I want to share why it is important that we protect Open principles in Education and the vision 2030 for Open Geospatial Science . This presentation will share experiences from “Geo for All” initiative on the importance of having open principles in education for empowering communities worldwide . Central to “Geo for All” mission is the belief that knowledge is a public good and Open Principles in Education will provide great opportunities for everyone. Though the members of our community hail from many different backgrounds, we all seek to eliminate the digital divide and empower all as full citizens and contribute to building up Open Knowledge for the benefit of the whole society . By combining the potential of free and open software, open data, open standards, open access to research publications, open education resources in Geospatial education and research will enable the creation of sustainable innovation ecosystem . This is key for widening education opportunities, accelerating new discoveries and helping solving global cross disciplinary societal challenges from Climate change mitigation to sustainable cities. Service for the benefit and betterment of humanity is a key fundamental principle of “Geo for All” and we want to contribute and focus our efforts for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to create openness in Geo Education for developing creative and open minds in students which is critical for building open innovation and contributes to building up Open Knowledge for the benefit of the whole society and for our future generations. The bigger aim is to advance STEM education across the world and bring together schools, teachers and students across the world in joint projects and help building international understanding and global peace. More details at http://www.geoforall.org/

1. Open Principles in Education –
Building Bridges, Empowering Communities
Suchith Anand
University of Nottingham

2. alt.ac.uk
Some reflections
Serendipity

3. First my thank you to the global Geo for All community that
made this possible
Open Geospatial Labs are being established worldwide to scale up research and teaching globally as part of the
ICA-OSGeo MoU

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Why is Openness Important?

5. Making Geospatial
education and
opportunities
accessible to all
“Geo for All”

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Education + Empowerment = Geo4All

7. There are many dimensions to “Open”
• Open source software.
• Open data.
• Open standards.
• Open access to research publications.
• Open education resources
But fundamentally it is based on Open Principles

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Education + Empowerment = Geo4All
Acknowledgements: Silvana Comboim and colleagues at
ICA Commission on Open Source Geospatial
Technologies

9. An example of the impact of Openness - GODAN
Impact is the positive changes to the lives of people

10. Hunger
Poverty
Innovation
www.godan.info

11. Hunger
• For the first time in human history, the knowledge to end hunger exists on Earth
• 800 million people struggle with debilitating hunger and malnutrition
• We need to find solutions beyond MORE food. Nutritionally sensitive agriculture is essential
for global public health and wellbeing
• We are convinced that the solution to closing this unacceptable hunger gap lies
within harnessing and opening agriculture and nutrition data
• “location” relevant data plays an important role

12. Openness – Increasing quality
through peer review
Open Source Software
◊ Source code remains in
the public domain
free for all to use,
change and
(re)distribute
◊ Development done in
public usually by a
community
(distributed, informal
team of developers)

13. ◊GLOBAL URBAN PROBLEMS: access toGLOBAL URBAN PROBLEMS: access to
water, sanitation, traffic congestions,water, sanitation, traffic congestions,
economic sustainability, citizenseconomic sustainability, citizens’ health,’ health,
impact on environment …impact on environment …
◊Mapping is a critical component to help
understand and develop solutions for
urban growth problems
◊Proprietary software tools are very
expensive (hence unavailable) for
economically poor countries and
communities worldwide
Why is Geoeducation
important?
Kibera , Kenya
Dharavi, Mumbai
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56685562@N00/2340042701
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8485582@N07/7365580810
GIS tools play a key role in helping find solutions to global societal
challenges

14. June 2010
“Geo for All” started from very humble beginnings
Aim – Build research and teaching infrastructure worldwide
Problem – No initial funding!
Biggest Strength – amazing support from colleagues and students
Open Source Geospatial Lab founding meeting at UoN

15. Why - Social Responsibility
Making resources including software and
data openly available offers an opportunity
for knowledge to be shared widely so as to
increase learning opportunities.
Example – Collaborating with educational initiatives like gvSIG Batoví
For details contact:
Sergio Acosta y Lara
sacosta@dntopografia.gub.uy
Alvaro Anguix
aanguix@gvsig.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orwN9K07XPo

16. Thanks to Elżbieta Wołoszyńska-Wiśniewska and colleagues at
UNEP-GRID), Warsaw

17. Open software
Open data
Open Educational Resources
Open standard
Providing to an open geospatial ecosystem for education,
research and business
Education + Empowerment = Geo4All
Access to quality education and opportunities is key for getting rid of
extreme poverty and enable broadly shared prosperity for all.

18. Open Geospatial Education &
Research
Geospatial
Standards (for
ex. OGC spec.)
Maturity of open
source software (for
ex. OSGeo stack)
Open Data
Ability for showing the
operation of general laws
is fundamental for
scientific research

19. “Geo for All” Team
ICA-OSGeo MoU in Sep 2011
Over 100 labs established
worldwide as of today
North America – over 20 labs
Europe – over 40 labs
South America – 9 labs
Africa – 4 labs
Asia – 15 labs
Australia - 2 lab
Will be establishing over 1000 labs in
universities and schools worldwide by
2018

20. Who are we?
Government organisations, academia, industry, startups,
NGOs , teachers, students, …
FOSS4G 2013 @Nottingham

21. We are Global community

24. It is all about learning and sharing

25. Open GIS Summer School in Girona

26. And empowering the next generation

27. Aim
Establishing open
source GIS research
and training
opportunities

28. We are Multi disciplinary

29. We are all passionate about Research and Education

30. “Geo for All”
OpenCitySmart - The Open Platform for Smart
Cities
Patrick Hogan , Brandt Melick, Maria Antonia Brovelli, Charles Schweik, Jim
Miller, Sven Schade, Chris Pettit, Ant Beck, Doreen Boyd, Darren Robinson,
Suchith Anand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWuMfMMPfPw

31. Aim – Establish a
new discipline for
Open Geospatial
Science

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Education + Empowerment = Geo4All

33. Science is NOT a Black Box

34. Vision 2030
Science should always be open
Geospatial Science should be fully build on Open Principles
Transparency of research is fundamental (no black boxes or proprietary barriers).
Geospatial Science = Open Geospatial Science
Open Geospatial Labs are being established worldwide to scale up research and
teaching globally as part of the ICA-OSGeo MoU http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/open-innovation-open-science-open-to-the-world-pbKI0416263

35. Represents the individual
content creator on the World
Wide Web
Why- Open Geospatial Science
 helps in empowerment of staff
and students
 capacity building
 developing creative and open
minds in students which is critical
for building open innovation
 contributes to building up Open
Knowledge for the benefit of the
whole society and for our future
generations.

36. alt.ac.uk
Education + Empowerment =
Geo4All
◊ I am confident if we keep focus, we can achieve the target to enable
digital education opportunities (tablets or low cost hardware based) in
many of the poorest schools globally in just 10 years time and having
this partnership with universities, governments, Industry, SMEs and
NGOs is key for this. So even if till now many of these schools did not
have access to any proper library or other learning resources, they will
now have access to the best digital education resources available
globally from wikipedia to MOOCs.
◊ Access to quality education and opportunities is key for getting rid of
extreme poverty and enable broadly shared prosperity for all.
◊ We look forward to working and building collaborations with all interested
on this education mission.

37. Thanks to all colleagues in the “Geo for All”
initiative
Let us all join to eradicate extreme poverty and
enable shared prosperity for all
http://www.geoforall.org

39. Association for Learning Technology
Registered charity number: 1063519
www.alt.ac.uk @A_L_T