Presentation given at GeoForAll miniconference at World Commons Week 2019. By combining the potential of free and open geospatial software, open data, open standards and open access to research publications will enable the creation of a sustainable innovation ecosystem for helping solve global cross disciplinary societal challenges from climate change mitigation to zero hunger. Service for the benefit and betterment of humanity is a key fundamental principle of GeoForAll and we want to contribute and focus our efforts for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial has now made it possible for a large number of government organisations, private companies and academics in both developed and developing countries to make use of geospatial software in many application domains. This will ensure that geo education and geo digital economy opportunities are also available to economically poor countries and economically poor people worldwide. Central to “Geo for All” mission is the belief that knowledge is a public good and Open Principles in Education will enable broadly shared prosperity for all.

1. Open Principles in Science and Education
Dr. Suchith Anand
Chief Scientist
Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition

2. Hunger
Poverty
Innovation
www.godan.info

3.  How can we ensure
zero hunger for all?
 How can we use open
data to help small
holder farmers?

4. A Small Circle in Asia Contains More Than Half the World's
Population – But How many Scientists and research outputs
are from here?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/small-circle-asia-more-half-worlds-population.htm
How do we bridge the Digital Divide?

5. Over 12,000 schools
About 6 million students
About 200,000 teachers
https://itschool.gov.in/glance.php
Why Openness in Education Important? Good example of impact
of openness in Education from my state Kerala in India

6. GeoForAll - Bridging the Geospatial
Digital Divide

7. Open Geospatial Science
Open Geospatial Labs are being established worldwide to scale up
research and teaching globally as part of the ICA-OSGeo MoU

8. GLOBAL SOCIETAL PROBLEMS:
access to water, sanitation, traffic
congestions, economic sustainability,
citizens’ health, 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?
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

9. alt.ac.uk
Why is Openness Important in Science and
Education?

10. alt.ac.uk
Education + Empowerment = Geo4All

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

12. 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

13. And empowering the next generation

14. We want to create educational opportunities for everyone
Image thanks to Victoria Rautenbach

15. Building Bridges and Empowering
communities

16. How do we bridge the Digital Divide?
GODAN AgriGIS Hands
on workshop and
ThinkTank @RCMRD,
Nairobi, Oct 2016

17. GeoForAll - Open Principles in Science and
Education
• Open source software
• Open access to research publications
• Open education resources
• Open data
• Open standards
http://www.geoforall.org

18. STEM education using Open Principles
Students learning map production using free and open technologies like QGIS
and open data (Photos thanks to Edward and GeoForAll colleagues in Tanzania)

19. We want to create opportunities for high quality science
education and empowerment for all economic backgrounds

20. School learners at GeoForAll lab
at the University of Pretoria,
August 2016
Image thanks to Victoria Rautenbach

21. We will create opportunities for high quality science education
and empowerment for all economic backgrounds
Thanks to Work done by our Sergio Acosta Y
Lara and our GeoForAll colleagues in Uruguay

22. alt.ac.uk
GeoForAll contributions to UN SDGs

23. 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