COST Action TD1202 Mapping and the Citizen Sensor

Training School "FOSS4VGI – Using Free and Open Source Software with VGI: integration,

analysis and visualisation"

Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy), July 12-14, 2015

FINAL REPORT

Venue The Training School “FOSS4VGI – Using Free and Open Source Software with VGI: integration, analysis and visualization”, sponsored by COST Action TD1202 “Mapping and the Citizen Sensor”, was held at the Como Campus of Politecnico di Milano (Italy) from July 12 to 14, 2015. This School was run immediately before the FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) Europe 2015 international conference, which kept place at the same venue from July 15 to 17. The Training School lectures took place at two different locations in Como City: on Sunday, July 12 at Natta Palace, a charming historic building in the city centre; on Monday, July 13 and Tuesday, July 14 at the building located in via Castelnuovo, 7.

All the information about the Training School, including the list of trainers and trainees, the schedule and the material, will be kept available at the website http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/FOSS4VGI.

Organizers The initial idea of the Training School was conceived by Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli, Dr. Marco Minghini and Dr. Peter Mooney as a result of the collaboration they started within COST TD1202 activities. The Training School proposal was drafted during the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) Dr. Marco Minghini carried out in February 2015 at Maynooth University (Ireland), hosted by Dr. Peter Mooney. The GIS team of the GEOlab (Geomatics and Earth Observation laboratory) of Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus has then helped in arranging the practical aspects of the Training School. The people involved in the organization were thus:

Dr. Marco Minghini Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy)

Eng. Carolina Arias Muñoz Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy)

Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy)

Dr. Peter Mooney Dept. of Computer Science Maynooth University – Maynooth (Ireland)

Dr. Monia Elisa Molinari Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy)

Eng. Candan Eylül Kilsedar Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy)

Objective The Training School had two key goals, which were consistent with the goal of COST Action “Mapping and the Citizen Sensor” and reflected the main theme of the FOSS4G Europe 2015 conference to which it was linked: 1) provide attendees with skills to use FOSS4G to create and manipulate Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI); and 2) demonstrate how to use, manipulate and visualize VGI data and how it can be integrated with other geospatial datasets. To fulfil these goals a team of trainers was chosen which could well balance both the academic and the technical aspects related to the management of VGI using FOSS4G technology.

Trainers Training School lectures and sessions were given by the following trainers (short bio available on the website):

Jeff McKenna, OSGeo President Gateway Geomatics Nova Scotia (Canada)

Daniel Kastl, pgRouting developer Georepublic Germany & Georepublic Japan München (Germany) & Tokyo (Japan)

Marco Minghini Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus (Italy)

Andrea Antonello, founder of Geopaparazzi HydroloGIS s.r.l. Bolzano (Italy)

Peter Mooney Dept. of Computer Science Maynooth University – Maynooth (Ireland)

Program

Sunday, July 12 – Natta Palace, Como

9:00 - 13:00 FOSS4VGI: An Introduction to the Open Source Geospatial Community (Jeff McKenna)

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 18:00 Managing your own data collection with Open Data Kit (Marco Minghini)

Monday, July 13 – Castelnuovo Building, Como

9:00 - 13:00 Working with OpenStreetMap data (Peter Mooney)

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 18:00 Geopaparazzi for sustainable development in mapping small communities' needs (Andrea Antonello)

20:00 - 23:00 Social Dinner – Restaurant “In Centro”, Via Cesare Cantù 53, 22100 Como

Tuesday, July 14 – Castelnuovo Building, Como

9:00 - 13:00 Opening up the network data of OpenStreetMap with pgRouting (Daniel Kastl)

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 18:00 Visualising VGI data with Leaflet (Peter Mooney)

*Coffee breaks everyday between 10:45 - 11:45 & 15:45 - 16:15

Description, materials and software The Training School was organized as a mixture of lectures and practical hands-on workshop sessions which enabled interaction, experimentation and learning. The sessions took place in standard lecture rooms on July 12 and 14 and in computer rooms on July 13. Trainees were asked to bring their own laptops with some pre-installed software and an Android mobile device with two pre-installed apps (ODK Collect and Geopaparazzi). All the trainees were provided with a guest account to connect to the WiFi network of Politecnico di Milano. A conference kit including a pen, a notebook and a badge was given to each trainee as well. At the end of the Training School each trainee was awarded with a certificate signed by the Chair of COST Action TD1202, Prof. Giles Foody, and the Training School coordinators Dr. Marco Minghini and Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli. All the teaching materials used during the Training School are available on the event website. This archive will remain openly accessible providing online access to the materials for the future benefit of both the participants in the Training School and the wider geospatial community. The contents of each lecture are separately described in the following. FOSS4VGI: An Introduction to the Open Source Geospatial Community (Jeff McKenna - July 12, 9:00 - 13:00)

Trainees were first introduced to several topics related to open source software for geospatial applications, including: 1) background on Open Source, including licenses and history; 2) description of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), its community and events; 3) description of several popular OSGeo software projects, e.g. GDAL, GRASS, PostGIS, OpenLayers, QGIS, GeoNetwork, and MapServer; and 4) discussion of the business case around geospatial Open Source, mentioning the major companies around Open Source today. Lecture material is available at the following links:

• http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/dl/foss4g-europe-2015/opensource-training-session1-introduction.pdf

• http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/dl/foss4g-europe-2015/opensource-training-session2-osgeo.pdf

• http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/dl/foss4g-europe-2015/opensource-training-session3-osgeo-software.pdf

• http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/dl/foss4g-europe-2015/opensource-training-session4-osgeo-business.pdf

• http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/dl/foss4g-europe-2015/videos/

Managing your own data collection with Open Data Kit (Marco Minghini - July 12, 14:00 - 18:00)

The purpose of this lecture was to introduce participants to Open Data Kit or ODK (https://opendatakit.org), a powerful, open source suite of tools allowing to easily create and manage data collection campaigns including VGI. After a brief description of the ODK project, trainees were instructed on how to create, upload and make use of a data collection form including different kinds of inputs, e.g. text, date, choice of one/more answers in a list, media contents (images, audios, videos) and locations. This was done by involving the trainees through a step-by-step practical example. After uploading the forms they created on a predefined ODK server, trainees could directly experience data collection using the ODK Collect app on their Android mobile devices. In the final part of the lecture mention was made to the chance of easily integrating ODK tools, which make full use of open standards, with other GIS technology in order to build up more complex open source architectures. Lecture material is available at the following link:

• http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/FOSS4VGI/documents/FOSS4VGI_ODK.pdf

Working with OpenStreetMap data (Peter Mooney - July 13, 9:00 - 13:00)

In this lecture the participants were introduced to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project (its origins, its growth, its applications). Then the lecture concentrated on how Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is inserted, edited and managed in OpenStreetMap. In particular there was emphasis on how tagging is used in OSM to annotate points, lines and polygons with metadata information. Students were introduced to different ways to access OSM data in raw XML format including the OSM Export Tool on openstreetmap.org and the Overpass API. The lecture finished with the students taking time to edit and contribute some test OSM data to a special OSM test area. This allowed the students to apply the many concepts they had learned: OSM tagging, data

accuracy, etc. For many of the students this was their first exposure to VGI and OSM. The practical element of the lecture was very valuable and the students were enthusiastic about becoming more involved in VGI and OSM data collection. Lecture material is available at the following link:

• https://github.com/petermooney/foss4VGI

Geopaparazzi for sustainable development in mapping small communities' needs (Andrea Antonello - July 13, 14:00 - 18:00)

This workshop was focused on the mobile app Geopaparazzi (https://geopaparazzi.github.io/geopaparazzi) and was organized in four parts: 1) introduction to the tool; 2) data preparation for a field survey; 3) field survey simulation; and 4) evaluation of the survey. The introduction to the tools in Geopaparazzi took most of the available time of the workshop, because the participants were not used to the smart phone as a tool for professional applications. After a full review of the available tools, the data for the survey simulation were prepared. Maps of Como had been previously prepared and were supplied to the trainees. Data were processed together in order to be visible on Geopaparazzi and moved on the devices. The trainees then simulated a survey in the surroundings of the workshop location and were asked to sample points of interest and GPS tracks. After the survey the data surveyed by the trainees were converted to be readable inside a GIS to perform further analyses. The trainees showed lots of interest in the workshop, allowing the lesson to be a good mix of teaching, learning and fun. The Geopaparazzi user manual is available at the following link: • http://geomobile.como.polimi.it/FOSS4VGI/documents/Geopaparazzi_4.4.0_usermanual.zip

Opening up the network data of OpenStreetMap with pgRouting (Daniel Kastl - July 14, 9:00 - 13:00)

In this workshop trainees were introduced to pgRouting (http://pgrouting.org), an open source library adding routing functionality to a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database. The trainer gave practical examples of how to use pgRouting with OpenStreetMap road network data. He explained the steps to prepare the data, make routing queries, assign costs and write a custom ‘plpgsql’ function to display the route in a web-mapping application. Navigation for road networks requires complex routing algorithms that support turn restrictions and even time-dependent attributes. The workshop explained about shortest path search with pgRouting in real road networks and how the data structure is important to get good results. Also participants learned about difficulties and limitations of pgRouting and how the OSM data quality affects the routing results. Lecture material is available at the following link: • https://github.com/Georepublic/workshops/tree/master/COST-Como

Visualising VGI data with Leaflet (Peter Mooney - July 14, 14:00 - 18:00)

In this lecture the Training School participants were trained to begin using Leaflet (http://leafletjs.com), which is an open source Javascript library for displaying maps and geographic data in the web browser. Leaflet is very accessible to non-programmers and provides an opportunity for those new to programming to generate web-based maps much more quickly than they would do with larger more complex open source libraries such as OpenLayers. The lecture began with the students working with simple fully coded examples of different types of open source web maps such as OSM. The second part of the lecture saw participants generating their own GeoJSON datasets and visualising these on web-based maps. In the final part of the lecture trainees learnt how to generate specific web-based map features such as displaying information in popups and object styling. Lecture material is available at the following link: • https://github.com/petermooney/foss4VGI/tree/master/MappingWithLeaflet

Trainees A total of 28 trainees attended the Training School: 25 of them were sponsored by COST Action TD1202 while 3, being local students at Politecnico di Milano, could participate for free but without any reimbursement from COST. Participation was opened to students (including PhD students) and Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) from COST TD1202 affiliated countries. In the selection process priority was given to female candidates as well as candidates from inclusiveness countries (Malta, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, FYR Macedonia, Republic of Serbia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg and Portugal). Overall trainees came from 13 different countries (Italy, France, Portugal, The Netherlands, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Ireland, Turkey) and females were more than 50% (15 against 13 males); almost half of the participants (13 out of 28) were PhD students. The list of participants is available below together with their e-mail, gender, academic status, affiliation institution and country.

Name and Surname e-mail Gender Academic

Status Affiliation Institution

Affiliation country

Elena-Andreea Bicu ebicu@campus.ul.pt female MSc student University of Lisbon Portugal

Alessia Calafiore alessia.calafiore@unito.it female PhD student Università degli Studi di Torino Italy

Valentina Cerutti v.cerutti@utwente.nl female PhD student University of Twente The Netherlands

Ivan Chorbev ivanchorbev@gmail.com male ESR Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje FYR Macedonia

Andria Christodoulou christodoulou_andria@yahoo.gr female ESR Cyprus University of Technology Cyprus

Irene Chrysafis irene.chrysafis@gmail.com female PhD student Democritus University of Thrace Greece

Nikola Davidovic nikola.davidovic@elfak.ni.ac.rs male PhD student University of Niš Serbia

Florian Dierickx f.dierickx@unesco.org male ESR UNESCO France

Luis Encalada Abarca luisencalada@campus.ul.pt male MSc student University of Lisbon Portugal

Lachezar Filchev lachezarhf@gmail.com male ESR Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Bulgaria

Ľudmila Furtkevičová ludmilafurtkevicov@gmail.com female MSc student Slovak Technical University Slovakia

Gustavo Garcia g.a.garciachapeton@utwente.nl male PhD student University of Twente The Netherlands

José Gaspar jgaspar@esac.pt male ESR Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra Portugal

Codrina Maria Ilie codrina@geo-spatial.org female PhD student Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest Romania

Stefan Ivanovic stefan.ivanovic@ign.fr male PhD student Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière France

Kalogeropoulou Panagiwta kalogeropoulou.p@gmail.com female PhD student Democritus University of Thrace Greece

Petra Malisan petra.malisan@uniud.it female PhD student Università degli Studi di Udine Italy

Jelena Marjanović jelenamarjanovicgeo@gmail.com female MSc student University of Novi Sad Serbia

Miriam Molteni miriam.molteni@mail.polimi.it female MSc student Politecnico di Milano Italy

Sara Mura saram.mura@gmail.com female PhD student Università degli Studi di Cagliari Italy

Radife Neziri radife.neziri@hotmail.com female BSc student Geo-SEE Institute FYR Macedonia

Daniele Oxoli daniele.oxoli@gmail.com male MSc student Politecnico di Milano Italy

Patrik Poláček polacek.patrik3@gmail.com male MSc student Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave Slovakia

Cristina Rosales rosales.cris@gmail.com female PhD student Wageningen University The Netherlands

Aslı Turgutalp asli.turgutalp@boun.edu.tr female PhD student Boğaziçi University Turkey

Vijay Charan Venkatachalam vijaycharan.venkatachalam@mail.polimi.it male MSc student Politecnico di Milano Italy

Nenad Visnjevac nenad.m.visnjevac@gmail.com male PhD student University of Belgrade Serbia

Michael Foley michael.foley.1@ucdconnect.ie male MSc student University College Dublin Ireland

Conclusions The Training School “FOSS4VGI – Using Free and Open Source Software with VGI: integration, analysis and visualization” proved to be a pure success, perhaps exceeding any expectation. Participants were highly motivated and attended the lectures with amazing enthusiasm and curiosity, which made all the sessions fully interactive and stimulating even for the trainers. Practical exercises were always followed by group discussions where the trainees could ask questions related to the applications of the explained concepts to their own research activity. Linking the COST-sponsored Training School with the FOSS4G Europe 2015 conference was also a successful idea. Trainees were introduced to the world of open source and open data, which for many of them was completely new. The result was that they were all fascinated by the new concepts learnt and in all probability will become both new contributors to VGI projects (specifically OSM) and new members of the open source geospatial community. It was astonishing that 12 trainees decided to stay in Como to also attend FOSS4G Europe 2015 conference. Finally it must be mentioned that, thanks to all the trainers and the trainees, the Training School was run in a beautiful atmosphere. In perfect harmony with the COST objective of creating and fostering network between European researchers, new relationships were established during the Training School which will surely bring future benefits to the participants from both a working and a personal perspective. Many trainees expressed their interest to join COST Action TD1202 and/or attend future events. Two appendixes are included in the following: the signatures of trainers and trainees and the feedbacks the trainees have kindly wrote about the Training School.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee,

Marco Minghini

Trainees’ feedbacks Elena-Andreea Bicu The training school was a great opportunity for me to enter in contact with professionals from my study area. Despite the fact that the content of the training was most of it new for me, and it was very welcomed for my formation, I feel that now, when I will have troubles in my future projects I can ask for help to the people I meet there. It was an intense and very productive experience. Thank you for the chance I had to be there!!!

Alessia Calafiore The training school was really inspiring to me. I learned much from the lecturers although the time constraint we had. Notably, I really appreciate the practical activities of the last day using pgRouting and the Leaflet libraries. The other two days were really useful, too. It was crucial to have a general idea of how to work with OpenStreetMap data since, nowadays, it is one of the most powerful source of geographical information. Furthermore, we had an idea of the many possible ways that current technology offer to us for collecting data through crowdsourcing. Also, I enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of the days spent for the training school with the lecturers and the students. Thanks to that I had the opportunity to make noteworthy contacts with other researchers working on topic similar to mine. I want to underline that it was wonderful having the training school just before the FOSS4G Europe conference since it created a link with all the world of the open source software. The introduction of Jeff McKenna, indeed, absolutely fit with this aim. To conclude, I would like to thank you all the organizers of the training school and COST to give us the opportunity of sharing knowledge at a trans-European level on interdisciplinary topic like studies on VGI. Valentina Cerutti The training school “FOSS4VGI - Using Free and Open Source Software with VGI: integration, analysis and visualization" provided a well organized learning environment on how to use FOSS for creation, manipulation and visualization of volunteered geographic information. I have found the courses very motivating and interesting for my own work. All the trainers explained their topics with enthusiasm and were able to inspire curiosity in the participants. Despite the limited time available, the mix of lectures and practical exercises was the right combination to give to the participants a good knowledge about the free and open source software alternatives and how to use them with volunteered geographic information. They also supplied online access to the courses materials, so everyone can examine the topics after the end of the training school, without time limitations. In addition, the training school was an opportunity to meet other researchers with similar interests and different backgrounds, to discuss about FOSS and VGI applications, and to create a network for future research. Thanks to all the trainers and organizers of the training school. Ivan Chorbev I have nothing but positive memories and experiences to bring home from the FOSS4VGI Training School held in Como, July 2015. It was a well-organized event with a tight schedule packed with useful hands on tutorials. The lectures were planned with contents that naturally evolve as the event progressed and managed to prepare the trainees to sufficiently master the planned areas of work and research. The event was correctly organized in advance and in time. Sufficient general logistics information was provided, as well as direct personal support to particular participants. Even in terms of the tutorials, detailed preparatory material was published so that trainees arrive fully prepared for the ambitious schedule. The organizer managed to gracefully handle certain trainer arrival delays. The trainers were well spoken experts in their respective fields. They came prepared and managed to keep our attention on the matter at hand. A balance was kept between theoretical preparation and practical examples. Even the only negative issue with the event, the heated weather, did not discourage the trainees to fully participate with the lectures.

Aside from the well-crafted academic schedule, enough time and effort was invested in social activities providing additional opportunities for less formal communication and networking activities. I made new acquaintances that I expect will bring further cooperation and joint work. Andria Christodoulou Training School "FOSS4VGI" that occurred in Politecnico di Milano – Como Campus was very fruitful and effective for me. I can say without a doubt that I gained a lot more than I expected from a three day training course. Thanks to the instructors, in a short amount of time we manage to collect an abundance of information related to free and open source software for VGI. They were also very friendly and willing to answer to any question and their lectures were very helpful, as all the instructions described in details. Furthermore, during this learning experience I was able to network with other people that we share common interests and get some really great tips and ideas from them. Before the training I knew little about “FOSS4VGI”, but now I have all the basic guidelines and all the necessary tools to learn about them, work with them and use them on a daily basis. I really appreciate the fact that I attended this training for free and I would like to thank all the responsible people who organise this and gave me the opportunity to join it. I would highly recommend this training – and I already did – to anyone that deals with geographic data and free and open source software. Irene Chrysafis The training school courses were pretty well organized. The subjects were relevant to my interests and will help me in most aspect of my work and my studies. Objectives were clearly explained and achieved. The course notes were clear and professionally presented. The courses conducted in a very pleasant and positive atmosphere and trainers were offered assistance for queries outside the course days. I gained new and expanded knowledge and if it was to choose which session enjoy most, I could say all. I believe that the training school succeeded its goal to provide attendees with skills to use FOSS4G and to manipulate and visualize VGI data. I’m glad I had the opportunity to participate to the Training School "FOSS4VGI" and I would like to thank all the trainers for the wonderful job they did. Nikola Davidovic I have attended FOSS4VGI Workshop held in Politecnico Milano, Como Campus this July and it was a great experience. It was a perfectly balanced workshop intended for both geographers and developers. Anyone was able to find something interesting. From learning about OSGeo initiatives and projects, through making simple yet powerful forms, routing using OSM data, learning various tools related to OSM as well as making our own simple WebGIS application. All this was presented by experienced trainers that were more then ready to help each and every participant whenever there was a problem. For me personally, this Workshop brought me back to the VGI world and sparkled that interest again. Being both, researcher and developer, this Workshop gave me enough knowledge of tools which I will hopefully be able to use in my future research for an idea I was already having prior to the event. Last but not the least, I hope I will keep contacts with people that I've meet in Como, including trainees, trainers and organizers. I am pretty sure that events like this can significantly help young researchers to develop new ideas and grow their connections with researchers alike for common benefits. FOSS4VGI did this for sure and beautiful city and lake Como only helped this great event being unforgettable. Florian Dierickx The training school FOSS4VGI on the use of free and open source software with VGI in the context of the COST Action “Mapping and the citizen sensor” and the associated activities around the FOSS4G Europe 2015 Conference was a unique experience in which I learnt a lot of interesting techniques and concepts. I had already both personally and professionally a strong interest in spatial/GIS software and the world of open source projects, but this course really opened my eyes on the subject. By discussing and exchanging information with people from all over Europe and having the opportunity to get lessons from enthusiastic and

committed open source experts, I got inspired to immerse myself further in the world of open source VGI software and ongoing projects. I am very grateful for this experience and the enthusiasm of the organizers, teachers and course participants. Luis Encalada Abarca The training school was a really good opportunity to know more about Volunteered Geographic Information. All the lectures were interesting and helpful for my professional formation. I really liked the lectures related to webgis and open data. For sure, I will put that knowledge into practice in the new research project in which I am involved currently. It was my first time in this type of academic events and I feel glad for having the chance to live this experience. The training school let me know more about other research work and it opened my view regarding applications of GIS. It is also important to mention that those days of training were perfect to have contact with other students, researchers and professionals of the GIS field. The city of Como and Politecnico di Milano were really nice places. All the activities were well organized and the people in charge of the organization did a great job. It was a really nice learning experience! Lachezar Filchev The FOSS4VGI training school was an intense enriching experience in the field of open geospatial technologies. The choice of lecturers with their complementary expertise and the location of the training school, i.e. the city of Como, Italy, provided for making new contacts, enjoying nature and Italian culture, as well as visiting FOSS4G Europe 2015 conference. To my view, the FOSS4VGI training school will open a new page in my research by using crowd sourced geospatial data and software. For me, as a researcher, this means more independence and higher agility in solving different application tasks. Therefore, my personal goal of knowing how to make use of open geospatial data and software was fulfilled. Ľudmila Furtkevičová It has been my first conference and first training school ever. Our University deals with FOSS only marginally. I wanted to attend training as well as the conference to extend my horizons, get new knowledge and inspiration, a better understanding of the FOSS4G ideas. Topics such as OpenStreetMap, Geopaparazzi, ODK Collect, OSGeo Live, pgRouting and many others which were discussed at the conference exceeded my expectations. For three days it was impossible to remember everything, but it was a perfect start and introduction to many interesting topics. That's exactly what I needed and I will continue with VGI (programs I did not open for the last time). Maybe next year I will apply for PhD study and maybe I will try to develop FOSS in Bratislava. I have met many great people and experts. The conference ended on Friday. I left my plain, I bought a new boarding pass and I stayed at the Code Sprint and then at the GRASS GIS Code Sprint, where great people have shown me how to work with Linux, how to contribute to a better documentation of GRASS GIS, how the GitHub or GRASS-Wiki works. Even though it cost me a lot of money, I'm happy that maybe COST has started something new in my life. After returning home I installed a Linux - Ubuntu, and I plan to develop my new knowledge. The result is the first posts in GRASS documentation. I believe that the image of motivated people from Como will be an inspiration to me in my next FOSS4G development. Gustavo Garcia The training school “FOSS4VGI – Using Free and Open Source Software for VGI: integration, analysis and visualization” brought together an excellent group of researchers to setup an optimum space to discuss the usage of FOSS for the acquisition, integration, analysis and visualization of VGI. Regardless the time limitations, the training school succeeded in presenting the right information to trigger the creative thinking of the participants in contextualizing FOSS and VGI in their own work. Finally, the training school provided the space to establish collaboration networks with researchers having similar or complementary interests, which definitely will play a key role in the development of current and future researches.

José Gaspar The training school was well organized, with very good trainers, which showed a very good knowledge of the subjects addressed (theoretical and practical experience). The issues covered and the time expended allowed a good exchange of knowledge, and gave the opportunity to put hands on “new/different” solutions that can be used in our work, or with different approaches, creating new opportunities for VGI usage. The group had a good exchange and interaction between the trainees (different countries, backgrounds and interests), and some practical’s were done more in group (than individual), which gave the opportunity to increase/exchange experiences. The group composition pose some difficulties for the trainers, in order to target the level which should be used, also some more intense practical’s were difficult to follow due to different OS systems used, different machines configuration (even with the very good help and availability of the trainers to help), which, in my opinion, could be solved by using more time, or by having a different type of labs. The general conditions were fine, despite some air conditioning (temperature inside working rooms) and informatics (network and individual equipment) problems. Codrina Maria Ilie After attending the FOSS4VGI COST training school, I consider myself fortunate. Although, I use FOSS4G in my work on a daily basis, I did not have yet the occasion to investigate volunteered geographic information, nor thought extensively to the opportunity it yields. The workshop has shaped a clear idea regarding technical and theoretical aspects of VGI. I consider this to be the natural consequence of the well and logically planning of the talks and seminars. I consider that the organizers did a very good job in selecting the trainers. I was positively impressed with the level of knowledge of the latter and the thorough preparation of all talks and practical exercises. Furthermore, the straightforwardness of our trainers and the curiosity and interest of my fellow colleagues triggered some interesting debates on FOSS4G, open geodata, licenses and public participation, which in my opinion was an added value of the event. As a conclusion, I consider that the FOSS4VGI COST training school was a perfect incentive for all participants (with or without GIS technical expertise) to start an analysis regarding the potential use of VGI in their own work. Stefan Ivanovic Generally speaking, participation in COST training school in Como was very useful experience. During the training school we had an opportunity to attend high class lectures given by real experts in VGI, from theoretical to developer side. The variety of subjects presented was also very satisfying. Apart from lectures concentrated to obtaining VGI applications’ developing skills, we were fully introduced in all phases of dealing with OpenStreet Map project, as well as in wide range of Open source software for manipulation with geo-spatial data. Furthermore, we had an opportunity to do practical work in some of them like Leaflet, GeoJSON, pgRouting, etc. From my point of view, experience related to Geopaparazzi Android application was highly useful for me and my ongoing PhD research. Indeed, facilitating the process of collection of spatial data is needed and very important part in development of VGI and Crowdsourcing society. On the other hand, networking between a lot of European young scientists and academics was the thing which I found as a second main outcome of this training. A process of candidates’ selection ensured interesting mix of participants which made the training an excellent place for obtaining new professional contacts and for establishing future cooperation between participants. Once again, it was a pleasure for me to be a part of COST “Mapping and the Citizen Sensor” Action’s training. In addition I would like to thank to organizing team for 3 very nice days spent in Como. Kalogeropoulou Panagiwta This Training School helped me immensely to be informed and to gain experience in new programs and applications that I can use later on in my research and in my subsequent work! All teachers were too good to allow us to explain and give us the knowledge and the motivation to deal with new things.

I believe that such initiatives are very good to help a lot people who want to learn things that will help them later in their career path and also very important is that there is funding about this thing, so that there is incentive for people who have difficulty to attend such events. Thank you, keep it up!!! Petra Malisan The training course was very useful and informative. Theory and practice went a hand-in-hand, and I really liked the way the trainers facilitated the learning. The course permitted to conceive new ideas and proposals for projects, by adopting Free Open Source Software and Volunteered Geographical Information. Jelena Marjanović It was a pleasure for me to attend the training school in Como. This helped me to deepen my knowledge on the VGI information and have a wider overview of its influence and possibilities. Additionally I meet a number of people and expand my network, which I believe will be beneficial in the future. Thank you very much for organizing the event and good luck! Miriam Molteni The VGI training school has been an incredible experience to increase my knowledge in GIS and to know other people interested in this topic. The lectures were interesting on the one hand for the explained things and on the other for the trainers, which were experts of the sector from all over the world. It has been a pleasure to learn directly from them. Even if it lasted for only 3 days, I deeply understood the usage of some applications that I already knew and learn many others. An experience that I recommend to anyone is interested in the subject. Sara Mura From my personal point of view, it was over all a very good experience with lots of learning opportunities. Indeed, the training sessions were very interactive and the high-qualified supervisors were very cooperative with all the trainees. I really appreciated all the lessons, even if I found some difficulties in the pgRouting lesson, which I considered to be too technical for me, especially considering my background. Nevertheless, as a result of the training material available on-line, I will have the possibility of deepening my understanding. Moreover, the lessons were very helpful and worth attending, even in the light of the fact that I consider myself to be a layman in the open source software field. Accordingly to that I was very glad to participate to this training school, as I had the possibility to have a different perspective and, more important, to have new available tools to use for my academic research. Considering the more social aspects, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for everyone who contributed to the success of the training school and the FOSS4G Europe 2015 Conference. I really appreciated their hard work, which, as a consequence, has led to a successful organization. It was a pleasure to be part of this class. Radife Neziri For me, the training school was a very interesting, inspiring and enjoyable event in every sense. My experience of the FOSS4G Training School surpassed my expectations, as there were numerous ways in which I was able to benefit greatly from the three-day event. At stages over the three days I was afforded the opportunity to listen the trainers how to use, manipulate and visualize VGI data and how it can be integrated with other geospatial datasets. This enabled me to gain an understanding of the methodological issues they encountered, and how they were able to overcome these problems to conduct their research. Therefore, not only was I able to be illuminated by new research methodologies, notably visual research methods, I also gained insight in how best to avoid potential issues that I myself may encounter. The training school was a good event and I am pleased that I was able to attend. I thought that it was well run – in an atmosphere that was a blend of real work and good fun, the trainers were generous with their time and ideas – both in formal

sessions and during breaks and meal times. I came away with a number of specific learning points. Thanks again. Daniele Oxoli The three days of courses have been organized in a proficient way. The work was really intensive but the trainers demonstrated to be prepared as well as friendly with us by answering to any question and by helping us in any phase of the training. The topics were explained with a good level of accuracy and I found these really interesting. I appreciated especially the good balance between theory and practice sessions. The only negative point that I would like to underline is about the morning of the third day (pgRouting exercise); I found the practice a bit complicated to follow with respect to my wealth of knowledge, especially with not so advanced computer skills. The organization was present and proactive in any occasion and I would like to give 9/10 as mark to this training school. Patrik Poláček FOSS4VGI and Como 2015 were great! New city, university, people, friends and skills. All in one. After the first nervous moments in the beginning, everything went good. Teachers were kind and very helpful. Each problem was solved. Social dinner was tasty and many friendships began there. In my opinion, new practical skills and friendships with people from the whole Europe are the best things this event gave to me. It was great experience for me and I am really glad I could participate at this training school! Cristina Rosales The training school on FOSS4VGI has been a very fruitful experience, in terms of content and in connecting professionals with common interests. During the training school we got introduced into several software for data collection and management, useful for VGI projects, but not only. In addition, the workshops are well documented and this offers the possibility to repeat the hands-on exercises and refresh the ideas going on the taught software whenever is needed. Also, the documentation allows sharing and spreading the interest on using the taught tools, enlarging the network of professionals interested. The training school offers the possibility to get to know professionals working in similar fields, establishing relations for further potential collaborations. In general, I think it was a great experience that I would certainly recommend to others interested on FOSS4G. Aslı Turgutalp It was really good time to be part of this training program in Como with you and I really enjoy my practical class. So thank you for giving us this opportunity! The atmosphere was very friendly. Helpful with questions, concept good teaching materials. The course was really interesting and informative. I feel it has given me enough to explore my design and has also made me a lot more curious about experimenting with material and forms. I can go through with my skills learned from the workshops and create many maps. Thank you. Vijay Charan Venkatachalam First of all I would like to thank for the opportunity given to attend COST Action TD1202 “Mapping and the Citizen Sensor”. It was overall a very good experience with lots of learning opportunity in Volunteered Geographical Information with lots of experienced people in Geographical Information from all over Europe. The training session was very interactive with great people: Jeff McKenna, Peter Mooney, Daniel Kastl, Marco Minghini, Andrea Antonello. They also cooperated very well in explaining the stuffs when we had doubts. The topics were well structured and worth attending. These topics helped me in improving my knowledge in Volunteered Geographical Information. I also wish to take part in the upcoming Programs to gain much more knowledge.

It would be nice if the management can provide better infrastructure such as providing computers and gadgets for the training instead of using their own computer and gadgets. I encountered a problem of not able to access of one applications because of my mobile Android version; anyways it was not a big problem. I hope my suggestions will be considered by management for the improvement of this training. Nenad Visnjevac FOSS4VGI training school was great opportunity to meet researchers and PhD students who use VGI data. Trainers were excellent and I learned a lot such as how to create data collection template with Open Data Kit or how to use OpenStreetMap with pgRouting. Geopaparazzi is also useful and cool thing. I also discovered new options in OpenStreetMap, which will help me in my research. Thanks to Mr. Jeff McKenna I learned a lot about Open Source Geospatial Community and how to get involved. All together it was great experience and I hope that there will be more opportunities like this one. Organizers did great job, and of course Italian pizza is very tasty. Thanks a lot for great organization! Michael Foley I found the FOSS4VGG training school 2015 to be a very enjoyable and beneficial experience. Over the three days of the event I was introduced to and developed skills which will not only benefit my current research, but also allow me to apply new methods within future studies. It was a very well run and organised event with interesting lectures and beneficial practical sessions. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.