared with the International Cartographic Association (ICA) and the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). Since then, many additional partners from all over the world, including UN-GIS, AGILE, UCGIS, IGU and YouthMappers, have joined forces with GeoForAll in its mission of “making geospatial education and opportunities accessible to all”. The goal of the GeoForAll initiative is to promote and enhance education, research and service activities carried out by these stakeholders in the area of Open Geospatial Science & Applications all over the world.

 

Combining the potential of free and open source geospatial software with open data, open standards, open access to research publications and open resources in education and research enables the creation of a sustainable innovation ecosystem that  advances the geospatial disciplines and contributes to a better world.

 

Today, there are more than 125 GeoForAll Labs spread all over the world of which only a handful are in Africa. This year’s FOSS4G conference  is an opportunity for Africa to join the GeoForAll network. We have therefore prepared a GeoForAll meeting to take place during the FOSS4G 2018 conference, to be held  in room GOMBE at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) on Friday 31 August at 8:00 am.

 

At the meeting, GeoForAll  activities will be introduced, new potential members (e.g. Geospatial Labs at universities) will be welcomed and we will discuss relevant international calls and projects which could be of interest to our activities. Due to your experience and activities, you are cordially invited to participate in the meeting.

 

Looking forward to seeing you in Dar es Salaam!

Yves Barthélemy, Maria Antonia Brovelli, Serena Coetzee and Msilikale Msilanga