FOSS4G

The FOSS4G ribbon.

The FOSS4G ribbon, part of every FOSS4G convention logo, symbolizes the flow of ideas, innovation, and sharing within the Open Source geospatial community. This branding became a very important part of the spread of FOSS4G, and is known all over the world as the symbol of FOSS4G events. FOSS4G events of all sizes (small local events or larger national events) are encouraged to use this ribbon as part their logo identity. Credit for the branding of FOSS4G, as well as developing the process to move the event all over the globe, to share the passion of FOSS4G to everyone no matter where you are from or how much money you make or how you dress, goes to Jeff McKenna. The logo is the true symbol of this passion, for sharing.

The FOSS4G was first coined in early 2004 as an acronym for Free and Open Source Software for Geoinformatics by a research group working on I18N of GRASS and MapServer. The first publication defining and using the FOSS4G acronym was published in Japan in March 2004 in a paper entitled "Development of training material and internationalization of GRASS GIS and MapServer for advancing FOSS4G solutions" [1] published in the Bulletin of Osaka City University Media Center(ISSN: 1345-4145). It was later used at the Free/Libre and Open Source Software for Geoinformatics: GIS-GRASS Users Conference held between September 12 - 14, 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand in a publication entitled "Implementation of Web Map Server Test-bed and Development of Training Material for Advancing FOSS4G Solutions" [2] and subsequently in several other international and national conferences and meetings.

The event history dates back to 2002 in Trento where the roots where laid for the biggest free and open source geographic software event. It was not yet called FOSS4G. An important face-to-face meeting occurred between the 3 original founders of the event (Venkatesh Raghavan, Markus Neteler, and Jeff McKenna), who met in Bangkok Thailand in 2004, and planned to create an annual event for the whole Open Source geospatial community, with the event named "FOSS4G"; the event would go on to help change the history of the geospatial industry. All recent conference web sites can be found under the year followed by foss4g.org as in https://2021.foss4g.org/

The foss4g.org (and grass-japan.org) domain was registered to make available to the public the outcome of the project on Internationalization of GRASS5.0 and MapServer. The project was funded by IPA (Information-technology Promotion Agency,Japan). The project was carried in cooperation between Orkney Inc. and Osaka City University(OCU). Apart form software internationalization (i18n), OCU was also responsible for testing, preparation of test data, sample applications and implementation and management of the portal site. The main portal site was made available at www.foss4g.org/FOSS4G/ and also www.grass-japan.org/FOSS4G/

The domains were registered with Venkatesh Raghavan (aka Venka)and Shinji Masumoto of Osaka City University, Japan in 2003 and the project portal site went online in March 2004. Venkatesh Raghavan (aka Venka)and Shinji Masumoto agreed to donate the foss4g.org domain name to OSGeo on 3rd October 2007 with the understanding that there will be no restrictions on the free usage of the FOSS4G acronym for the legitimate purpose of promoting Free and Open Source Software for Geoinformatics. Subsequent to the transfer of foss4g.org domain name to OSGeo, it was used as a domain name for FOSS4G events since FOSS4G2008 held in Cape Town, South Africa.

FOSS4G is not registered as a trademark but has a long tradition of being used in the context of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial. The domain was originally registered by Venkatesh Raghavan who later graciously donated it to OSGeo [6] - under the condition that using the name should stay open to anybody who does something reasonably related to Free and Open Source Geospatial. If you are not sure, simply ask on the main mailing list.[7]