Keynote speech - Geospatial Information for the UN Secretaiat and Peace Operations

this my name is given to I work at the uh the geospatial information section in New York with Mr. on um my domesticity tool coordinate the just speech information support in peacekeeping operations our peacekeeping operation is a is a is a big business there's a lot of personal that are deploying the feeling there were very most places that we have we had infrastructure to support this person in all dimensions of the in the field

so really quick you I think we context talk maybe at this point of what we know the engagement of lack of its ways of the open-source jets coming in community is on give us a live it's where we stand up on and try to carve and all understand what could be a way forward in evolving this relationship and and the we're not

exactly an open-source shop but when it comes to a geospatial information for other matters as well but this focus and the speech information from Wu for their many reasons for this among them from but there's not solely of history seriously a strong focus on investment for peacekeeping long-term investment for peacekeeping is quite often seen by Member States both in time and then in resource engagements to support the transition in a given country are you know getting in to a job try is to establish a government putting out here of course we scenery doesn't work necessary that way they're of the Ottawa we often engage for more than 5 decades now I will not get as we have tens of thousands of troops on the ground and it's with to be supported for 10 15 20 years maybe so all there is a right really rization that's that's coming that maybe we can do better in supporting them thereby building for longer term but we also need to deploy at short notice that in a very difficult environment on a unions that's all of the preparedness is important but also relying on on on popular established partner is very much in our DNA in order to or to share the risk of so far the there's the why can't ask for pre softer meets the needs of it it's easy integrates in complex in 5 and rise because the provided resources to help us integrate the solutions floor infrastructure on as long as we mean it's the distribution or the user of geospatial information to specially suggest specialist the cost is not necessary for EBT prohibitive for an enterprise's size of peace-keeping from which we we see him we yeah that's when we 1 extreme in push more geospatial information of to non-specialists to soldiers to the human rights of persons supports after officers of the the number off user row from maybe a hundred 150 to thousands tens of thousands actually I love cost becomes an issue on and obviously also we saw in the past decade of great improvement in much which she off user interface and user interface graphical user interface for the for the end users in having the on of modern interface is available the Nemeroff off of software boasts on desktop or on a mobile platform is a game-changer when you want to obviously push applications to the end users so from when we stand where where

the the benefits and again that's the case and bring into our tool for discussion right on no 1 of the ball most importance is better control on the faster to we we study to having the past few years some shaky relationship with some vendors of couplings after outside visual analysis of that are changing in faster to comprehend that that that obliges us to make some changes that we that up and plan pulling them and we won't have a better control over this and and therefore so the that improve the sustainability of our investment on we we also see that you know that you will have to be a better access the more national axis would say to open their platform of free open source software is kind of a mole performing that proprietary equivalent from but the financial aspects I mentioned that I won't come back on they once use many times as no aligning are achieved between the cost and and and the size of the deployment and also improving interoperability can be an important of the factor of that 1 1 work we think you insanity but also with local national is the eyes and distributing all taking the area can be off uh and the majority of factory in Holy 1 of the force sub problems it also

well we have I have the feeling of stuff might verso form of you here a maybe being the 1 that's the right thing to do 1 thing and I'm the and it's going to a body of the social value of free open software and up from behind will have more children making the case and it will but here I think it's an acquired of a concept so I in growing common knowledge may be returning the investment in terms of services extracted communities that contribute makes a lot of sense of being the 1 yeah yeah

there also reason that we did that that would let then if either the associates we of the going down a the fear of resource way from 1 make sure that we know that we have the proper level supports when deploying people deployment I think there's a much richer the markets that around the of the and if the it the economy ecology of open source software uh that's coming to maturity so we wanna have cost about predictable of what working with is of the company is we have an envelope that is 3 sizable but that encompasses everything will make sure that's that's factored in as well because the price of software is generally factor in the employing IT projects but they also take cells also the Texas out of our comfort zone as the fair we we don't do this is not our goal to option but maybe to that thing of about so what are all

objectives uh in in an studying there's a lot of identified to optimizing the use of GIS the free open-source software for a reason to some of the of the fight that ICT previously in careful choice of where the were at optimizing the use the there's no a benchmark where 1 ago we don't say that we going to change the software in 1 5 10 years we just 1 of market where it's going on and with all the benefits and the risk associated the white fits the best because 1st and foremost we need to deliver and support peacekeeping operations and so all we have we also have the ID that's integrating free open source software open beat up you know knowledge in order to have activity will help us better support the countries we all operating on have that I say peacekeeping is generally bonding in time when we put out what do we do with everything so that we have a whole audience for many years when we uh kernel of that to be that we extracted from satellite you image from all of the information that we the that we of of the gathered for this time hold we transmit this in a sustainable way into the host countries we have experience in the in the past we did this several times we face many times of the day of the problem for the for the host country to make maintain that current investments and and leverages the that investment for their own good over time so we want 1 get better at this tha

so that making an appeal to the floor and to and beyond flow of open source community but we would like to uh put on the stand the play the place that's open source systems can technology ice activities for us it's to a gray areas are a lot of initiatives it's a it's a constantly moving targets in we wanna understand of in for our own use what other pieces of software held the article to 1 another how we can we can move from all proper at proprietary architecture for open source 1 but in a very realistic way the the following I also want identify the shortcomings the current shortcomings of the inference software for our own workflows and how we can plug these shortcomings 1 understand and we the idea that's of open source software is of policy not just take and whatever we want with it but we to the back which we engage how we engage communities would we need what others choose need to evolving our you know staff in order to take benefit but also to give back and open source communities cover health engagement of those communities thank

you for your attention things