From field biology to the GRASS GIS board
A Journey of Open Source Discovery and Nurturing a New Generation of Contributors
Dr. Verónica Andreo 
CONICET
Instituto Gulich (CONAE-UNC)
2024-11-28
Vero
- Researcher at Gulich Institute
- PhD in Biological Sciences, MSc in Spatial Information Applications
- Remote sensing & GIS applications in disease ecology
- Member of the GRASS GIS Dev Team and project chair
- I’m curious, I like learning new things, esp. geeky things
- I like 🧉 and 🍺 (not together!)
GRASS (not what you think!)
Not that one either!
GRASS GIS
Geospatial processing engine with CLI, GUI, Python, C and R APIs.
So, how did I go from this…
… to this?
A story of motivation and…
I told you I liked beer!
2012, the decision that changed it all
- Finished PhD… jobless…
- 🧚 “Let’s do an MSc and write another thesis, why not??”
- Searching for places in Italy to do an internship (ASI-CONAE)
- Former colleague from Uni told me about GRASS in 2006 or so…
- Internal motivation to switch to open source software (FOSS)
2013, the internship in Italy
Studying, Asking, Searching… 🍕🍻
- Participated in codesprints, conferences and met several GRASS GIS devs and power users.
- I loved the software, but I was hooked by the community
Back to Argentina: Start contributing
- Answer basic queries on the mailing lists
- MSc thesis as an excuse to learn the new temporal tools under dev
- There were no docs, I wrote a wiki (accessed 187,000 times!!!)
💩 happens, but it got better…
- Finished the MSc, jobless again… 😢
- Temporary job in Italy 🇮🇹… more GRASS, first FOSS4G… 🤓
- Back to Argentina 🇦🇷, jobless again… 😢
- Small freelance contracts to implement remote sensing data processing routines with GRASS GIS and teach my first GRASS course… 🌾
- Found a position in NL 🇳🇱🤩 🍻
Desire to fix stuff
- I saw typos in the manuals and wanted to fix them
- I learned to create patches that I sent to devs to apply them
- I became pretty annoying…
- I was given write permission on SVN, they made me a member of the dev team! 😱😱
Share and keep learning….
I started teaching GRASS courses and workshops, I was a mentor for Google Code-In and organized a codesprint at home in The Netherlands
While preparing teaching material, I started learning git and GitHub helpful when GRASS migrated
I got familiar with Hugo when putting together my website helpful for the new GRASS website 😍
Contribute code: A personal challenge 💪
I learned a bit of Python and found something that could be useful: a set of tools to search, download and import Landsat data into GRASS GIS.
PSC
Some facts
- 2 LATAM international FOSS4G out of 18 (10%)
- 2 active OSGeo local chapters out of approx. 45 (4%)
- 39 LATAM members out of 547 OSGeo Charter members (7%)
Why isn’t there more LATAM presence?
- Language barrier even after all the translation tools?
- Much lower % of people graduate from higher education?
- People move to the north searching for better conditions?
- We are historically used to receive “manufactured products”?
- We are simply too far and it is too expensive to travel to most events happening in the north?
Mentoring: one person at a time
Regional and local solutions
- Foster South-South solutions among individuals and organizations
- Organize more small and short sprints and hands-on events that create bonding opportunities and foster inclusion
- Teach workshops and courses with materials in ES or PT
- Leave the comfort zone of only using FOSS, dare to contribute
Where to start?
The software is not in your language? Translate it!
Start small: fix typos…
- You saw a typo in a manual? Fix it
- Docs are missing examples or explanations? Add them
- Discovered a bug? Report it, or even better, fix it
- Are there new modules or functions? Test them
Get started with code contributions
- Set up your development environment. Projects will have a guideline
- Search for the label good first issue
Code contributions: Opportunities
Learn and share
- There’s not enough teaching material or tutorials? Create them!
Outreach
- Are you good with design? Create cool stickers, help with the website, help with the swag shops.
- Are you skilled with communication? Write a blog post, help with social media.
New features
- Need a new feature? Propose it or just go ahead and implement it!
Financial support
Support your favorite FOSS4G!
Every contribution counts!
Anyone willing to learn and do things is always welcome!
Find your community and get involved!
