[SDI-Africa] Fw: [Sdi-ea] [SDI East Africa] SDI-EA First Handzon Training Changes Life as We Know It

[Mick Wilson]

Mick Wilson
Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA)
United Nations Environment Programme
PO Box 30552 -  Nairobi 00100, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 7623436
Fax: +254 20 7624315
Email: mick.wilson at unep.org
Web www.unep.net, www.unep.org

----- Forwarded by Mick Wilson/UNEP/NBO/UNO on 10/07/2007 10:37 AM -----
                                                                           
             Mick Wilson                                                   
             <MickWilson20 at gma                                             
             il.com>                                                    To 
             Sent by:                  sdi-ea at als.unep.org                 
             sdi-ea-bounces at al                                          cc 
             s.unep.org                                                    
                                                                   Subject 
                                       [Sdi-ea] [SDI East Africa] SDI-EA   
             10/07/2007 10:33          First Handzon Training Changes Life 
             AM                        as we Know It                       
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           



[IMAGE]

Thursday last week saw twenty eager trainees from 10 Nairobi-based
institutions (see list at the end) got their first taste on-line data
publishing. In a three-and-a-half hour session they went from a clean slate
to having installed the necessary services and data management tools for
implementing open web services for geo-data delivery based on OGC
specifications.

The training session, in true SDI-EA fashion, was a no-cost no-fuss joint
effort by UNEP/DEWA and FAO/SWALIM. We cobbled together a local network,
participants showed up with their own laptops, and mwalimuJohn Mugwe got
them underway installing postgreSQL with postGIS as their spatial database,
plus geoserver as their web feature service. In many cases trainees also
had their first taste of implementing Java and the Tomcat servlet
container. Participants also learned how to take their own geospatial data
(shapefiles) and ingest them into the database, and saw for themselves the
utility of open-source GIS applications like qGIS and uDIG.
[IMAGE]
All this novelty notwithstanding, and despite having to deal with
trojan-infected PCs and confusion caused by previous unclean installations
of some of the software, by the end of the session every single system was
up and running and participants were accessing each others data across the
network and integrating them in their local client. Yes, they had the
beginnings of a microcosm of an SDI running then and there. Now, if only
the Nairobi internet becomes ready for prime time then we'll really have
something to show.

And quite an eye-opener it was for them. I am sure that if we'd offered to
keep the training sesion going that these eager beavers would have kept
hacking away all afternoon. As it is we'll just have to see when and where
else we can host these and follow-up sessions. I am keen to do at least one
out here at the UN for other colleagues in Habitat, UNESCO and Unicef, but
there's an obvious need for more sessions in more accessible places.
There's also the need to follow-up [IMAGE]incorporating the Geonetwork
Opensource kit, which some local centres are already running but could use
further promotion to help get over the metadata authoring hurdle. Perhaps
the RCMRD or Survey of Kenya could be coaxed into hosting (the context of
KNSDI development rings loudly here), or maybe we get the CGIAR
institutions to engage with some local players. However we do it's obvious
that John and I can't do all this in our spare time and, invoking our
Teflon Approach, look for ways to pass on the Bright Torch of Training to
others. Hmmm, I wonder if UNEP's own Capacity Building programme would give
us a hand there?

The participating agencies were:African Rescue Committee AFREC
http://www.afrec.org/ Data Excahange Platform for the Horn of Africa DEPHA
http://www.depha.org Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Deevelopment
RCMRD http://www.rcmrd.org/ Somali Support Secretariat CEFA
http://www.somalisupportsecretariat.info/UN FAO Food Security Analysis Unit
FAO-FSAU http://www.fsausomali.orgUN FA Somalia water and land Information
Management FAO-SWALIM www.faoswalim.org/ UN Office for Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs OCHA Regional http://ochaonline.un.org/UNEP/DEWA
http://www.unep.org/dewaUN-Habitat http://www.un-habitat.orgUN High
Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR-Somalia
http://www.unhcr.org/country/som.html

There's an SDI-EA trining ulumnis' mailing list at
sdi-ea-hackers at als.unep.org

--
Posted By  Mick Wilson  to   SDI East Africa   on  7/10/2007 10:02:00 AM
_______________________________________________
SDI-EA mailing list
SDI-EA at als.unep.org
http://als.unep.org/mailman/listinfo/sdi-ea
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.gsdi.org/pipermail/sdi-africa/attachments/20070710/d5fe5640/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: pic00150.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1255 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.gsdi.org/pipermail/sdi-africa/attachments/20070710/d5fe5640/attachment-0002.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ecblank.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 45 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.gsdi.org/pipermail/sdi-africa/attachments/20070710/d5fe5640/attachment-0003.gif