| Welcome to the OSGeo:UK Newsletter |
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Hello and welcome to the OSGeo:UK newsletter in which we share updates and information every couple of months about the OSGeo:UK local chapter along with general FOSS for geospatial goodness. Please share the newsletter widely. Interested folks can sign up too. For now, please enjoy this edition. |
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Find out more about OSGeo:UK and how you can be part of our community on our website. |
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FOSS4G:UK 2025 FOSS4G:UK Leeds 2025 will be our biggest gathering since Edinburgh 2019. While the conference focuses on open source software, it is also a meeting point for sharing knowledge and experiences, learning new tools, and establishing new relationships.
The planning for FOSS4G:UK in Leeds on October 1st and 2nd is progressing well. The Local Organising Committee met at the Horizon conference venue in May and is working to ensure that corporate sponsorship is provided. We want to express our thanks to all the sponsors who have already signed up to support our event. We still have a few sponsorship opportunities available - please checkout the different tiers on the conference website.
Registration has also been opened up, with a limited number of early bird tickets for £80. The early bird discount sale will end on 31st July.
The OSGeo community is characterised by its dynamic way of growing, and we welcome a variety of voices and ideas. Please consider presenting yours by submitting a talk or workshop for this year's programme. Our community is incredibly supportive to first time presenters - we were all once new to presenting! Please note that the deadline for submissions is Friday July 18th. So in summary: |
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Talking of FOSS4G:UK, one of the conference Gold sponsors has been in the wider news! GEOLYTIX posted on their LinkedIn page that they had been mentioned on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. When asked how KFC UK & Ireland know the North West is a target for expansion, Rob Swain, UK & Ireland General Manager at KFC, gave a simple answer: "We use a tool called Geolytix".
It's great to hear positive news and feedback about organisations, companies and projects that are related to the open tools that we use and promote at OSGeo:UK
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We want your news!
As mentioned in the last edition, we now have the opportunity for readers to submit news stories that you want highlighted in this newsletter - just fill out the form with suitable details and we will add them to a future newsletter issue. |
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GoFundGeo James Milner continues to develop Terra Draw apace. A recent update announcement reports that there are speed and performance improvements, particularly related to route snapping. Work is also ongoing around the polygon drawing. It seems that the best place to stay abreast of updates is by following James on Bluesky. You'll be happy to hear that the Geoserver fundraiser has been successful, and Geoserver 3 will now happen. Meanwhile, Geoserver development continues with a recent release.
As you'll be aware from reading these newsletters, OSGeo:UK are a Small Sustaining Member for the QGIS project. You may be interested to know that Anita Graser, Tim Sutton, and Marco Bernasocchi have recently published a paper about the history and growth of QGIS as a key part of the modern open geospatial stack. There are some fascinating numbers in there around ongoing costs and user numbers so if you are interested in the QGIS project then please do spend a moment reading it. Linked to QGIS, there is a funding call for a security enhancement to the project so that it adheres to upcoming changes in regulations and laws. I would suggest that if you use QGIS in a large corporate entity that you make your IT department aware of this and strongly urge your organisation to contribute to the funding call. Remember, everyone on the OSGeo:UK committee encourages you to submit bids later in the year for a project or projects that you would like to see funded by us through GoFundGeo.
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Wider software and event news |
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Continue to check out the global FOSS4G event website for the latest information about the global gathering taking place in November. The call for presentations is open, as are registrations, and there is additional information about the programme outline and travel. If you are attending from the UK then why not let us know through the mailing list or one of our social media channels!
Closer to home, and in about a month, FOSS4G Europe 2025 will take place. All of the relevant information is on their website, including an incredibly packed and interesting schedule. Go check it out!
Our friends over at the AGI (Association for Geographic Information) have a conference coming up in Cardiff in October (see details here) as well as a networking event around housing to be held in Birmingham on 9 July.
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In wider geospatial FOSS news... As you may have seen on the OSGeo:UK mailing list, the British Geological Survey (BGS) is starting a new phase of improvements to their digital map products and have asked for input from users to help them fully understand user needs and challenges. The BGS have a range of digital geological maps which can be used for many applications across a wide range of disciplines. Additionally, digital geological maps and data are often used in investment and planning decisions, and to assess hazards and risks. The maintenance and development of the BGS geological data is part of their remit to improve their map compilation and dissemination procedures. This is becoming more important as technology changes. The BGS would like to hear from existing and new stakeholder groups about topics such as your current priorities, the problems being solved by the data, and your future needs from geological information. You can help the BGS by completing the questionnaire at this link: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/bgs-digital-geology-maps-we-want-your-feedback/ Despite a relatively low-key release, there is massive news about GDAL. GDAL is a translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats and includes a variety of useful command line utilities for data translation and processing - basically it underpins a massive amount of all the geospatial software out there! Starting with GDAL 3.11, parts of the utilities will be available using a new single gdal program that accepts commands and sub-commands. You can find the official release notes and documentation here as well as a very interesting blog post from Spatialists that explains some of the changes and proves a load of good links. |
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We hope that you found this edition of the newsletter interesting and informative. If you have any feedback or comments then let us know! |
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