Britain will be #Open for geoconferencing in 2013

In case you hadn’t heard  a crowd of geogeeks have climbed mountains, written proposals, garnered support, tweeted their hearts out, started a pledge, created campaigning web sites and convinced the nice and very wise people at OSGeo to entrust us with their treasured FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geo) conference in 2013 at the East Midlands Conference Centre at Nottingham University.

No, despite some of the hysteria it is not repeat not like hosting the World Cup or even the Euros, let alone winning it. Repeated tweeting of

https://twitter.com/FOSS4G4uk/status/214758780104224769

was completely unjustified as is this video

Let’s be honest it only a geoconference, it’s not as if we have won a cup or something. But it is going to be a wonderful week in September 2013 starting with AGI GeoCommunity (16th and 17th) and following straight through to FOSS4G (17th to 21st) – there will be code sprints and talks and parties and workshops and discussions and hackathons and a massive GeoCamp and Robin Hood might get a look in. And who knows, there are several other geo events looking for a home in 2013 perhaps they may decide to rock up in the UK and sync around our dates? OSM I’m looking at you.

So you want to get involved, of course you do. We will need sponsors, helpers, artists, money, expertise, resources, ideas, papers, t-shirts, beer, more sponsorship, a giant marquee and entertainers for starters. There is room for the all European geocommunity (the people not the event) to participate in making this a success, you can stick your name on the list at the pledge page or if you are a big hitting potential sponsor mail me here

So all together now

“It’s coming home, it’s coming home, FOSS4G is coming home …..” (even though it never lived here)

Get in there!