The annual “Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial” conference is coming to Boston on August 14-19.

This is the global meeting-of-the-tribes event for the spatial community, held by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. Going well beyond just an event, FOSS4G features hands-on workshops, exciting presentation, technical presentations, exciting technical presentations … along with informal bird-of-a-feather gatherings, a code sprint, and social events.

The GeoServer project is proudly represented at FOSS4G with presentations from the core GeoServer team and success stories from happy users worldwide.

Workshops

The conference opens with two days of workshops. FOSS4G workshops are a great way to access hands-on training with GeoServer, provided by core members of the development team. You are sure to learn something new.

GeoServer workshops:

  • OGC Services in Action: an introduction with GeoServer: Join Andrea Aime from GeoSolutions for this popular course. Covering OGC services, setting up vector and raster data, along with viewing and styling data.

  • GeoServer & PostGIS in Containers and On Kubernetes: Steve Pousty from Red Hat provides an introduction to Docker containers and Kubernetes using the popular combo of PostGIS and GeoServer.

  • Enterprise class deployment for GeoServer and GeoWebcache: optimizing performances and availability: Simone Giannecchini and Andrea Aime from GeoSolutions are back with hands on experience guiding you through the performance, availability and optimization of GeoServer and GeoWebCache.

GeoTools workshops:

  • **Introduction to GeoTools: **Ian and Jody offer an introduction for Java developers.

  • GeoTools DataStore Workshop: Teach GeoServer a new format with this java development workshop.

Presentations

The conference features three days of presentations (with some great keynotes to look forward to from Dr. Richard Stallman, Paul Ramsey and others). GeoServer is well represented with a great selection of talks to choose from.

Core contributors to GeoServer have the following talks:

  • State of GeoServer: Update of everything new and improved for 2017 brought to you by the project team.

  • GeoServer Feature Frenzy: A feature based tour of what GeoServer has to offer, brought to you by the project team.

  • GeoServer in Production: we do it, here is how! Simone and Andrea share battle hardened advice for production installations.

  • **MapBox Styles for GeoServer and OpenLayers: **Torben and David introduce native MapBox styles support, allowing shared client and server styling for a consistent visual presentation.

  • Mapping the world: going beyond web mercator with GeoServer: Andrea provides insight into the creativity available with GeoServer.

  • State of GeoWebCache: Kevin Smith explores tile protocols and the advantages they bring to your GeoServer deployment.

  • Creating Stunning Maps in GeoServer : mastering SLD and CSS styles: GeoServer is host to a powerful rendering engine, unlock your creativity with this introduction to the human-readable cascading style sheet cartography.

The wider GeoServer community is will represented in the rest of the program.

  • Development of an extension of GeoServer to provide handling three-dimensional spatial data: Pusan National Univeristy is back with an research and development area for GeoServer, use of 3D data for indoor mapping.

  • GeoServer Clustering Revisited: Getting Your Docker On

  • Monsanto & Boundless contribution to the open source community; enabling fine grain entitlement for open source geospatial cloud systems (GeoServer) and desktop applications (QGIS)

Many more talks feature GeoServer as part of a successful open source solution. During the abstract submission process GeoServer was the most cited software component.

Bird of a Feather Session

A highlight of FOSS4G is the community aspect of meeting with GeoServer enthusiasts from all backgrounds. We will schedule an evening bird-of-a-feather session for GeoServer Q&A.

Bring your questions, your stories and perhaps a map to share!

Code Sprint

An OSGeo code-sprint is held after the conference offering volunteers a chance to work on the codebase. If you are new to our community please consider attending, we will have a selection of activities ready to go for all skill levels.

Sign up on the OSGeo Wiki, and add your ideas and suggestions.

This is a great opportunity to contribute to the project, please be advised that it is a work party (so bring your own laptop, caffeine will be provided).

See you at FOSS4G Boston

If you would like to join GeoServer in Boston registration is open, $800 for the 3 day conference. Workshops are $125-$350 depending on how many you attend. There is also a great volunteer program (2 hours of training, and 12 work for a $50 registration).

Attending FOSS4G is strongly recommended. While there are friendly regional foss4g conferences nothing compares to the momentum and enthusiasm of the global event.

Thanks to all the presenters and instructors for the GeoServer advocacy, this will be a great event.