A Stable of Hands-On Offerings Available

DENVER, March 9, 2011 - The Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference has released a lineup of 24 hands-on workshops for the 2011 conference, which will be held Sept. 12 - 16 in Denver, CO, USA. FOSS4G is the premier international conference focused on open source geospatial software.

The bulk of the workshops provide an opportunity for in-depth insight into different tools of the open source geospatial stack from leading developers and practitioners. Many of the workshops focus on the customizing of code to match specific needs. There are also several introductory courses to help the novice gain familiarity with capabilities and applications of this robust software.

The three-hour workshops will take place in morning and afternoon sessions on Monday, Sept. 12 and Tues., Sept. 13, with the main conference running from Wed. through Fri. Computers will be provided to participants. A full lineup of workshops, with descriptions, can be found online at http://2011.foss4g.org/workshops/.

There is pent up demand in the North American market for this content given the growth in open source geospatial solutions and the fact that this is the first time this international event will return to a North American venue in four years. Workshops often reach full capacity, so the time to act is now.

The event has strong support from major sponsors that include Esri, Google, OpenGeo, MapQuest and Newmont. Additional support at the bronze level include Camp to Camp, EOX, GeoCat, GeoIQ, GeoSolutions, Korem, MapGears, Metaspatial, Oracle Spatial, Spatial Networks and Terrestris.

About FOSS4G

FOSS4G is the global conference focused on Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial that is organized by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) with support from an all-volunteer organizing committee and professional conference management from the Geospatial Information Technology Association (GITA). The 2011 FOSS4G event in Denver marks the first North American event in four years, with the prior three events taking place in Barcelona, Sydney and Cape Town.