I had the privilege last summer of attending State of the Map Africa, and getting some insight into the status of OpenStreetMap on the continent. This year, almost as a followup, FOSS4G Dar es Salaam was held in conjunction with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s Summit. And so it was that FOSS4G this year was one part FOSS4G, one part HOT, and one part Tanzania, all … Continue reading Women and FOSS4G / HOT Summit in Africa
Korean Drumming at FOSS4G Seoul: Continue reading Korean Drumming at FOSS4G Seoul
In order to function at a most basic level in a given society (which I do not yet in the South Korean context), it is good to know the basic words of courtesy — the equivalents of “Excuse me”, “Pardon me”, “Nice to meet you”, “Hello”, “Goodbye”, etc.. Today we’ll talk about how to say “I’m sorry.” Between talking across cultural / language / expectation … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 4: Apologies
I had the good pleasure of attending FOSS4G Seoul. One of the organizers (Heegu Park) early on told me, in response to the workshop I planned, something to the effect of “Whatever you need, Steve, ask for it. Nothing is impossible.” The organizers truly were capable of fulfilling any request. More on that later. Last time I was in Seoul, I took lots of pictures. … Continue reading Uninformed botanical musings
Short linguistics aside For me, understanding a language, beyond a memorization of terms, is predicated on the idea that I understand something of the underlying logic to the language. So today, instead of a Korean word, we’ll talk about the term agglutinative. (bless you) In short, what it means is that a language uses a lot of prefixes, stem words, and suffixes, and that these components … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 3: Agglutinative language
A good logo is hard to come by. I love the logo of Korean National Park Service. It’s simple, beautiful, has elements of complexity to it, and makes a simple statement: land of mountains and sea. The mountains and the sea are sources of life in Korea, from the resources and farming found on the edge of the mountains, the peace found hiking and visiting … Continue reading Mini-series on Korean words, part 2: Land of Mountains and Sea
Contemplating FOSS4G 2015, Seoul, South Korea | SEPTEMBER 14TH – 19TH, 2015, but don’t speak Korean? That’s ok. You will be treated oh so well even without Korean. But… if you want to show your hosts and hostesses a little care in return, maybe learn a little basic Korean. I highly recommend the sweetandtasty channel on YouTube, starting with the word “Love” or “sarang”. You’ll … Continue reading And I will fly ten thousand miles…
As I am contemplating FOSS4G 2015 (save the date! Seoul, South Korea | SEPTEMBER 14TH – 19TH, 2015) I contemplate what it means to be functionally illiterate for the first time in 30 years. You see, when, if you are an American born, English and Spanish (kinda) speaking guy and you get dropped into East Asia, there is no alphabet for you to rely on … Continue reading Korean and Hangul
Contemplating FOSS4G 2015, Seoul, South Korea | SEPTEMBER 14TH – 19TH, 2015. It’s only 18 cents a mile to get there from Cleveland, but only 0.11 dollars a kilometer, because the metric system is more economical. If you need inspiration for your own travels to Korea, Mr. Sanghee Shin has that for you. He starts with technology, food, arts, culture, economic potential, but also solicits … Continue reading And I will fly ten thousand miles…
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