Passion, knowledge and purpose – the FOSS4G program!
This post was written by ragnvald
It’s an easy job is to present a program. Reading through the more than 300 abstracts is admittedly a lot of work. But it has been a true pleasure! So it’s easy!
Yes – some of the abstracts were in all honesty a bit long. The texts would have also been easier to read if a paragraph was added here and there. Together we have worked on getting all of them where they should be. Authors – thank you!
We have seen what you, the presenters, were telling us. We saw the stories, facts and the knowledge which is important to you.
You told us about mapping garbage disposal in Kampala, disaster resilience work in Asian countries, land productivity systems in Tanzania, youth mappers in Togo, Geoserver optimisations, humanitarian mapping, Geonode, wildlife monitoring, anonymous software libraries that carry commercial and open source software on its shoulders, about gender imbalance in technology, how open source technology has become the bread and butter of your commercial operations – and much, much more.
In other words you told us about your passions and also that you want to share your knowledge.
Your abstracts tell the stories of a purpose to bridge the gaps between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, between men and women – between those in need and those in abundance. Some of you are up to your necks in developing excellent systems, trusting others to find social or technical purpose for the code. Others see challenges and are looking for the best solutions.
Sharing your knowledge is about sharing code, putting time and effort into making that presentation which many of us will remember and cherish for years to come. It is about travelling to a country you have never thought you would ever visit. It is about exposing yourself to financial risk and about leaving your dear ones behind to spend time at our conference. Finally it is also about standing on a scene and presenting your thoughts, your software and your passions.
Purpose is the common denominator for our work. Without purpose code is worthless. Without purpose knowledge is worthless. Without purpose passion has no direction.
Those of you coming to FOSS4G 2018 in Dar es Salaam to listen – you will meet people filled to the brim with passion and knowledge – driven by purpose.
The program is ready
Some days ago we gave you the program categories. We will now give you the tools to research our program more closely. We will share with you the abstracts (with paragraphs and probably also a tad shorter than originally) and invite you to find the presentations you would like to sit in on in Dar es Salaam.
Finding content
We will be using the Attendify app to share our program this year. The app will allow you to search through titles, presenters, abstracts, date/time, and place for our entire conference. You can also mark your very own favourites based on our categorisation and search. Together with the presentation information you will find some background on the presenters. We will try to fill this in as we go.
You will of course also find this information on our own webpages:
How to use Attendify
Attendify is available for both Android and iOS. Just search for Attendify using your app marketplace or visit this website:
After you have installed the app do the following:
- Search up FOSS4G2018 from within the app
- Register
- You’re in!
Now what?
There will be changes in the program as we get closer to the conference. Some presentations might be withdrawn. The biographies of the presentes might not be complete. The timing of some might be problematic for some of the presenters. And much more.
Should you have comments on the program then do not hesitate to send the program committee a message – either through Attendify or by email.
