Apologies for cross-posting... I am proud to finally announce the inaugural meetup of the nascent UK local chapter of OSGEO on Thursday 1st May, from 4.30 to 7pm (or later if we can find a suitable hostelry) at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Stansted Airport. For those that don't know- OSGEO is a global organisation founded to encourage and support development in open source GIS. More information is available here: http://www.osgeo.org/. Why should this matter to you as archaeologists? Well, open source GIS software gives you much more flexibility and control over what you do, it's generally free, and is nowhere near as difficult to install or use as you might have been told. We have been trying to get together some interest in a UK local chapter for some time now, so I am really pleased to announce this event. The agenda is still open to negotiation, so if you would like to come along and talk about something, or demo something, then you're more than welcome. The only fixed point is that we would like to come up with a roadmap for moving the UK chapter forward, and hopefully provide a forum in which like-minded people (eg you) can discuss FOSS GIS and the issues around it. Furthermore, Tyler Mitchell (Executive Director of OSGEO and author of "web-mapping illustrated") will be giving a short talk on OSGEO globally, and will also be available for personal discussions with people or companies interested in OSGEO. There is a wiki page about the event here: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_UK_Meetup_May_2008, please sign up if you're interested so we can get some idea of numbers, and please feel free to pass on this information to anyone else you know who might be interested. There are links on that page to maps and hotel options if you need them. Oh yes, I should say that it's free! I very much look forward to hopefully meeting some or all of you in May! All the best Jo