OSGeo - User contributions [en]

Geoservices REST API

2013-05-13T09:47:43Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Signed */

This wiki page aims to collate community concerns related to the adoption of the "Geoservices REST API" document as a standard of the [http://www.opengeospatial.org/ Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)]. The page is being collaboratively edited, targeting completion by Wednesday 15 May 2013, after which it will be delivered by the board of the [http://osgeo.org OSGeo Foundation (OSGeo)] to the OGC and OGC voting members.

= Cover Letter from the OSGeo Board =
''Please don't edit this "Cover Letter" statement, which has been approved by the OSGeo Board.''

The board of the [http://osgeo.org Open Source Geospatial Foundation] (OSGeo) is presenting this letter to the OGC. It highlights concerns about the "GeoServices REST API" from many people within the OSGeo community. As always, if there is anything the OSGeo board can do to help, then please let us know.

Signed: Jeff McKenna (OSGeo president),
Peter Batty,
Jáchym Čepický,
Michael Gerlek,
Anne Ghisla,
Mark Lucas,
Daniel Morissette,
Cameron Shorter,
Frank Warmerdam

= Open Letter to OGC and voting members =

''Please don't edit this "Open Letter" statement, comments and discussion should go in the "Further Concerns" section below.''

May 2013

We, the undersigned, have concerns that approving the "Geoservices REST API" as an OGC standard, would have detrimental impacts on interoperability within the spatial industry.

We strongly urge that the proposed "Geoservices REST API", as it stands in May 2013, be rejected as an OGC standard.

People have listed different reasons for concern. They are described below.

== Signed ==
''Please add your name here if you agree with the above statement. Include name, work title (if appropriate), very brief title/involvement in OSGeo if appropriate. (Link to OSGeo profile if appropriate). You may sign as a group, such as the Project Steering Committee of XXX project if you wish, or as Your Name on behalf of YYY company.''

# [[User:camerons|Cameron Shorter]], Geospatial Solutions Director at [http://lisasoft.com LISAsoft], core contributor & coordinator of [http://live.osgeo.org OSGeo-Live], OSGeo Board member
# [[Mark Lucas]], Founding member and board of directors for OSGeo foundation, Principal Scientist for RadiantBlue Technologies Inc.
# [[User:Woodbri|Stephen Woodbridge]], Director of [http://imaptools.com iMaptools.com], Contributor and/or PSC of [http://mapserver.org Mapserver], [http://pgrouting.org/ pgRouting], [http://www.pagcgeo.org/ PAGC], and [http://www.postgis.org/ PostGIS]
# [[User:rouault|Even Rouault]], Geospatial developer, OSGeo Charter Member, core contributor and PSC member of [http://gdal.org GDAL/OGR], contributor of [http://mapserver.org Mapserver], [http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/ PROJ.4], [http://trac.osgeo.org/geotiff/ libgeotiff], [http://shapelib.maptools.org/ shapelib], [http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/ libtiff]
# Gerhard Triebnig, Managing Director at [http://eox.at EOX IT Services GmbH]
# [[User:pcreso|Brent Wood]], Environmental Information Delivery Programme Leader, NIWA, New Zealand. OGC member, Aust/NZ OSGEO chapter member, NZOSS Council member
# [[User:Schpidi|Stephan Meissl]], CTO at [http://eox.at EOX IT Services GmbH], contributor to [http://mapserver.org Mapserver], PSC chair of [http://eoxserver.org EOxServer]
# [[User:ticheler|Jeroen Ticheler]], Director of [http://geocat.net GeoCat], project founder and PSC chair of [http://geonetwork-opensource.org GeoNetwork opensource]
# [[User:Just|Just van den Broecke]], Director at [http://www.justobjects.nl Just Objects], contributor to [http://heron-mc.org Heron Mapping Client], secretary of [http://osgeo.nl OSGeo Dutch Local Chapter], member at [http://www.opengeogroep.nl OpenGeoGroep]
# [[User:milovanderlinden|Milo van der Linden]], member at [http://www.opengeogroep.nl OpenGeoGroep]
# [[User:surveyor|Landon Blake]], GIS Department Manager/Land Surveyor at [http://www.ksninc.com KSN], OSGeo California Chapter Board Representative.
# [[User:dmorissette|Daniel Morissette]], President at [http://mapgears.com/ Mapgears], core contributor and PSC member of [http://mapserver.org Mapserver] and [http://gdal.org GDAL/OGR]. Former OGC TC member and involved in the implementation of several OGC WxS services specs in MapServer.
# [[User:blammo|Bob Basques]], GIS Systems Developer at the City of Saint Paul, MN. [http://gis.ci.stpaul.mn.us Public Works GIS (GISmo)], Technical Director at [http://www.sharedgeo.org SharedGeo], OSGeo Charter Member, OSGeo TCMUG local chapter member, Co-founder and PSC member of [http://www.geomoose.org GeoMoose] project.
# [[User:vehrka|Pedro-Juan Ferrer Matoses]], PM at Omnium Strategic Intelligence, Spain, OSGeo Charter Member, OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Liaison officer.
# Bevan Rudge, Director Lucion Limited, IT Advisor at Conservation Strategy Fund, Esri client
# [[User:Delawen|María Arias de Reyna]], software engineer at [http://geocat.net GeoCat], Spain, member of OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter.
# [[User:Aghisla|Anne Ghisla]], OSGeo Board Member, Italy, member of OSGeo Italian Local Chapter.
# [[User:Michogar|Micho Garcia]], Freelance and member of [http://geomati.co geomati.co], Spain, member of Spanish Local Chapter
# [[User:Madi|Margherita Di Leo]], OSGeo Charter Member, Post-doctoral researcher at the European Commission, JRC, Italy
# [[Jorge Sanz]], GIS Consultant at [http://www.prodevelop.es Prodevelop], OSGeo Charter Member, OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Member, Spain
# [[Pablo Sanxiao]], CTO and co-founder at [http://www.icarto.es iCarto], OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Member, Spain
# [[User:Fsteggink|Frank Steggink]], GIS software developer at [http://www.vicrea.nl Vicrea], The Netherlands, member of the Dutch Local Chapter
# [[User:Olivier.courtin|Olivier Courtin]], [http://www.oslandia.com Oslandia] co-founder, core contributor or/and PSC member of [http://mapserver.org Mapserver] and [http://www.postgis.org/ PostGIS]. OGC TC member.
# [[User:Bolosig|Wladimir Szczerban]], OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Member, Spain
# [[User:AnitaGraser|Anita Graser]], GIS specialist with AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, OSGeo Charter member and QGIS team member.
# [[User:Vmische|Volker Mische]], geospatial software engineer, creator of GeoCouch
# [[User:Ivansanchez|Iván Sánchez]], OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Member, head of [http://www.openstreetmap.es OpenStreetMap Spain], [http://osmfoundation.org OpenStreetMap Foundation] member, [http://hot.openstreetmap.org/ Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team] member, [http://www.idee.es/ Spanish SDI working group] member
# [[User:Gabi|Gabriel Carrión]], Strategy Manager at [http://www.gvsig.com gvSIG association]
# [http://strk.keybit.net Sandro Santilli], OSGeo Charter Member, [http://postgis.net PostGIS] and [http://trac.osgeo.org/geos GEOS] PSC member and core hacker.
# [[User:Javiarch|Javier Diaz]], member of Geoinquietos Bs As [http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Category:Geoinquietos_Buenos_Aires], member of the Organizing Committee FOSS4G Bs As 2013 [http://www.foss4g-ba.org/]
# [[User: JoCook|Jo Cook]], Consultant at [http://isharemaps.com| Astun Technology], former Director of OSGeo, Charter Member, founder of UK Local Chapter, Deputy Chair of [http://2013.foss4g.org| FOSS4G 2013]
# [[User: Fpenarru | Francisco José Peñarrubia]], CTO and co-founder at [http://www.scolab.es SCOLAB]. Members of [http://www.gvsig.com gvSIG Association]
# [[User: Ganesh|Shanmugam Ganeshkumar]], Director of [http://www.geoicon.com GeoICON], member OSGeo Malaysia Chapter
# [[User:Barryrowlingson|Barry Rowlingson]], Senior Researcher, Lancaster University and Software Sustainability Institute Fellow
# [[User: Sfkeller|Stefan Keller]], University of Applied Sciences, Rapperswil (Switzerland), Member of Swiss OSM (SOSM) and QGIS association and of organizing committees of pgConf.DE and FOSSGIS 2013, and member of eCH (e-government standards of Switzerland)
# [[User: AndyBMapMan|Andrew Bailey]], OSGeo member, Astun Technology
# [[User: Sanand|Suchith Anand]], OSGeo Charter member, OSGeo Education member, FOSS4G 2013 LOC member
# [[User: krefftc|Carlos Krefft]], GIS software developer at [http://www.cstars.miami.edu CSTARS - University of Miami], OGC and OSGeo Member.
# [[User:Steko|Stefano Costa]], OSGeo member, GFOSS.it member and former board member, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (Italy)
# [[User:pebau|Peter Baumann]], [http://www.jacobs-university.de/lsis Jacobs University], OGC member, WCS.SWG chair, editor of 10+ specs (disclaimer: this is an expression of my personal opinion and not in any way endorsed by OGC)
# [[User:pmbatty|Peter Batty]], CTO of Geospatial Division at [http://www.ubisense.net Ubisense], OSGeo board member, former CTO of [http://intergraph.com Intergraph] and [http://www.gedigitalenergy.com/gis.htm GE Smallworld], Technical Committee member of OGC in its formative years c 1995-97
# [[User: BarendKobben | Barend Köbben]], OSGEO Chartered Member, OSGeo.nl Dutch chapter treasurer, Senior Lecturer at [http://www.itc.nl ITC-University of Twente]
# [[User: pcav | Paolo Cavallini]], [http://www.faunalia.it Faunalia], OSGeo member, GFOSS.it member and former president, QGIS-PSC
# [[User: fthamura| FRans Thamura]], [http://www.osgeo.or.id Indonesia], OSGeo Indonesia, organizer]
# [[User: Endofcap| Sanghee Shin]], Founder and CEO of [http://www.gaia3d.com Gaia3D], OSGeo Charter Member, Representative of [http://www.osgeo.kr OSGeo Korean Chapter], Chairman of Open Source GIS Alliance Korea
# [[User: rentairo| Benni Purwonegoro]],Indonesia, IT-Spatial Engineer @ Geospatial Information Agency .
# [[User: jachym| Jachym Cepicky]], Czech Republic, member of OSGeo Board of Directors
# [[User: cappelaere| Pat Cappelaere]], Vightel Corporation
# [[User: JuergenFischer|Jürgen Fischer]], norBIT GmbH, QGIS core developer
# [[User: Maria|Maria Antonia Brovelli]], OSGeo Charter member, OSGeo Education member, GIS Professor and Vice Rector for the Como Campus at [http://www.polimi.it/en Politecnico di Milano], Italy
# [[User:Nachouve |Nacho Varela]], GIS Consultant, OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Member, Spain
# [[User:vasile |Vasile Craciunescu]], OSGeo Charter member, OSGeo Romania Local Chapter Leader, Researcher at Romanian National Meteorological Administration, Romania
# [[User:badaveil |Abbas Abdul Wahab]], Asst. Director, Federal Department of Town & Country Planning, Peninsular Malaysia
# [[User:rbraam | Roy Braam]], Software Engineer @ [http://www.b3partners.nl | B3Partners]
# [[User:peteris | Peteris Bruns]], Latvia, GIS Consultant & Software Engineer @ [http://www.sungis.lv | SunGIS]
# [[User:Lutra | Giovanni Manghi]], Portugal, [http://www.faunalia.pt Faunalia], OSGeo member, OSGeo-Portugal
# [[User:Hfpmartins | Hugo Martins]], UK, [http://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk Lutra Consulting], WebGIS Developer, OSGeo-Portugal Member
# [[User:Sabb | Saber Razmjooei]], UK, [http://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk Lutra Consulting], Co-Founder
# [[User:Wellsp | Peter Wells]], UK, [http://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk Lutra Consulting], Co-Founder
# [[User:SGijzen | Sidney Gijzen]], The Netherlands, Researcher GIS @ [http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-Institutes/alterra.htm Alterra, Wageningen UR]
# [[User:mfidelman | Miles Fidelman]], US, Principal, Protocol Technologies Group, LLC
# [[User:punkish | Puneet Kishor]], OSGeo Charter Member; [http://www.geology.wisc.edu Geology, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison]; [http://creativecommons.org/staff#puneetkishor Creative Commons]
# [[User:Toze | António José Silva]], Portugal, GIS Consultant, OSGeo-Portugal Member
# [[User:AndreMano | AndreMano]], Portugal, Natural History Society - GIS Department, OSGeo-Portugal Member
# [[User:maurimiranda|Mauricio Miranda]], Argentina, OSGeo Charter Member, OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Board Member
# [[User:pmachado|Paulo Machado]], Portugal, Software Engineer @ PT Inovação
# [[User:alvaro|Alvaro Anguix]], Spain, General Manager at [http://www.gvsig.com gvSIG Association]
# [[Santiago Higuera]], CEO at [http://Mercatorlab.com Mercatorlab], OSGeo Spanish Local Chapter Board Member, Spain
# [[Alan Boudreault]], Developer at [http://mapgears.com/ Mapgears], contributor to [http://mapserver.org Mapserver] and [httpo://gdal.org GDAL/OGR].
# [[User:mikesaunt|Mike Saunt]], UK, Owner at [http://astuntechnology.com Astun Technology Ltd], OSGeo sponsor
# [[User:msmitherdc|Michael Smith]], OSGeo Charter Member, Physical Scientist US Army Corps of Engineers Remote Sensing GIS Center
# [[User:Kalxas|Angelos Tzotsos]], OSGeo Charter Member, Researcher at National Technical University of Athens
# [[User:Kimaidou|Michaël Douchin]], France, GIS consultant & software engineer at [http://3liz.com/ 3liz]
# [[User:PedroVenancio | Pedro Venâncio]], Portugal, GIS Analyst @ Municipality of Pinhel
# [[User:Jgrocha|Jorge Gustavo Rocha]], Portugal, GIS Professor at Universidade do Minho
# [[User:Danielkastl| Daniel Kastl]], Japan, [http://georepublic.info Georepublic], Founder
# [[Diodata|John Callahan]], US, Research Scientist and GIS/Remote Sensing Specialist, University of Delaware
# [[User:kjkalyan|Kalyan Janakiraman]], Senior Systems Analyst, Business Development Services, NSW Land and Property Information, Sydney, Australia
# [[User:goliadranger|Phillip Davis]], Director, National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence, Texas, USA
# [[User:simonp|Simon Pigot]], contributor to and PSC member of [http://geonetwork-opensource.org GeoNetwork opensource] (speaking for myself, not an official view of my employer)
# [[User:jbryant|John Bryant]], Consultant, Mammoth Mapping, Dawson City, Canada and GIS/DB Admin, Jupiter Mines, Perth, Australia
# [[ChIossif|Christos Iossifides]], Remote Sensing Instructor, Laboratory Teaching Staff, Remote Sensing Instructor and Researcher, National Technical University of Athens
# [[User:tbowden|Tim Bowden]], Spatial Consultant, Perth, Australia
# [[User:Lucadelu|Luca Delucchi]], GIS Technician, Trento, Italy
# [[User:bartvde|Bart van den Eijnden]], GIS software developer, Utrecht, Netherlands
# [[User:eyedol|Henry Addo]], Software Developer at Ushahidi [http://ushahidi.com], contributor of [http://live.osgeo.org OSGeo-Live]
# [[User:iacovellas|Stefano Iacovella]], GIS consultant & software engineer, Rome, Italy
# [[User:Mtoonen| Meine Toonen]], Software Engineer @ [http://www.b3partners.nl B3Partners], The Netherlands
# [[User:arneke| Arne Kepp]], Software Engineer, Oslo, Norway
# [[User:Pirmin_Kalberer| Pirmin Kalberer]], Managing director [http://sourcepole.com/ Sourcepole], [http://fossgis.de FOSSGIS] member, Contributor of [http://gdal.org GDAL/OGR], [http://qgis.org QGIS], [http://mapfish.org/ Mapfish], [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGIS UbuntuGIS], [http://live.osgeo.org OSGeo-Live], Switzerland
# [[User:hdus| Dr. Horst Düster]], Managing director [http://sourcepole.com/ Sourcepole], [http://fossgis.de FOSSGIS] member, Treasurer QGIS Project [http://qgis.org QGIS], Zürich, Switzerland
# [[User:rduivenvoorde| Richard Duivenvoorde]], Managing director & software developer [http://www.webmapper.net/ Webmapper], QGIS community member
# [[User:stevenfeldman|Steven Feldman]], Principal at [http://knowwhereconslting.co.uk KnowWhere Consulting] and Chair of the LOC for [http://2013.foss4g.org/ FOSS4G 2013]
# [[User:Edward_Mac_Gillavry| Edward Mac Gillavry]], Managing director & software developer [http://www.webmapper.net/ Webmapper]
# [[User:maximdubinin| Maxim Dubinin]], CEO at [http://www.nextgis.org/ NextGIS], head of [http://gis-lab.info GIS-Lab.info]
# [[User:flavour| Fran Boon]], PMC Chair at [http://sahanafoundation.org/ Sahana Foundation], CTO of [http://aidiq.com AidIQ]
# [[User:Ian| Ian Edwards]], Chair [http://www.osgeo.org/uk OSGeo:UK]
# [[User:Bishop|Dmitriy Baryshnikov]] Developer at [http://www.nextgis.org/ NextGIS], [http://gdal.org GDAL/OGR] committer, [http://wxgis.googlecode.com wxGIS] developer, [http://gis-lab.info GIS-Lab.info] community member
# [[User:cvanlith| Chris van Lith]], Director [http://www.b3partners.nl B3Partners], member of [http://www.opengeogroep.nl OpenGeoGroep]
# [[User:VincentP| Vincent Picavet]], co-founder of [http://www.oslandia.com Oslandia], founding member and treasurer of OSGeo-FR
# [[User:Stefan_A._Tzeggai| Stefan A. Tzeggai]], creator of [http://www.geopublishing.org/AtlasStyler AtlasStyler SLD editor], founder of [http://www.empirica-systeme.de empirica systeme gmbh]
# [[User:Rdewit| Roald de Wit]], Geospatial Software Engineer, Melbourne, Australia

= Summary =

''Please don't edit this section - it is now locked to ensure editorial review. You may send comments to Cameron Shorter AT gmail .com''

The document titled "GeoServices REST API" is currently, in May 2013, being considered to be included as one of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. The vote to accept the document as a standard is unusually contentious; the controversy is the cause of this page.

The document was previously released for public comment and can be found [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/89 on the request for public comment page] (though public comment has been closed for now).

The document attempts to standardize a suite of web services such as a service which provides map images, a service which provides geospatial feature data, and a service which performs geospatial processing. The standard focuses on interactions via a defined hierarchy of URLs and using predominantly a particular set of JSON schemas for the exchange of geospatial data.

== Criticism and Response ==

The adoption of the document as an OGC Standard is contentious for a wide variety of reasons including:

* the process through which the document was developed which is thought to lack sufficient flexibility to respond to input from various stakeholders,
* the focus of the document on 'REST' and 'API' which is seen as not matching the ideas others have for these concepts,
* the names of the standard and of the services which are seen as potentially confusing,
* the functionality of the new services which are considered to duplicate that of existing services already standardized by the OGC such as WMS, WFS, WCS, and WPS,
* the addition of a new set of services based on new URL patterns and new JSON exchange formats which is seen as duplicating the efforts of other working groups bringing similar ideas to the updates of existing OGC services,
* the re-introduction in the new services of previously resolved interoperability issues which is seen as failing to build on the existing knowledge and experience,
* the use of the particular JSON schemas which are seen as having little industry acceptance and are incompatible with other widely used schemas, and
* the lack of implementation diversity which is thought to give the vendor of the one complete implementation an unusual commercial advantage on top of the vendor's already dominant position in the domain.

These issues have potential impacts on the use of 'Open Standards' by governments and companies, on the interoperability of software interacting with standards compliant OGC services, on the costs to developers and users of standards compliant software, on the understanding of 'Open Standards' by the public at large, and, possibly, on the reputation of the OGC as a champion of interoperability.

In particular there are concerns by some that adoption of the standard will likely result in a combination of the following:
# The cost to application developers, systems integrators, testers and sponsors to support all relevant OGC standards will be substantially increased.
# Consequently, organisations and/or applications may choose to only support one standard, or only support one standard fully.
# Sponsors (such as governments) who require compliance with OGC standards will discover that applications don't communicate together, due to applications supporting different OGC standards that essentially do the same thing.
# This will result in a diminished importance of OGC, as the "OGC standards" stamp of approval will not equate interoperability.
# After a while, in order to solve interoperability issues, a respected international organisation or program will likely take the initiative to mandate one standard as the preferred standard for all agencies to follow. To date, the OGC has provided this leadership.
# One standard taking prominance over the other will likely lead to the other being neglected or deprecated, resulting in many OGC compliant systems becoming legacy systems in the process. This should be considered an undesirable outcome for a standards organisation.

In response to these issues, the authors of the Geoservices REST API document have stated that:

* the process of the OGC has been followed completely,
* the specification actually is RESTful and does define an API,
* the name, due to the controversy, may be open for modification
* the OGC does not forbid duplication of service functionality, already has duplication between the W*S and the S*S (sensor) family of standards, should not block progress in the name of 'one true way', and harmonization between the services can be considered in the future,
* the JSON format exists and functions, and
* there are alternative implementations for some of these services.

The authors also stress that the existence of a large user base shows the service is useful, and that the standardization of the services at the OGC may encourage new implementations.

= Positions on the vote =
''Please don't edit this section - it is now locked to ensure editorial review. You may send comments to Cameron Shorter AT gmail .com''

The discussion raises a number of issues, many based upon complex technical concepts and implications. This makes it difficult for voting OGC members considering whether to support "Geoservices REST API" as a standard. The following provides one analysis of the positions on the vote, aimed to simplify and summarize key points. However, it does not necessarily represent the opinions held by all signatories above.

; The pros for accepting the "Geoservices REST API" document as an OGC standard:

:* The OGC should be in the business of developing good standards, not in choosing which standards should be implemented.
:* The proposers of the document want to make a standard and have followed all the rules of the OGC. The work of any such group of members deserves serious, good faith consideration.
:* The need for an integrated suite of services using simple data, which is addressed (partially) by the document, is real. The proposed document is pushing the OGC on this issue.
:* The proposed document could be useful to a number of people.
:* The proposed document is not significantly more broken than the existing standards of the OGC. As one author of standards [http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2013-May/011667.html notes]:
:''"I know how totally impossible it is to write a good standard, so the weaknesses in the existing document seem more acceptable."''

; The cons:

:* The OGC actually is, whether it should be or not, in the position of recommending interoperable standards for geospatial services. The proposed document is not good enough, not widely enough implemented, and not publicly supported enough, to be considered at the same level as existing standards.
:* Adopting a standard implies a desire to maintain the standard, but OGC's desire to support this approach has been questioned by some. In particular, the lack of collaboration and willingness to accept recommendations from the community on this version of the "Geoservices REST API" document bodes ill for the future.
:* The overlap in functionality between the proposed services and the existing services, notably with the ongoing work to modularize the existing services, is almost 100 percent. However, compatibility is low.
:* There is already a published document: http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/geoservices-rest-spec.pdf so there is no need for the document to be adopted as an OGC Standard merely for interoperability with the ESRI implementation.
:* The document, as a new, separate effort, repeats mistakes which were made and since solved by the other services.
:* The document focuses on the past (notably with backwards compatibility and use of only GET/POST) not on the future.
:* The document needs a comprehensive editorial review and substantial rewriting for clarity.

; A conclusion:

Both simple answers are bad.

A simple acceptance of the standard would introduce a new set of 'OGC approved' open services. The OGC approval might enable governments to buy a XXXX-new-name-here-XXXX solution instead of a W*S or a S*S solution. The path forwards towards harmonizing the services is unclear. Fixing this document in addition to fixing the W*S services will be a pain.

Simply rejecting the solution would be bad for the OGC. It would place the OGC in the position of picking winners and losers in the standards business. It would mean that the OGC is stuck on the project of fixing the W*S standards to meet some nebulous future functionality without having any path to get there. It would discourage innovation and progress.

Is there any third way?

Well, actually, there is a different way of thinking of the issue. Overall, there appears to be a shared desire for an integrated suite of geospatial services, originally focused on a simple data model, built on the exchange of well defined resources in simple formats including JSON, accessible and usable using the core HTTP verbs, and discoverable through following HTML links and patterns of URL paths. The hope is that such a suite can be designed based on the best expertise of the OGC, can be widely supported by the community, and can be implemented and tested by multiple groups. Neither the proposed document, nor the current services meet this vision. So the work, ultimately, is on improving all the services at the OGC, first to modularize them, then to enable simple implementations, and finally to link those implementations into a functional suite. Since this is the work that is already happening, perhaps the vote is an unfortunate distraction and the productive way forward is merely to redouble the efforts to create the next versions of the standards.

= Issues with the document =

''Please don't edit this section - it is now locked to ensure editorial review. You may send comments to Cameron Shorter AT gmail .com''

Beyond the controversy described above, there are issues with the Geoservices REST API document itself. Even if the standard deserves support, these issues could be considered blockers to the adoption of the current, May 2013, document.

The critique is incomplete because it quickly falls into a full editorial review of the text, something which takes a lot of time and effort and is beyond the scope and intent of this Open Letter.

The critique can be found at: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geoservices_REST_API_critique.

Note that some of these critiques hold the document to OGC's current, standards writing guidelines. The OGC has been striving to develop better standards so new standards must meet higher requirements than past standards. The lack of clarity in the proposed document is not substantially worse than many published standards but ought to be resolved in new standards.

= Further Concerns =
--- DRAFT ____

''Please add concerns not addressed above as bullet points below. Where appropriate, link to external web pages (such as email achieves). Try to be concise, and try not to repeat concepts which have been covered above, (less words get read by more people). Points you have previously added, which are now covered above should be removed. Words that have been struck out will be removed by Tuesday 14 May.''

== Political Concerns ==

* <strike>Adopting the standard will expose the OGC to a strong suspicion of acting as a rubber stamp organization under ESRI weight, and will be detrimental to its recognized position as a reference organization for geospatial standards.</strike>
* <strike>It is a dubious practice that a standardization organisation promotes competing standards, without explicitely obsoleting (or at least recommending) some of them. How is a newcomer to the industry supposed to select the appropriate standard if several ones share the same scope : WFS or GeoServices REST API Feature Service, WMS or GeoServices REST API Map Service, etc. ?</strike>

== Commercial Concerns ==

* <strike>Promoting standards from an existing implementation made by a single vendor leads to an obvious bias in competition.</strike>
* <strike>Supporting multiple overlapping standards greatly reduces usability while it increases complexity and cost of development and maintenance.</strike>
* <strike>Many SME's have invested in supporting existing OGC standards in their products. They will be forced to choose the standards they support (and can explain), resulting in decreased interoperability, confusion and frustration for clients.</strike>
* <strike>Confusing customers with new, overlapping OGC standards will lower the credibility of companies and of OGC, reducing business opportunities.</strike>

== Technical Concerns ==

* <strike>The Geoservices REST API overlaps in large proportion with existing OGC standards such as WMS, WCS, WFS, WMTS, CSW, with no effort made to reconcile with those standards.</strike>
* The standardization of WKT for Spatial reference systems is unfortunately currently quite weak in OGC standards. Geoservices REST API is tied with ESRI's version of WKT, which is not properly specified in the Geoservices REST API documents, and is known to be incompatible with other OGC documents, which will lead to a larger confusion. See the following [http://lists.opengeospatial.org/pipermail/requests/2012-July/000166.html comment] for more details on this issue.
* <strike>The Geoservices REST API is not particularly RESTful - it's a thinly disguised service call, not an address space for RESTful objects that can be operated on.</strike>
* see [http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geoservices_REST_API_critique#The_Technical_Approach this discussion] for detailed arguments why OGC WCS is superior to the "GeoServices REST API" Part 6. It concludes: ''In summary, the ESRI "Geoservice REST API" Imaging part is at a technological level where WCS departed from some 5 years ago. Inconciseness of the specification at large will make it difficult for third parties to come up with interoperable implementations. The components making up the ESRI "Geoservice REST API" provide natural blocks assignable to the matching SWGs. As for Part 6 of the ESRI "Geoservice REST API", if to become a standard it needs to be discussed in the WCS.SWG for harmonization, clarification, and improvement.''

== Methodological Concerns ==

# Ten months after submitting, no public response (nor private to the authors of the comments) has been made to the various comments sent on the OGC Requests mailing list in [[http://lists.opengeospatial.org/pipermail/requests/2012-July/date.html July 2012]] and [[http://lists.opengeospatial.org/pipermail/requests/2012-August/date.html August 2012]] during the 30 day public comments period.
# The Geoservices REST API can not be amended (other than editorial changes in the specification document), because of a requirement of backward compatibility with ESRI implementation. Consequently, the standard is unlikely to improve, or its evolution will be only lead by ESRI.
# OGC standards normally require interoperability experiments and a richer process to ratify a standard such as this one. No explanation has been forthcoming as to why a simplified process is appropriate in this case.

A response (from Adrian Custer):

# The OGC is working to release those documents to the public as of 9 May 2013.
# Work on the next version of the document can take any perspective acceptable to those working on the document. (The OGC has no method in place in case two groups want to evolve the document in two different directions.)
# That is not true, the OGC does not require interoperability experiments or some "richer process" for the adoption of a standard; that may be desirable but is not required.

= Further Reading =
''Please add links to referenced documents, related news stories or blog posts here.''
* Call for comments on GeoServices REST API: http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/89
* Email archive of OSGeo discussions about GeoServices REST API: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2013-May/thread.html
* Adrian Custer's summary of technical issues (and original source of some content in this letter): http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2013-May/011667.html
* "Is OGC Loosing its way?", letter to OGC Voters, from OGC Interoperability Movement Team Leaders, http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2013-May/011632.html

[[Category: OGC]]
[[Category: Standards]]

FOSS4G 2011 Travel Hints

2011-09-11T18:48:00Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Airport Cab Share */

This page is to collect various hints for people traveling to Denver for [[FOSS4G 2011]].

Please do not hesitate to add your own hints and info

__TOC__

= Airport Cab Share =

Cab fare to/from the airport is ~$50, and while the Shuttle is cheaper it isn't a direct connection, so consider sharing a cab with someone -- just sign up below and maybe make a new friend....

== Tuesday ==

* arriving airport 9:25pm, going to the Sheraton -- contact mpg@flaxen.com

== City Bus ==

the AT route from the airport to downtown was $11. All buses stop on the top level transportation center, furthest island from the airport exit.

== Super Shuttle ==

You can also make use of the Super Shuttle ($22 one way or $40 return within 14 days). They drop you off at your hotel. Find the Super Shuttle desk at the Ground Transport(?) signs. The shuttle vans are blue colored. Note: a few people have had less than optimal experiences with them, so your customer satisfaction mileage may vary.

= Cell Phone Roaming =

== Prepaid SIM Cards ==

For those with unlocked cell phones looking for a prepaid SIM card:

* AT&T has a few very interesting options, either 2$/day for unlimited voice and text, or 0.10$/minute. See http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/pyg-cell-phone-plans.jsp

== Canadian Travelers ==

* Rogers:
** http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=NEW_GCT&_nfls=true&setLanguage=en&sub_template=travelwithyourphone&template=add-ons
* Bell:
** Voice:
*** Regular roaming charges for Bell customers roaming in US are 1.45$+tax per minute
*** There are voice roaming packages that can be added to your account for a single month to get lower roaming charges (15$ for 15 minutes voice + 1$/minute extra, 30$ for 50 min. voice + 0.60$ extra) See http://www.bell.ca/shopping/Travel-USA-bundles/RMUSA.details
** SMS:
*** By default without a SMS package, you get charges of 0.75$ per outgoing SMS and 0.20$ per incoming SMS while roaming
*** If you have a SMS package with free incoming SMS in your local (canadian) package then incoming SMS from Canada are also free while roaming (but outgoing SMS are still 0.75$ a pop)
*** On some corporate packages only, Bell offers a US roaming SMS package (not listed online) at 5$/month that offers 100 outgoing SMS (outgoing to Canada and US) and unlimited incoming SMS while roaming in the US. Outgoing SMS to e.g. Europe are charged at 0.25$/message under this package. Either call or use the "Chat with a rep" option on Bell's site to check what is available to you.
** Data:
*** No affordable option. Turn data off! ;-)

= Car rentals =

Any hints for good deals?

= Traveling around the city =

* The conference website has some great info on this topic:
** [http://2011.foss4g.org/content/getting-here Getting to the conference]
** [http://2011.foss4g.org/content/foss4g-map Interactive Map]
** [http://2011.foss4g.org/content/event-map Static Map]

== Denver B-Cycle ==

Denver B-Cycle has 24-hour passes available for $6 at a B-Cycle station or you can register online. (If you're spending some extra time in Denver, 7-day passes are $20.) The system has 51 stations and 510 bikes. There are stations within a block or so of the Sheraton (Glenarm Place & 15th St. and Broadway & E. 16th Ave.).

Once you get the pass, there are no further charges for rides of 30 minutes or less. Hop station to station for longer rides. Zoom in just a bit at [http://2011.foss4g.org/content/foss4g-map Jason Sanford's beautiful FOSS4G map] to see bike station locations.

Get a B-Cycle app (free) for either iPhone or Android. It tells you in realtime how many bikes are available at a station and how many open docks.

There is a station at Denver Union Station on Wynkoop St. near the Wynkoop Brewery. You could bike your way over and back to the opening night social event.

BYOH - Bring your own helmet. Denver does not require helmets when you ride a bike and B-Cycle doesn't provide them but does recommend that you wear one.

[http://denver.bcycle.com/ More info at the B-Cycle site] along with their map and [http://denver.bcycle.com/About/FAQs.aspx FAQ].

(From [[User:Just | Just van den Broecke]]) added B-Cycle station locations to GeoCommons: http://geocommons.com/overlays/154716 to load on your handheld GPS like I did.

[[Category:FOSS4G2011]] [[Category:FOSS4G]]

FOSS4G 2011 Code Sprint

2011-08-04T05:28:12Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Project-name */

== Code Sprint - what's that? ==

[[Image:Code-sprint-foss4g2010.jpg|thumb|400px|FOSS4G 2010 code sprint, in Barcelona]]
A code sprint is about getting a group together to work on Open Source software, sitting around a table and sharing ideas. It's not just about writing code, as you know a project has many needs including documentation, testing, and providing feedback. What a better way to give feedback and give back to the project that you love than to spend a day with the project's developers. There are roles needed to be filled, no matter what your expertise.

With such a short timeframe (one day) you should probably use this page to set a specific goal for your project. But don't worry, if all you get done is actually sitting at the same table with the project's developers and talking about the next release, that is also great :)

== Venue ==

*Date: '''Saturday September 17th, 2011''' (the day after the conference).
*Time: '''9am-5pm'''  ([http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2011&month=9&day=17&hour=15&min=0&sec=0 timeandate]) 
*'''Where:''' [http://www.tivoli.org/tivoli/ Tivoli Student Union building] (a former brewery), Auraria Campus
[[Image:Tivoli-logo.jpg|150px]]

Tivoli Student Union
900 Auraria Parkway
Denver, CO
'''[http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=39.745249&lon=-105.005806&zoom=18&layers=M OSM map]'''

*'''Rooms: (each room has a 60-70 person capacity)'''
** room 440/540 (bilevel)
** room 640

== What to Bring ==

* power bars (only outlets for 30 computers exist)

== How to get there from the Sheraton ==

The easiest way to get there from the Sheraton is to catch the free shuttle bus along 16th Street to Larimer, then it's about a half mile walk from there (7-10 minutes) - just take a left on Larimer and keep going straight into the campus. More detail to come shortly on how to get to the exact rooms etc.

== Sponsor ==

Please! contact organizers: Rafael Moreno, or [[Jeff McKenna]]

== Questions/Comments/Ideas ==

* ask on the foss4g2011 mailing list ([http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2011 subscribe])

== Additional Interested People ==

The following people are potentially interested in participating in sprinting activities though have not yet established a Workgroup.

* name:project

* [[Daniel Kastl]]
* Haruyuki Seki

= Workgroups =

To participate, copy a project skeleton and start a section below for your project.

== Project-name ==

'''Attending:'''

* user
* user

'''Goals:'''

* your goals

== GeoExt ==

'''Attending:'''

* [[User:Rdewit| Roald de Wit]]
* ...

'''Goals:'''

* Getting GeoExt to work with ExtJS4

== MapQuery ==

'''Attending:'''

* [[User:Vmische|Volker Mische]]
* [[User:stvn|Steven M. Ottens]]
* [[User:h0st1le|Justin Penka]]

'''Goals:'''

* Making MapQUery more awesome
* Talk to OpenLayers 3 people about the future

== PostGIS ==

'''Attending:'''

* Paul Ramsey
* Pierre Racine
* David Bitner
* Brian Hamlin
* Bborie Park
* you?

'''Goals:'''

* Close bugs and triage for 2.0 release

== Opticks ==

'''Attending:'''

* Kip Streithorst
* Trevor Clarke
* Michael Considine

'''Goals:'''

* TBD

'''Possible:'''
* Work with OSSIM developers to apply OSSIM patches developed by the Opticks developers.
* Co-registration/image-to-image registration tool to replace Data Fusion
* Open source the Opticks unit tests
* Misc small enhancements and bug fixes
* Add georectification and orthorectification
* Prototype an OpenGL 2.1 based rendering pipeline
* Fix AEB installation to support auto-elevation, no need to start-up app with admin privs
* automatically restart Opticks to complete installation and uninstallation
* replace band math with raster math
* Prototype a multithreaded raster algorithm library
* Prototype am OpenCL/CUDA raster algorithm library

'''Collaborate:'''
* OSSIM

== Mapnik ==

I ([[User:springmeyer|Dane Springmeyer]]) can't make the code sprint (leaving the night of the 16th),
so catch me during the conference to chat Mapnik coding.

== OSGeo edu ==

'''Attending:'''

* Ari Jolma

'''Goals:'''

Possible things to do:

* Set up a repository for joint development of edu materials and kick-start a few projects
* Gather/organize materials for Desktop GIS or Web GIS workbooks

== MapServer ==

'''Attending:'''

* Michael Smith
* [[Jeff McKenna]]
* [[Thomas Bonfort]]
* [[User:Schpidi|Stephan Meissl]]
* [[User:fschindler|Fabian Schindler]]
* [[User:Dmorissette|Daniel Morissette]]

== libLAS / PDAL ==

'''Attending:'''

* Michael Smith

== GeoMOOSE ==

'''Attending:'''

* Brian Fischer
* Bob Basques
* Jim Klassen
* Eli Adam
* you?

'''Goals:'''

* Testing and bug fixes for 2.6 release
* Documentation

== ZOO-Project ==

'''Attending:'''

* Nicolas Bozon
* [[User:djay|Gérald Fenoy]]

== uDig ==

'''Attending:'''

* [[User:Jive|Jody Garnett]]

'''Goals:'''

* TBD

'''Possible:'''

* roll out CDO and a bit of QA on EMF goodness
* migrate user guide to help plugin (since Eclipse has a Wiki Editor that supports textile)
* refactor to *eu.udig* and make a verison release
* GeoTools as OSGi (no more net.refractions.udig.libs) - see GeoTools below as this would require collaborative effort

== GeoTools ==

'''Attending:'''

* [[User:Jive|Jody Garnett]]

'''Goals:'''

* TBD

'''Possible:'''

* Implement Query/Join for more than just JDBC-NG code
* Get OSGi bundle information sorted (collaborate with downstream applications )
* Set up new developers
* Major Bug stomp
* Technical Debt (FunctioName details; Remove old Filter code from test cases etc...)

'''Collaboration:'''

* uDig: Collaborate on OSGi rollout (ie Equinox testing)
* GeoServer: Collaborate on OSGi rollout (ie Spring testing)
* Zoo-Project: collaborate on WPS Client testing?

[[Category:FOSS4G2011]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]

User:Rdewit

2010-09-25T00:48:05Z

Wiki-Rdewit:

'''Roald de Wit''' 

'''Currently:''' 
Senior Geospatial Software Engineer 
Bureau of Meteorology 
Australia 

'''Formerly:''' 
Software Engineer 
LISAsoft Pty Ltd 
Melbourne, Australia 

'''Projects''' 
[http://www.osgeo.org/openlayers OpenLayers] 
[http://www.osgeo.org/geonetwork GeoNetwork opensource] 
[http://www.osgeo.org/mapbuilder Community Mapbuilder]

User:Rdewit

2010-01-21T22:13:26Z

Wiki-Rdewit:

'''Roald de Wit''' 

'''Currently:''' 
Geospatial Consultant 
Something Spatial 
Melbourne, Australia 

'''Formerly:''' 
Software Engineer 
LISAsoft Pty Ltd 
Melbourne, Australia 

'''Projects''' 
[http://www.osgeo.org/openlayers OpenLayers] 
[http://www.osgeo.org/geonetwork GeoNetwork opensource] 
[http://www.osgeo.org/mapbuilder Community Mapbuilder]

Case Studies

2009-11-06T04:34:57Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Open Layers */

''This page lists Case Studies of projects that include Geospatial Open Source components.''

=Case Studies=

==OSGeo Journal==
'''The [http://www.osgeo.org/journal OSGeo Journal] includes many international Case Studies and introductions to OSGeo software.'''
* List of all article titles in the journal [http://www.osgeo.org/ojs/index.php/journal/search/titles here]

==Evaluation of FOSS4G software projects==
[http://www.cascadoss.eu/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=11/ CASCADOSS results on the evaluation marketing, technical and economical aspects of FOSS4G software projects. ]. The CASCADOSS project evaluated 51 of inventoried 98 FOSS4G software projects from 5 categories: desktop GIS/RS applications, server applications, spatial databases, development libraries and general interest projects.
The CASCADOSS website provides an [http://www.cascadoss.eu/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=17/ open framework for custom evaluations], allowing comparisons between projects to find best solution. The issues related to change from proprietary to OS GI software is also addressed.

==Web Clients==

* [http://www.terragis.net/2008/11/24/obama-campaign-mapping-voters-with-mapserver-postgis-and-openlayers/ Obama Campaign - Mapping voters with Mapserver, PostGIS and Openlayers]

=== OpenLayers ===
* [http://docs.openlayers.org/casestudies/ OpenLayers Case Studies]. A collection of OpenLayers studies maintained by the OpenLayers community.
* President Obama's "Delivering On Change" website uses OpenLayers and OpenStreetMaps. http://www.whitehouse.gov/change/

=== Mapbender ===
* The Mapbender community maintains the [http://www.mapbender.org/Gallery Mapbender Gallery] with a list of solutions for specific domains ranging from city map services through specific applications to full scale geoportal implementations.

==Desktop Clients==

===Review of Open Source Desktop Clients===
''April 2008'' http://www.spatialserver.net/osgis/

A comprehensive feature by feature comparison of all the Open Source desktop clients.

* Municipality of Trento ([http://www.comune.tn.it/ Comune di Trento]), Italy, migration (2005-today): especially improvements in [http://grass.osgeo.org GRASS GIS] are financed: new digitizer tool and better high quality cartographic output.

===Email threads discussing merits and disadvantages of OSGeo Desktop===

'''18 April 2008: [http://lists.burri.to/pipermail/geowanking/2008-April/thread.html Geowanking: ArcView 3.1 replacement]'''

"[Oxford Archaeology] are looking at gvsig and qgis as the main options [for ArcGIS], gvsig because it can use cad data, and qgis because we like the grass integration and it's slightly more user-friendly for english speakers (the translated version of gvsig still has some spanish bits in it). With slight changes to our work-flows, we are finding that these two packages will do almost everything we need a gis to do, with the exception of producing high-quality illustrations. To achieve this we are currently looking at export to svg or postscript for final editing in inkscape, but that's a work in progress."

'''24 April 2008: [http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2008-April/thread.html OSGeo-Discuss: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with ESRI)?]'''

This email thread provides numerous opinions for and against using Open Source Geospatial Software.

[http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2008-April/003458.html Paul Ramsey notes there is not a direct Open Source replacement for Arc View]:

''I think it's contingent on us as evangelizers to not over-sell. I
would not recommend QGIS or any other open source desktop to someone
whose prior experience was Arc* until I had a clear understanding of
the use case. In response to the query "can I replace ArcView with
open source", my answer is "in general, no, but maybe for a specific
use case".''

[http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2008-April/003453.html John Callahan provides a good summary]:

''I've been an ESRI user (AV 3.x, ArcGIS 8/9, ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE) for 12+ years and have recently started exploring FOSS software. And I haven't disagreed with any of the responses so far. You will definitely need multiple programs to do what a single ESRI program can do. IMO, this is a good thing. One of the main reasons for my migration is I'm tired of running large, complicated, expensive software and all the extra baggage that comes with it to use only 10% of what the software can do. (see ArcGIS Server.)''

''You can do all the analysis and more of ArcGIS Desktop and extensions using GRASS, QGIS, SAGA, GeoTools, GDAL/OGR, PROJ4, or R Statistics along with a programming language like Python, Java or others. (IMO, this is a better solution than ESRI.) You can do just about anything you want on the web server end with MapServer, GeoServer, FeatureServer (and maybe TileCache or GeoNetwork for metadata) with any of a dozen or more clients (OpenLayers, ka-Map, MapGuide etc...). And you can do a lot of database work with Postgres/PostGIS, a much simpler, less costly solution than ArcSDE+RDBMS. And I wouldn't count out the role of free, non-open source packages like Google products and Oracle Express (11g should have Spatial included.)''

''From my experience (limited in the FOSS world), I have found three basic hurdles:
# ''Cartography. Whether on the screen, PDF outputs, or print publications, ArcMap is easy and looks great. (Although R Statistics produces better looking charts and graphs than ArcGIS.)''
# ''Versioned editing. This is important for groups with multiple concurrent editors or that has a particular hierarchical workflow with their GIS data.''
# ''Storage and serving of very large (50+ GB) raster datasets. PostGIS does not support rasters yet; Oracle Spatial does though. I'm still not sure if storing rasters in a database is a good idea but ArcSDE sure makes it easy, and with good performance when used in conjunction with other ESRI products.''

Current work addressing Open Source holes include:
* [http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/WxPython-based_GUI_for_GRASS#Digitizer Improving GRASS/qgis tools].
* [http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Cartographic_Library Design plans for improving open source Cartographic Mapping].

=== GRASS ===
''August 2005, [http://www.toddbuchanan.net/thesis_ver.pdf Comparison of ARCGIS 9.0 and GRASS 6.0]''

Todd Buchanan's master thesis compared ArcGIS 9.0 and GRASS 6.0 for a use case: "Characterization of Urban Sprawl for Eugene-Springfield, Oregon". He took detailed notes using both and found "ArcGIS is more straightforward than GRASS. However, GRASS proved itself fully capable of performing the operations required by the case study and outperformed ArcGIS in several categories."

Note: GRASS is even better now and has been integrated with the user friendly qgis since this study.

=== uDig Case Studies ===

http://udig.refractions.net/gallery/
Collection of uDig case studies put together by Refractions.

==Web Services==

===[http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=101 Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Regulatory program]===
''25 September 2007. Powerpoint presentation from FOSS4G Conference''

The Army Corps successfully integrated a Proprietary Oracle Database, ARC SDE and Analysis tools, with Open Source WMS and WFS services, and free viewers like Google Earth and Google Maps.

=== [http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/07/earthshaking-use-open-source An earthshaking use of open source] ===

Use of MapServer, Ingres and GMT among other tools by the BGR (a German institute responsible for the monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty).

==Databases==
===PostGIS Case Studies===
A collection of PostGIS Case Studies collected by Refractions. http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/casestudies/

===PostGIS versus MySQL Spatial===
June 2009

In speed, PostGIS wins but not by orders of magnitude. The amount of functionality in MySQL Spatial remains very very small. You can do simple store-and-retrieve operations. Many of the spatial operations that are standard in full spatial databases don’t exist or are (confusingly, as some users have commented) stubbed out against bounding box tests instead.
http://docs.opengeo.org/geospiel/2009/06/16/postgis-versus-mysql-spatial/

==Complete Infrastructure==
===[http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvpontis&L=2 Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=es%7Cen&u=http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php%3Fid%3Dgvpontis%26L%3D2 English translation] by Google)''

Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is under a project of migrating "all" systems to open-source software. As a matter of fact, that was the reason to build [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvsig0&L=2 gvSIG]. All geospatial infrastructure (previously with ESRI) has been moved to open source (gvSIG, PostGIS, MapServer, deegree, GeoNetwork opensource).

There is a [http://www.gvpontis.gva.es/fileadmin/conselleria/images/Documentacion/memoria/gvpontis_ingles.pdf final report] (PDF in English) of the gvPontis project.

===[http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F209.85.173.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3ACTDxwL0ZUqoJ%3Awww.orzancongres.com%2Fadministracion%2Fupload%2FimgPrograma%2FN-004.pdf%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D1%26gl%3Dau%26client%3Dfirefox-a&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8 English translation] by Google)''

A migration of a big part of ESRI components to open-source has been made, with use of gvSIG, GeoNetwork opensource, MapServer, GeoServer, deegree.

===ROI from Geospatial Open Standards, study by NASA===
''April 2005''

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Geospatial Interoperability Office studied the Return On Investment from using Geospatial Open Standards. The study showed
"There is a significant improvement in functionality and mitigation of cost when using open as opposed to proprietary standards. The project that implemented geospatial interoperability standards had a risk-adjusted ROI, or "Savings to Investment" ratio, of 119.0 percent throughout the five-year project life cycle."

* [http://www.geospatial-solutions.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=303345&pageID=1&sk=&date= Summary of Findings]
* [http://www.galdosinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/NASA_GI_ROI.pdf Copy of Report] (Original URL has suffered link rot)

===Predicted ROI for Australian Government to investment in a SDI===
''October 2007''

ACIL Tasman study reports a 10 to 20 times ROI should the Australian government invest in a Spatial Data Infrastructure.
* [http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2608&trv=1 Article]
* [http://www.asiba.com.au/clients/asiba/UserFiles/File/Media%20Releases/Press%20Release301007.pdf Media Release]
=Open Data=
==Open Data Licensing in Australian Government==
''2008. [[http://www.walis.wa.gov.au/projects_and_activities/assets/crc-si-qld-gilf-presentation-perth.ppt/view Government Information Licensing Framework]]''

80% of Queensland, Australian government data can be opened up under Creative Commons, and the remaining data is planned to be released under an extensions to the Creative Common license.

==Open Data for Victorian state Government, Australia==
''June 2009 [[http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/edic/inquiries/access_to_PSI/PSI_Inquiry_Media_Release.pdf Recommendation to free Public Sector Information]].''

The Victorian Parliament’s Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee (“EDIC”) recommends the freeing of access to Public Sector Information at no or marginal cost.

=Open Source Policies=
These documents provide compelling reasons for selecting Open Source and Open Standards.
==Australia==
''April 2005, [[http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/guide-to-open-source-software/index.html Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies]]''

''It can offer original solutions to problems not addressed by proprietary software and it has the potential to lead to significant savings in Government expenditure on information and communications technology (ICT).''

==New Zealand ==
''13 March 2008, [[http://research.elabs.govt.nz/2008/03/13/ministry-of-justice-open-source-adoption-paper/ Ministry of Justice Open Source Strategy Paper]]''

Proposes when Open Source should be used over Proprietary software, and concludes that Open Source better than Proprietary, all other things being equal.

==US Department of Defense==
''October 2009, [[http://www.defenselink.mil/cio-nii/sites/oss/ Guidance regarding Open Source Software]].'' and a [[http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/10/defense-department-releases-op.html news report]].

==US Navy==
''April 2006, [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070324082448/http://www.acq.osd.mil/jctd/articles/OTDRoadmapFinal.pdf US Navy Open Technology Development Roadmap Plan]].''

Describes how the US Navy will migrate to Open Technology Development when purchasing and building software.

Open Technology Development combines salient advances in the following areas:
* Open Standards and Interfaces
* Open Source Software and Designs
* Collaborative/Distributive culture and the and online support tools
* Technological Agility

Also, a much shorter news article on the same topic from March 2008. [[http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151858-1.html The Navy will acquire only systems based on open technologies and standards]].

The Original Paper was stored [[http://www.acq.osd.mil/jctd/articles/OTDRoadmapFinal.pdf here]].

== Open Source Software Economics ==
''April 2007, [[http://techblog.terrapages.com/2007/05/economic-motivation-of-open-source.html
The Economic Motivation of Open Source Software: Stakeholder Perspectives]''

Dirk Riehle. "The Economic Motivation of Open Source Software: Stakeholder Perspectives." IEEE Computer, vol. 40, no. 4 (April 2007). Page 25-32.

=Why write a Case Study?=
A case study discusses how a specific situation was identified, which solutions were investigated and selected, and a summary of the results.

Solution architects use relevant case studies to support a solution they are building.

Writing a case study about your project gives others the confidence to follow in your footsteps which in turn increases investment in your tools of choice. Publishing your experience gives '''positive feedback''' to those involved in your project, reinforcing your success, encouraging colleagues to take on additional challenges, allowing the project to continue to grow.

We would like to see case studies which cover a range of use cases, especially from organizations with a low risk tolerance. Many organizations approach Open Source in little steps gradually integrating it with existing infrastructure and find targeted small case studies valuable.

=What to write?=

One to three pages is good, with a graphic per page.

The case study should cover:
* Date
* Problem
* Evaluations
* Implementation, including integration with other infrastructure
* Problems faced and how they were overcome
* Return on Investment
* Future plans
* Who else might benefit from your experience

More hints found by googling: [http://www.klariti.com/business-writing/How-To-Write-Case-Study.shtml How to write a Case Study]

=How to publish?=
Consider submitting an article to the [http://www.osgeo.org/journal OSGeo Journal].
Here are the basic [http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Journal_License_and_Guidelines guidelines] for authors.

[[Category:Advocacy]]

FOSS4G 2009 BirdsOfAFeather

2009-10-15T07:16:24Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* GeoExt */

[[Category:FOSS4G]]
[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]

= Introduction =
During the [http://2009.foss4g.org/ FOSS4G2009 conference] in Sydney, Australia, there will be conference rooms available for people to hold Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.

Birds-Of-A-Feather sessions are unstructured timeslots where people can self organise themselves to discuss topics of interest.

This year, Birds of a Feather sessions will be held on Thursday 22nd October.

A number of rooms are available. First ones in get the rooms.

==Organising Contact==
* Bruce Bannerman, Tyler Mitchell

==Timeslots Available==

At this stage, each room is scheduled for one hour between 1615 to 1715.

The rooms will be available for longer, however remember that the FOSS4G Harbour Cruise Dinner starts at 1900.

If we get a lot of demand, we may need to reduce the time that each room is available for.
This will allow us to share the resources between more people.

==Rooms Available==

* Parkside G01, capacity 70 people
* Parkside G02, capacity 70 people
* Parkside G03, capacity 80 people
* Parkside G04, capacity 170 people
* Parkside G05, capacity 50 people

Please note:

We are currently looking at additional options for places to run the BOF sessions in.

Rooms will be allocated to BOF sessions closer to the event.

= Timetable =
Below is a summary of the BOFs and when/where they will be run. Contact [[User:tmitchell|Tyler]] or [[User:Bruce.bannerman|Bruce]] for any questions or changes. '''Times and rooms may change''' - changes will be posted on announcement boards during the event.

{|class="wikitable" border="1"
! Room (capacity)
! width="400"|Thu 22 October
! width="400"|Contact
|-
| BOF 1
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#FOSS4G_in_Government| FOSS4G in Government]]
| Contact person: [[User:unknown|Cesar Medina]] or [[User:Bruce.bannerman|Bruce Bannerman]]
|-
| BOF 2
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#PostGIS_Users_Group|PostGIS Users Group]]
| Contact Person: [[User:Pwramsey3|Paul Ramsey]]
|-
| BOF 3
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#Marketing_Geospatial_Open_Source|Marketing Geospatial Open Source]]
| Contact Person: [[User:camerons|Cameron Shorter]]
|-
| BOF 4
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#INSPIRE_Data_Profile_Support_in_FOSS4G|Development of INSPIRE data application profile support in GEOFOSS]]
| Contact Person: [[User:ticheler|Jeroen Ticheler]]
|-
| BOF 5
| | [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#MapServer_Users_Meeting|MapServer Users Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:Jmckenna | Jeff McKenna]]
|
|-
| BOF 6
| | [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#Ingres_Users_Group|Ingres Users Group]]
| Contact Person: [[User:aross | Andrew Ross]]
|-
| BOF 7
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#GeoServer_Users_Meeting|GeoServer Users Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:aaime | Andrea Aime]] or [[User:simboss | Simone Giannecchini]]
|-
| rowspan=2 |BOF 8
|[[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#OpenLayers|OpenLayers Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:tschaub | Tim Schaub]]
|-
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#GeoExt|GeoExt Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:Ahocevar | Andreas Hocevar]]
|-
| BOF 9
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#MapFish|MapFish Meeting]]
| Contact Person: Eric Lemoine (eric dot lemoine at camptocamp dot com)
|-
| BOF 10
|
|
|-
| BOF 11
|
|
|-
| BOF 12
|
|
|-
|}

= BOF organization =
You can use this page to organize your BOF session:
* create a section below for your BOF
* have people edit this page to indicate they will be attending
* if you need a bigger room than that which has been assigned to you, let [[User:tmitchell|Tyler]] or [[User:Bruce.bannerman|Bruce]] know
* you must provide a contact person who is managing the meeting
* also make your description as clear as possible, for many attendees it will be the only thing they read before choosing one

= BOF sessions =

== FOSS4G in Government ==

To start the ball rolling, seeing that everyone else is sitting back
and waiting for everyone else: some potential discussion points:

* '''[http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/government_it/open_source.aspx The UK Government's policy on Open Source]''' It would be good to get a UK person to talk to this.
* How can governments exploit open source spatial:
* Implement based on Open Standards.
* The GeoNetwork example where we all need a Metadata entry tool and catalogue.
** We all don't want to pay for the same development, but share / pool resources.
** how do we coordinate this work, while working sensitively with Open Source communities who own the code base and may not want to go in the same direction that we do. This includes issues relating to working with Project Steering Committees etc.
** We can't expect communities to do our work for free. Therefore we will need to either engage our own people or consultancies to do the work. The consultancies could come from within the community from anywhere around the world, until we build up our own local communities. This could create procurement problems.
* The need for governments to engage with Open Source communities at all levels, not just as developers.
* The need to allow employees to participate within OS Communities as part of their day to day jobs: i.e. we need to build up our technical skills.
* The need to treat OS on a level playing field with proprietary solutions. That will mean looking at the Solution life cycle (See the new UK OS policy).
* Experiences in other countries:
** What is working.
** What is not working.
* Given national and international experiences of all, what models will work for Governments to break down the perceived barriers and myths associated with FOSS
* A plan worth considering / discussion is a proposal by the South Australian Government to implement an Australian '''[http://www.cio.sa.gov.au/business/projects/open-technology-foundation/?searchterm=otf Open Technology Foundation]'''which is currently before Australian Governments, selected ICT / Open Technology Vendors and Academia for in principle support.
** Would a foundation acting as the 'common glue' assist in these endeavours
** focus on openness to improve interoperability, independence, resilience and flexibility in ICT operations
** Authorative registry of open technologies in use in Governments around Australia with appropriate learnings and contacts
** Facilitate sharing of resources, technologies and knowledge
** Link with existing programs underway nationally and internationally to share information to all
** Link with international Open Technology Groups

Who is coming:
* Bruce Bannerman
* Stephen Schmid

== PostGIS Users Group ==

* How are you using PostGIS?
* Want a beer?
* What features would make your life better?
* Want to buy the developers a beer?
* More fruitful topics gratefully accepted!

Who is coming:
* Paul Ramsey

== Marketing Geospatial Open Source ==
* How can we collaboratively market OSGeo?
* What marketing works for Geospatial Open Source Businesses?
* What tools, messages, guidelines can we put in place which will help us individually and collectively?

Who is coming:
* Cameron Shorter
* Jose Diacono

== INSPIRE Data Profile Support in FOSS4G ==

We want to discuss an approach towards the upcoming INSPIRE data specifications and how to best support them in our open source software. It is important for the FOSS community to come up with a story that is more than just "Yes that is possible but contract us first".
This BOF is to seek feedback from those of you that see the same need and to investigate if some work has already been done, seek input in how we would best approach this, if there are options for a Europe wide collaboration on this etcetera.

Questions and/or points of discussions are:
* Considering that clients would like to see a product that does some of the INSPIRE data conversions out of the box, how do you approach this when usually we only implement things after they have been contracted? (in contrast to proprietary software where often an investment is made that is earned back through licensing schemes)
* Have any application schema's already been implemented in some form by you in GEOFOSS?
* What tools have you used or do you want to use (e.g. ogr, Talend, deegree, GeoServer)
* How would we go about joined development, or maybe even joined investment etcetera?

Who is coming:
* Jeroen Ticheler

== MapServer Users Meeting ==

* How are you using MapServer?
* Want to have a beer with the developers?
* What features would make your life better?
* More fruitful topics gratefully accepted!
* you can also follow along on IRC in #mapserver ([http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2009&month=10&day=22&hour=5&min=15&sec=0 exact time])

Who is coming:
* [[User:Jmckenna | Jeff McKenna]]
* [[User:Dmorissette | Daniel Morissette]]

== GeoServer Users Meeting ==

* Meet the developers (yes, beer welcomed!)
* How are you using GeoServer?
* What will be the next GeoServer features? What are the features you're still missing in GeoServer?
* Anything else GeoServer related you want to talk about. Come and share!

Who is coming:
* [[User:aaime | Andrea Aime]]
* [[User:simboss | Simone Giannecchini]]

== Ingres Users Group ==

* Brief update: What is the current state of Ingres' new geospatial support
* Q & A, interactive discussion
* Roadmap/ planning/ community feedback & input

Who is coming:
* [[User:aross | Andrew Ross]]
* [[User:cthibert |Chuck Thibert]]

== Education and Curriculum Project ==

* meet, progress updates, future plans? (let's flesh this out)

Who is coming (initially populated based on mailing list responses - please add yourself if you're not here but you're coming):
* [[User:smitch | Scott Mitchell]]
* Vasile Craciunescu
* Venkatesh Raghavan
* Maria Brovelli

== OpenLayers ==

Come talk about OpenLayers. Ideas for the future, gripes about the library, raves about the library - all fair game!

Who is coming:
* Tim Schaub
* Éric Lemoine
* Roald de Wit
* Bart van den Eijnden
* [[User:Ahocevar | Andreas Hocevar]]

== GeoExt ==

* Synergies with OpenLayers
* Ideas for the future
* Meet the developers and tell them how you are using GeoExt
* Anything GeoExt related you want to talk or share

Who is coming:
* [[User:Ahocevar | Andreas Hocevar]]
* [[User:Rdewit | Roald de Wit]]

== MapFish ==

Come talk about the future, organization and PSC creation of MapFish.

Who is coming:

* Éric Lemoine
* Till Adams
* Cédric Moullet
* François Van Der Biest
* Claude Philipona

FOSS4G 2009 Code Sprint

2009-10-13T22:57:30Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* OpenLayers */

== Organizing Contacts ==

* Jody Garnett, Tyler Mitchell

== Code Sprint - what's that? ==

A code sprint is usually organized by a group that is using an open source project and wants to see something done. They fly the developers to a single location and feed them for a couple of days with the necessities of the hacking life (internet, caffeine, electricity). The communication that happens from face to face hacking usually lasts the project for a year or more. You see this a lot in projects like Drupal etc...

== Venue ==
Venue hasn't been confirmed yet, but will likely be Ultimo TAFE, which is 15 minutes walk from the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre where the conference is being held. TAFE is a government sponsored Tertiary Education centre and has plenty of rooms, white boards etc.

== Time and Date ==
Date: Saturday 24 October (the day after the conference).
Time: 9am - 5pm

== Motivation and Direction ==

A day, a code base, and your imagination?

Projects can use the time and venue for organizational discussions, development roadmaps, and group resolution of thorny issues in their code bases.

Is this your First Sprint? Here is some background information to get you started:

* http://www.infrae.com/about/activities/sprintathon/tips
* http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2006/10/19/running-a-sprint.html
* Example Sprint (from same people who do GeoServer): http://www.openplans.org/projects/bbq-sprint

To participate, start a section below for your project.

== PostGIS ==
'''Coordinator:'''
* Paul Ramsey

'''Attending:'''
* Person 1
* Person 2

'''Goals:'''
* Bug fixes and clean-up for a 1.5 release.

== uDig & friends ==
'''Coordinator:'''
* [[User:Moovida | Andrea Antonello]]

'''Attending:'''
* [[User:Moovida | Andrea Antonello]]
* [[User:Silli | Silvia Franceschi]]
* [[User:Jive | Jody Garnett]]
* add yourself here...

'''Goals:'''

* database datastores
* style editors
* define install/update mechanisms for plugin projects (JGrass, BeeGIS, Axios)
* mosaic support for udig

== The desktop comparison tasks list ==

'''Attending, for which project'''
* uDig [[User:Silli | Silvia Franceschi]]
* QGis ?
* gvSig ?
* GRASS [[User:clara | Clara Tattoni]], Marco Ciolli, Paolo Zatelli

(for inspiration of tasks, see [http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Applications Applications])

'''Feel free to add ideas here:'''

* vector data visualization
** load a shapefile for quick visualization (with prj, without prj, with topology, without topology)
** load a particularly large shapefile
** load a dwg
** load a dxf (2D and 3D)
** ...

* vector data editing
** create new geometry layers
** add an attribute of the geometry as new column to the dataset
** show existing editing tools (snap, intersections, merge, etc)
** vector analysis
** topologic analysis
** network analysis
** linear reference system
** ...

* raster data visualization
** load a tiff (GRASS: import vs register with r.external)
** load a jpg
** load an ecw
** load a Mrsid
** load a GRASS raster
** load a mosaic of images
** ...

* raster data editing
** map calculations on raster data
** cost surfaces
** hydro flow
** geomorphometry
** solar energy calculations
** ...

* databases
** SQL queries
** visualization of spatial data from PostGIS
** visualization of spatial data from SQLite
** visualization of spatial data from Oracle spatial
** visualization of spatial data from ArcSDE
** visualization of spatial data from MySQL
** visualization of spatial data from H2spatial
** create new datasets in the above databases
** convert between table with x,y[,z] and vector map
** ...

* web service visualization and query
** load a WMS dataset, query its information
** load a WFS dataset, query its information
** load and edit a WFS-T dataset
** load a WCS dataset
** WPS
** ...

* scripting engines
** batch mode executions of commands
** supported languages
** ...

* printing
** support for printing
** support for storing printing layouts
** ...

=== See also ===
* Stefan Steiniger, Geoffrey J. Hay. Ecological Informatics 4 (2009) 183–195, Free and open source geographic information tools for landscape ecology. ([http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2009.07.004 DOI] and [http://www.geo.unizh.ch/publications/sstein/sstein_freegitools_ecoinf2009.pdf preprint PDF])

== OSGeo in general, especially Marketing & Education ==
'''Coordinator:'''
* Tyler Mitchell

'''Attending:'''
* Arnulf Christl
* Person 2

'''Goals:'''
For all those who are around during this day but not going to do coding and want to talk more generally about OSGeo directions, etc. Likely follow-up from [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather | BoF events]]
* Review marketing and outreach ideas and needs.
* Work on the OSGeo presentation, create derivateives for different presentation lenghts and audiences
* Compile, update and comit templates for presentations
* [[Talk:The Future of OSGeo]], collect and organize opinions from the [http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2009-October/thread.html OSGeo Discuss] mailing list.
*

== Geometry ==
'''Venue:'''
* '''This sprint will occur at Intersect the time axis on Sunday 25 October at an alternate venue - as such we ask anyone attending to RSVP (we are limited to 12 people)'''

'''Coordinator:'''
* Ben Caradoc-Davies

'''Attending:'''
* Ben Caradoc-Davies
* Jody Garnett
* Andrea Aimee
* Andrea Antonello
* Silvia Franceschi
* ...

'''Goals:'''
* Progress ISO 19107 / GML 3D geometry collaboration (OSGeom). See <tt><java-collab@lists.osgeo.org></tt> for more.

'''Plan:'''

Some subset of Markus Schneider's proposal:
# DONE - Remove all topological and spatial analysis methods in the interfaces from the SVN for now, so we can focus on sanitising the model.
# Add factories. I would like to add two factories similar to the ones in the deegree 3 SVN:
#* SFS geometries:
#** http://download.deegree.org/deegree3/nightly/core/javadoc/org/deegree/geometry/SimpleGeometryFactory.html
#* ISO 19107/GML 3
#** http://download.deegree.org/deegree3/nightly/core/javadoc/org/deegree/geometry/GeometryFactory.html
#* In deegree 3, these factories are bound to a JTS-based implementation. As we only have interfaces for the geometry types in the osgeom repository for now (and no implementations), I would create interfaces from the factories.
# Add a basic implementation that is just a bean representation without operations. We could finally start to add JUnit tests then.
# Add GML parsers/exporters. I understood that one may want to keep this aspect out of the repository, but I don't see how we could test the difficulties in representing GML geometries (e.g external xlinks) without this. It also would make setting up geometries for testing much easier. Maybe we could keep the GML parsing/exporting isolated from the rest of the code.
# Of course we would take on the operations subject again, when we find consensus here.

== Live DVD ==
'''Coordinator:''' Cameron Shorter
* .

'''Attending:'''
* .
*

'''Goals:'''
* Brainstorm ideas for improvements to the LiveDVD
* Set guidelines in place for build
** Documentation guidelines
** Desktop layout
* Target other distribution media

== OpenLayers ==
'''Coordinator:'''
* .

'''Attending:'''
* [[User:Rdewit | Roald de Wit]]
* Person 2
* Person 3

'''Goals:'''

OpenLayers bug fixes. Describe any additional goals here.

== Project ==
'''Coordinator:'''
* .

'''Attending:'''
* Person 1
* Person 2

'''Goals:'''

Describe goals ...

[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]

FOSS4G 2009 BirdsOfAFeather

2009-10-09T03:09:38Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* OpenLayers */

[[Category:FOSS4G]]
[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]

= Introduction =
During the [http://2009.foss4g.org/ FOSS4G2009 conference] in Sydney, Australia, there will be conference rooms available for people to hold Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.

Birds-Of-A-Feather sessions are unstructured timeslots where people can self organise themselves to discuss topics of interest.

This year, Birds of a Feather sessions will be held on Thursday 22nd October.

A number of rooms are available. First ones in get the rooms.

==Organising Contact==
* Bruce Bannerman, Tyler Mitchell

==Timeslots Available==

At this stage, each room is scheduled for one hour between 1615 to 1715.

The rooms will be available for longer, however remember that the FOSS4G Harbour Cruise Dinner starts at 1900.

If we get a lot of demand, we may need to reduce the time that each room is available for.
This will allow us to share the resources between more people.

==Rooms Available==

* Parkside G01, capacity 70 people
* Parkside G02, capacity 70 people
* Parkside G03, capacity 80 people
* Parkside G04, capacity 170 people
* Parkside G05, capacity 50 people

Please note:

We are currently looking at additional options for places to run the BOF sessions in.

Rooms will be allocated to BOF sessions closer to the event.

= Timetable =
Below is a summary of the BOFs and when/where they will be run. Contact [[User:tmitchell|Tyler]] or [[User:Bruce.bannerman|Bruce]] for any questions or changes. '''Times and rooms may change''' - changes will be posted on announcement boards during the event.

{|class="wikitable" border="1"
! Room (capacity)
! width="400"|Thu 22 October
! width="400"|Contact
|-
| BOF 1
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#FOSS4G_in_Government| FOSS4G in Government]]
| Contact person: [[User:unknown|Cesar Medina]] or [[User:Bruce.bannerman|Bruce Bannerman]]
|-
| BOF 2
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#PostGIS_Users_Group|PostGIS Users Group]]
| Contact Person: [[User:Pwramsey3|Paul Ramsey]]
|-
| BOF 3
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#Marketing_Geospatial_Open_Source|Marketing Geospatial Open Source]]
| Contact Person: [[User:camerons|Cameron Shorter]]
|-
| BOF 4
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#INSPIRE_Data_Profile_Support_in_FOSS4G|Development of INSPIRE data application profile support in GEOFOSS]]
| Contact Person: [[User:ticheler|Jeroen Ticheler]]
|-
| BOF 5
| | [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#MapServer_Users_Meeting|MapServer Users Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:Jmckenna | Jeff McKenna]]
|
|-
| BOF 6
| | [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#Ingres_Users_Group|Ingres Users Group]]
| Contact Person: [[User:aross | Andrew Ross]]
|-
| BOF 7
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#GeoServer_Users_Meeting|GeoServer Users Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:aaime | Andrea Aime]] or [[User:simboss | Simone Giannecchini]]
|-
| BOF 8
| [[FOSS4G_2009_BirdsOfAFeather#OpenLayers|OpenLayers Meeting]]
| Contact Person: [[User:tschaub | Tim Schaub]]
|-
| BOF 9
|
|
|-
| BOF 10
|
|
|-
| BOF 11
|
|
|-
| BOF 12
|
|
|-
|}

= BOF organization =
You can use this page to organize your BOF session:
* create a section below for your BOF
* have people edit this page to indicate they will be attending
* if you need a bigger room than that which has been assigned to you, let [[User:tmitchell|Tyler]] or [[User:Bruce.bannerman|Bruce]] know
* you must provide a contact person who is managing the meeting
* also make your description as clear as possible, for many attendees it will be the only thing they read before choosing one

= BOF sessions =

== FOSS4G in Government ==

To start the ball rolling, seeing that everyone else is sitting back
and waiting for everyone else: some potential discussion points:

* '''[http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/government_it/open_source.aspx The UK Government's policy on Open Source]''' It would be good to get a UK person to talk to this.
* How can governments exploit open source spatial:
* Implement based on Open Standards.
* The GeoNetwork example where we all need a Metadata entry tool and catalogue.
** We all don't want to pay for the same development, but share / pool resources.
** how do we coordinate this work, while working sensitively with Open Source communities who own the code base and may not want to go in the same direction that we do. This includes issues relating to working with Project Steering Committees etc.
** We can't expect communities to do our work for free. Therefore we will need to either engage our own people or consultancies to do the work. The consultancies could come from within the community from anywhere around the world, until we build up our own local communities. This could create procurement problems.
* The need for governments to engage with Open Source communities at all levels, not just as developers.
* The need to allow employees to participate within OS Communities as part of their day to day jobs: i.e. we need to build up our technical skills.
* The need to treat OS on a level playing field with proprietary solutions. That will mean looking at the Solution life cycle (See the new UK OS policy).
* Experiences in other countries:
** What is working.
** What is not working.

Who is coming:
* Bruce Bannerman

== PostGIS Users Group ==

* How are you using PostGIS?
* Want a beer?
* What features would make your life better?
* Want to buy the developers a beer?
* More fruitful topics gratefully accepted!

Who is coming:
* Paul Ramsey

== Marketing Geospatial Open Source ==
* How can we collaboratively market OSGeo?
* What marketing works for Geospatial Open Source Businesses?
* What tools, messages, guidelines can we put in place which will help us individually and collectively?

Who is coming:
* Cameron Shorter
* Jose Diacono

== INSPIRE Data Profile Support in FOSS4G ==

We want to discuss an approach towards the upcoming INSPIRE data specifications and how to best support them in our open source software. It is important for the FOSS community to come up with a story that is more than just "Yes that is possible but contract us first".
This BOF is to seek feedback from those of you that see the same need and to investigate if some work has already been done, seek input in how we would best approach this, if there are options for a Europe wide collaboration on this etcetera.

Questions and/or points of discussions are:
* Considering that clients would like to see a product that does some of the INSPIRE data conversions out of the box, how do you approach this when usually we only implement things after they have been contracted? (in contrast to proprietary software where often an investment is made that is earned back through licensing schemes)
* Have any application schema's already been implemented in some form by you in GEOFOSS?
* What tools have you used or do you want to use (e.g. ogr, Talend, deegree, GeoServer)
* How would we go about joined development, or maybe even joined investment etcetera?

Who is coming:
* Jeroen Ticheler

== MapServer Users Meeting ==

* How are you using MapServer?
* Want to have a beer with the developers?
* What features would make your life better?
* More fruitful topics gratefully accepted!
* you can also follow along on IRC in #mapserver ([http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2009&month=10&day=22&hour=5&min=15&sec=0 exact time])

Who is coming:
* [[User:Jmckenna | Jeff McKenna]]
* [[User:Dmorissette | Daniel Morissette]]

== GeoServer Users Meeting ==

* Meet the developers (yes, beer welcomed!)
* How are you using GeoServer?
* What will be the next GeoServer features? What are the features you're still missing in GeoServer?
* Anything else GeoServer related you want to talk about. Come and share!

Who is coming:
* [[User:aaime | Andrea Aime]]
* [[User:simboss | Simone Giannecchini]]

== Ingres Users Group ==

* Brief update: What is the current state of Ingres' new geospatial support
* Q & A, interactive discussion
* Roadmap/ planning/ community feedback & input

Who is coming:
* [[User:aross | Andrew Ross]]
* [[User:cthibert |Chuck Thibert]]

== Education and Curriculum Project ==

* meet, progress updates, future plans? (let's flesh this out)

Who is coming (initially populated based on mailing list responses - please add yourself if you're not here but you're coming):
* [[User:smitch | Scott Mitchell]]
* Vasile Craciunescu
* Venkatesh Raghavan
* Maria Brovelli

== OpenLayers ==

Come talk about OpenLayers. Ideas for the future, gripes about the library, raves about the library - all fair game!

Who is coming:
* Tim Schaub
* Éric Lemoine
* Roald de Wit

FOSS4G 2009 Press Release 6

2009-03-02T00:39:31Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* FOSS4G 2009 Highlights */

=FOSS4G 2009 One week extension to Workshops and Tutorial abstract submissions=

Sydney, Australia. 2 March 2009.

In response to requests from presenters, the deadline for the FOSS4G 2009 workshop and tutorial abstract submissions has been extended by one week, to Monday 9 March 2009. If you are considering submitting a workshop, please notify your intent by emailing the Workshop/Tutorial coordinator, Mark Leslie, at m a r k . l e s l i e AT l i s a s o f t . c o m.

== About FOSS4G==

FOSS4G, held 20-23 October 2009 in Sydney, Australia, is the international "gathering of tribes" for open source geospatial communities. The theme for the FOSS4G 2009 conference will be "User Driven". Users and developers are encouraged present their latest projects and software to demonstrate the power of Open Source for system integration through a series of workshop sessions and tutorial presentations. Session participants should expect to see presentations on both geospatial open source and propriety software integration along with pure open source solutions.

==Workshops==
Workshops are expected to be a hands-on experience with participants following along with the instructor, working directly with the application under discussion. All workshop rooms will be equipped with computers (two students sharing one system) to support this vision. Workshop computers will pre-installed with a basic image containing standard packages running in a Windows XP environment. A projector will be provided for each computer room for use within a workshop. Instructors will need to discuss pre-installation requirements with the Conference Organising Committee if required.

Workshops are expected to require considerable effort to create, with past experience showing that three days of preparation per hour of presentation are required to produce a high quality workshop. Additionally you will be expected to develop material for attendees to take home with them, such as handouts, workbook, CD-ROMs etc. Due to the effort involved in producing and presenting a workshop, instructors will receive a single complementary registration to the conference for delivering a workshop.

All workshop submissions will be considered, but particular interest will be shown in the following topics:
* Practical Introduction to ____
* Integrating Open Source
* Spatial Data Privacy and Security

==Tutorials==
Tutorial rooms will not be equipped with computers, however presenters may optionally make use of delegate laptops and the FOSS4G LiveDVD.

At least 80% of delegates are expected to be carrying a laptop and FOSS4G LiveDVDs will be given to all delegates.

Preference will be given to hands-on tutorials.

Any hands-on aspects to a tutorial will be the responsibility of the presenter and needs to be described in the tutorial description. Presenters making use of the Live DVD or Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP) will be expected to contribute to testing pre-releases to ensure material and software is properly installed. To discuss your requirements for LiveDVD, please contact the organising committee: http://2009.foss4g.org/contacts/.

All tutorial submissions will be considered, but particular interest will be shown in the following topics:
* Practical introductions
* Interoperability
* Spatial data accuracy
* Spatial data privacy
* Spatial data security
* System implementation
* Data migration

----

Submission instructions and templates are available at http://2009.foss4g.org/workshops/ and http://2009.foss4g.org/tutorials/.

The deadline for workshop / tutorial submissions is March 9, 2009.

==FOSS4G 2009 Highlights==
'''The Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP)''': FOSS4G will launch the OGC's Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP), which demonstrates standards based interoperability between Open Source and Proprietary geospatial applications. It consists of a server with multiple virtual machines, each installed with geospatial applications offering standards based web services. All web services will demonstrate a common dataset, and will be accessed by a range of geospatial client applications installed on client computers. http://external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/ClimateChallenge2009/WebHome

Presenters are encouraged (but not mandated) to make use of scenarios and on-site data from the Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP). This is especially important as demand for access to data over the internet is expected to be high, and Australia has notoriously slow connections to the outside world.

'''FOSS4G Live DVD''': LiveDVDs, based on the Xubuntu operating system and including Geospatial Open Source Software, will be given to all delegates. Users can boot a Live DVD on their computer and trial the software without installing or effecting the existing system. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc

'''Installfest''': The Installfest will give delegates the opportunity to meet in a common area and install a wide variety of FOSS software on their laptops, EEPC or any other system they care to bring in. Community members will be around to assist with any troubles and provide help and insight into the software. The install fest will take place after workshops on the first day.

'''Workshops and Tutorials''': Workshops and Tutorials allow presenters to lead attendees through applications, integration solutions, or other topics in an interactive environment. Half-day workshops (3 hours) will be held in computer rooms on the first day. Tutorials (90 minutes) will be held in standard presentation rooms, run concurrently with presentations during the third and fourth days.

'''Presentations''': The meat of the conference are it's presentations. Drawing on a huge community of local, regional and international experts we will discuss some of the most current and poignant topics in the industry today.

'''Birds of a Feather''': Rooms have been set aside for semi-organised meetings between like minded groups. Some prominant community initiatives started in prior FOSS4G Birds of a Feather sessions.

'''Code Sprint''': The weekend after FOSS4G is reserved for the Hackers' Code Sprint. Hackers will be locked in a basement with lots of bandwidth, pizzas and coke. (Well, maybe something better than that, but we don't want to spoil the mystical hacker image by describing it any differently.)

== Upcoming milestones ==

* 2 Feb 2009, '''Call for Workshops/Tutorials opens'''
* 9 Mar 2009, Call for Workshops/Tutorials closes
* 9 Mar 2009, '''Call for Abstracts opens'''
* 30 Mar 2009, Notification of acceptance for workshops/tutorials
* 13 Apr 2009, '''Registration for conference and tutorials opens'''
* 1 Jun 2009, Abstract submission deadline
* 13 Jul 2009, Presenters notified of acceptance for talks
* 31 Jul 2009, '''Author/Early registration deadline'''
* 14 Sep 2009, '''Completed program available on the wiki'''
* 20 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Workshop
* 21-23 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Presentations and Tutorials
* 24-25 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Code Sprint

----

For information about this announcement, contact:

FOSS4G Organising Committee: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009#Contact_Us

or,

Cameron Shorter, Chair of the FOSS4G Organising Committee and Geospatial Systems Architect at LISAsoft

tel +61-8570-5050

c a m e r o n . s h o r t e r @ l i s a s o f t . c o m

[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]

FOSS4G 2009 Press Release 6

2009-03-02T00:39:00Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Tutorials */

=FOSS4G 2009 One week extension to Workshops and Tutorial abstract submissions=

Sydney, Australia. 2 March 2009.

In response to requests from presenters, the deadline for the FOSS4G 2009 workshop and tutorial abstract submissions has been extended by one week, to Monday 9 March 2009. If you are considering submitting a workshop, please notify your intent by emailing the Workshop/Tutorial coordinator, Mark Leslie, at m a r k . l e s l i e AT l i s a s o f t . c o m.

== About FOSS4G==

FOSS4G, held 20-23 October 2009 in Sydney, Australia, is the international "gathering of tribes" for open source geospatial communities. The theme for the FOSS4G 2009 conference will be "User Driven". Users and developers are encouraged present their latest projects and software to demonstrate the power of Open Source for system integration through a series of workshop sessions and tutorial presentations. Session participants should expect to see presentations on both geospatial open source and propriety software integration along with pure open source solutions.

==Workshops==
Workshops are expected to be a hands-on experience with participants following along with the instructor, working directly with the application under discussion. All workshop rooms will be equipped with computers (two students sharing one system) to support this vision. Workshop computers will pre-installed with a basic image containing standard packages running in a Windows XP environment. A projector will be provided for each computer room for use within a workshop. Instructors will need to discuss pre-installation requirements with the Conference Organising Committee if required.

Workshops are expected to require considerable effort to create, with past experience showing that three days of preparation per hour of presentation are required to produce a high quality workshop. Additionally you will be expected to develop material for attendees to take home with them, such as handouts, workbook, CD-ROMs etc. Due to the effort involved in producing and presenting a workshop, instructors will receive a single complementary registration to the conference for delivering a workshop.

All workshop submissions will be considered, but particular interest will be shown in the following topics:
* Practical Introduction to ____
* Integrating Open Source
* Spatial Data Privacy and Security

==Tutorials==
Tutorial rooms will not be equipped with computers, however presenters may optionally make use of delegate laptops and the FOSS4G LiveDVD.

At least 80% of delegates are expected to be carrying a laptop and FOSS4G LiveDVDs will be given to all delegates.

Preference will be given to hands-on tutorials.

Any hands-on aspects to a tutorial will be the responsibility of the presenter and needs to be described in the tutorial description. Presenters making use of the Live DVD or Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP) will be expected to contribute to testing pre-releases to ensure material and software is properly installed. To discuss your requirements for LiveDVD, please contact the organising committee: http://2009.foss4g.org/contacts/.

All tutorial submissions will be considered, but particular interest will be shown in the following topics:
* Practical introductions
* Interoperability
* Spatial data accuracy
* Spatial data privacy
* Spatial data security
* System implementation
* Data migration

----

Submission instructions and templates are available at http://2009.foss4g.org/workshops/ and http://2009.foss4g.org/tutorials/.

The deadline for workshop / tutorial submissions is March 9, 2009.

==FOSS4G 2009 Highlights==
'''The Climate Change Integration Plugfest (CCIP)''': FOSS4G will launch the OGC's Climate Change Integration Plugfest (CCIP), which demonstrates standards based interoperability between Open Source and Proprietary geospatial applications. It consists of a server with multiple virtual machines, each installed with geospatial applications offering standards based web services. All web services will demonstrate a common dataset, and will be accessed by a range of geospatial client applications installed on client computers. http://external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/ClimateChallenge2009/WebHome

Presenters are encouraged (but not mandated) to make use of scenarios and on-site data from the Climate Change Integration Plugfest (CCIP). This is especially important as demand for access to data over the internet is expected to be high, and Australia has notoriously slow connections to the outside world.

'''FOSS4G Live DVD''': LiveDVDs, based on the Xubuntu operating system and including Geospatial Open Source Software, will be given to all delegates. Users can boot a Live DVD on their computer and trial the software without installing or effecting the existing system. http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc

'''Installfest''': The Installfest will give delegates the opportunity to meet in a common area and install a wide variety of FOSS software on their laptops, EEPC or any other system they care to bring in. Community members will be around to assist with any troubles and provide help and insight into the software. The install fest will take place after workshops on the first day.

'''Workshops and Tutorials''': Workshops and Tutorials allow presenters to lead attendees through applications, integration solutions, or other topics in an interactive environment. Half-day workshops (3 hours) will be held in computer rooms on the first day. Tutorials (90 minutes) will be held in standard presentation rooms, run concurrently with presentations during the third and fourth days.

'''Presentations''': The meat of the conference are it's presentations. Drawing on a huge community of local, regional and international experts we will discuss some of the most current and poignant topics in the industry today.

'''Birds of a Feather''': Rooms have been set aside for semi-organised meetings between like minded groups. Some prominant community initiatives started in prior FOSS4G Birds of a Feather sessions.

'''Code Sprint''': The weekend after FOSS4G is reserved for the Hackers' Code Sprint. Hackers will be locked in a basement with lots of bandwidth, pizzas and coke. (Well, maybe something better than that, but we don't want to spoil the mystical hacker image by describing it any differently.)

== Upcoming milestones ==

* 2 Feb 2009, '''Call for Workshops/Tutorials opens'''
* 9 Mar 2009, Call for Workshops/Tutorials closes
* 9 Mar 2009, '''Call for Abstracts opens'''
* 30 Mar 2009, Notification of acceptance for workshops/tutorials
* 13 Apr 2009, '''Registration for conference and tutorials opens'''
* 1 Jun 2009, Abstract submission deadline
* 13 Jul 2009, Presenters notified of acceptance for talks
* 31 Jul 2009, '''Author/Early registration deadline'''
* 14 Sep 2009, '''Completed program available on the wiki'''
* 20 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Workshop
* 21-23 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Presentations and Tutorials
* 24-25 Oct 2009, FOSS4G Code Sprint

----

For information about this announcement, contact:

FOSS4G Organising Committee: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009#Contact_Us

or,

Cameron Shorter, Chair of the FOSS4G Organising Committee and Geospatial Systems Architect at LISAsoft

tel +61-8570-5050

c a m e r o n . s h o r t e r @ l i s a s o f t . c o m

[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]

Case Studies

2008-12-22T01:22:28Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Web Clients */

''This page lists Case Studies of projects that include Geospatial Open Source components.''

=Case Studies=

==OSGeo Journal==
'''The [http://www.osgeo.org/journal OSGeo Journal] includes many international Case Studies and introductions to OSGeo software.'''

==Web Clients==

* [http://www.terragis.net/2008/11/24/obama-campaign-mapping-voters-with-mapserver-postgis-and-openlayers/ Obama Campaign - Mapping voters with Mapserver, PostGIS and Openlayers]
* [http://docs.openlayers.org/casestudies/ OpenLayers Case Studies]

==Desktop Clients==

===Review of Open Source Desktop Clients===
''April 2008'' http://www.spatialserver.net/osgis/

A comprehensive feature by feature comparison of all the Open Source desktop clients.

* Municipality of Trento ([http://www.comune.tn.it/ Comune di Trento]), Italy, migration (2005-today): especially improvements in [http://grass.osgeo.org GRASS GIS] are financed: new digitizer tool and better high quality cartographic output.

===Email threads discussing merits and disadvantages of OSGeo Desktop===

'''18 April 2008: [http://lists.burri.to/pipermail/geowanking/2008-April/thread.html Geowanking: ArcView 3.1 replacement]'''

"[Oxford Archaeology] are looking at gvsig and qgis as the main options [for ArcGIS], gvsig because it can use cad data, and qgis because we like the grass integration and it's slightly more user-friendly for english speakers (the translated version of gvsig still has some spanish bits in it). With slight changes to our work-flows, we are finding that these two packages will do almost everything we need a gis to do, with the exception of producing high-quality illustrations. To achieve this we are currently looking at export to svg or postscript for final editing in inkscape, but that's a work in progress."

'''24 April 2008: [http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2008-April/thread.html OSGeo-Discuss: Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with ESRI)?]'''

This email thread provides numerous opinions for and against using Open Source Geospatial Software.

[http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2008-April/003458.html Paul Ramsey notes there is not a direct Open Source replacement for Arc View]:

''I think it's contingent on us as evangelizers to not over-sell. I
would not recommend QGIS or any other open source desktop to someone
whose prior experience was Arc* until I had a clear understanding of
the use case. In response to the query "can I replace ArcView with
open source", my answer is "in general, no, but maybe for a specific
use case".''

[http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2008-April/003453.html John Callahan provides a good summary]:

''I've been an ESRI user (AV 3.x, ArcGIS 8/9, ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE) for 12+ years and have recently started exploring FOSS software. And I haven't disagreed with any of the responses so far. You will definitely need multiple programs to do what a single ESRI program can do. IMO, this is a good thing. One of the main reasons for my migration is I'm tired of running large, complicated, expensive software and all the extra baggage that comes with it to use only 10% of what the software can do. (see ArcGIS Server.)''

''You can do all the analysis and more of ArcGIS Desktop and extensions using GRASS, QGIS, SAGA, GeoTools, GDAL/OGR, PROJ4, or R Statistics along with a programming language like Python, Java or others. (IMO, this is a better solution than ESRI.) You can do just about anything you want on the web server end with MapServer, GeoServer, FeatureServer (and maybe TileCache or GeoNetwork for metadata) with any of a dozen or more clients (OpenLayers, ka-Map, MapGuide etc...). And you can do a lot of database work with Postgres/PostGIS, a much simpler, less costly solution than ArcSDE+RDBMS. And I wouldn't count out the role of free, non-open source packages like Google products and Oracle Express (11g should have Spatial included.)''

''From my experience (limited in the FOSS world), I have found three basic hurdles:
# ''Cartography. Whether on the screen, PDF outputs, or print publications, ArcMap is easy and looks great. (Although R Statistics produces better looking charts and graphs than ArcGIS.)''
# ''Versioned editing. This is important for groups with multiple concurrent editors or that has a particular hierarchical workflow with their GIS data.''
# ''Storage and serving of very large (50+ GB) raster datasets. PostGIS does not support rasters yet; Oracle Spatial does though. I'm still not sure if storing rasters in a database is a good idea but ArcSDE sure makes it easy, and with good performance when used in conjunction with other ESRI products.''

Current work addressing Open Source holes include:
* [http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/WxPython-based_GUI_for_GRASS#Digitizer Improving GRASS/qgis tools].
* [http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Cartographic_Library Design plans for improving open source Cartographic Mapping].

=== GRASS ===
''August 2005, [http://www.toddbuchanan.net/thesis_ver.pdf Comparison of ARCGIS 9.0 and GRASS 6.0]''

Todd Buchanan's master thesis compared ArcGIS 9.0 and GRASS 6.0 for a use case: "Characterization of Urban Sprawl for Eugene-Springfield, Oregon". He took detailed notes using both and found "ArcGIS is more straightforward than GRASS. However, GRASS proved itself fully capable of performing the operations required by the case study and outperformed ArcGIS in several categories."

Note: GRASS is even better now and has been integrated with the user friendly qgis since this study.

=== uDig Case Studies ===

http://udig.refractions.net/gallery/
Collection of uDig case studies put together by Refractions.

==Web Services==

===[http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=101 Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Regulatory program]===
''25 September 2007. Powerpoint presentation from FOSS4G Conference''

The Army Corps successfully integrated a Proprietary Oracle Database, ARC SDE and Analysis tools, with Open Source WMS and WFS services, and free viewers like Google Earth and Google Maps.

=== [http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/07/earthshaking-use-open-source An earthshaking use of open source] ===

Use of MapServer, Ingres and GMT among other tools by the BGR (a German institute responsible for the monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty).

==Databases==
===[http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/casestudies/ PostGIS Case Studies]===
A collection of PostGIS Case Studies collected by Refractions.

==Complete Infrastructure==
===[http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvpontis&L=2 Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=es%7Cen&u=http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php%3Fid%3Dgvpontis%26L%3D2 English translation] by Google)''

Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is under a project of migrating "all" systems to open-source software. As a matter of fact, that was the reason to build [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvsig0&L=2 gvSIG]. All geospatial infrastructure (previously with ESRI) has been moved to open source (gvSIG, PostGIS, MapServer, deegree, GeoNetwork opensource).

===[http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F209.85.173.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3ACTDxwL0ZUqoJ%3Awww.orzancongres.com%2Fadministracion%2Fupload%2FimgPrograma%2FN-004.pdf%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D1%26gl%3Dau%26client%3Dfirefox-a&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8 English translation] by Google)''

A migration of a big part of ESRI components to open-source has been made, with use of gvSIG, GeoNetwork opensource, MapServer, GeoServer, deegree.

===ROI from Geospatial Open Standards, study by NASA===
''April 2005''

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Geospatial Interoperability Office studied the Return On Investment from using Geospatial Open Standards. The study showed
"There is a significant improvement in functionality and mitigation of cost when using open as opposed to proprietary standards. The project that implemented geospatial interoperability standards had a risk-adjusted ROI, or "Savings to Investment" ratio, of 119.0 percent throughout the five-year project life cycle."

* [http://www.geospatial-solutions.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=303345&pageID=1&sk=&date= Summary of Findings]
* [http://www.galdosinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/NASA_GI_ROI.pdf Copy of Report] (Original URL has suffered link rot)

===Predicted ROI for Australian Government to investment in a SDI===
''October 2007''

ACIL Tasman study reports a 10 to 20 times ROI should the Australian government invest in a Spatial Data Infrastructure.
* [http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2608&trv=1 Article]
* [http://www.asiba.com.au/clients/asiba/UserFiles/File/Media%20Releases/Press%20Release301007.pdf Media Release]
=Open Data=
==Open Data Licensing in Australian Government==
''2008. [[http://www.walis.wa.gov.au/projects_and_activities/assets/crc-si-qld-gilf-presentation-perth.ppt/view Government Information Licensing Framework]]''

80% of Queensland, Australian government data can be opened up under Creative Commons, and the remaining data is planned to be released under an extensions to the Creative Common license.

=Open Source Policies=
These documents provide compelling reasons for selecting Open Source and Open Standards.
==Australia==
''April 2005, [[http://www.agimo.gov.au/_sourceit/sourceit/oss Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies]]''

''It can offer original solutions to problems not addressed by proprietary software and it has the potential to lead to significant savings in Government expenditure on information and communications technology (ICT).''

==New Zealand ==
''13 March 2008, [[http://research.elabs.govt.nz/2008/03/13/ministry-of-justice-open-source-adoption-paper/ Ministry of Justice Open Source Strategy Paper]]''

Proposes when Open Source should be used over Proprietary software, and concludes that Open Source better than Proprietary, all other things being equal.

==US Navy==
''April 2006, [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070324082448/http://www.acq.osd.mil/jctd/articles/OTDRoadmapFinal.pdf US Navy Open Technology Development Roadmap Plan]].''

Describes how the US Navy will migrate to Open Technology Development when purchasing and building software.

Open Technology Development combines salient advances in the following areas:
* Open Standards and Interfaces
* Open Source Software and Designs
* Collaborative/Distributive culture and the and online support tools
* Technological Agility

Also, a much shorter news article on the same topic from March 2008. [[http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151858-1.html The Navy will acquire only systems based on open technologies and standards]].

The Original Paper was stored [[http://www.acq.osd.mil/jctd/articles/OTDRoadmapFinal.pdf here]].

== Open Source Software Economics ==
''April 2007, [[http://techblog.terrapages.com/2007/05/economic-motivation-of-open-source.html
The Economic Motivation of Open Source Software: Stakeholder Perspectives]''

Dirk Riehle. "The Economic Motivation of Open Source Software: Stakeholder Perspectives." IEEE Computer, vol. 40, no. 4 (April 2007). Page 25-32.

=Why write a Case Study?=
A case study discusses how a specific situation was identified, which solutions were investigated and selected, and a summary of the results.

Solution architects use relevant case studies to support a solution they are building.

Writing a case study about your project gives others the confidence to follow in your footsteps which in turn increases investment in your tools of choice. Publishing your experience gives '''positive feedback''' to those involved in your project, reinforcing your success, encouraging colleagues to take on additional challenges, allowing the project to continue to grow.

We would like to see case studies which cover a range of use cases, especially from organizations with a low risk tolerance. Many organizations approach Open Source in little steps gradually integrating it with existing infrastructure and find targeted small case studies valuable.

=What to write?=

One to three pages is good, with a graphic per page.

The case study should cover:
* Problem
* Evaluations
* Implementation, including integration with other infrastructure
* Problems faced and how they were overcome
* Return on Investment
* Future plans
* Who else might benefit from your experience

More hints found by googling: [http://www.klariti.com/business-writing/How-To-Write-Case-Study.shtml How to write a Case Study]

=How to publish?=
Consider submitting an article to the [http://www.osgeo.org/journal OSGeo Journal].
Here are the basic [http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Journal_License_and_Guidelines guidelines] for authors.

[[Category:Advocacy]]

FOSS4G 2009 Website Feedback

2008-10-28T04:19:51Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Website todo list */

Back to [[FOSS4G 2009]]...

== Feedback to Tourhost ==

This page is meant to brainstorm ideas and provide feedback on the current version of the FOSS4G Sydney website

=== Current Version ===
http://www.tourhosts.com.au/testdev/foss4g/

== Feedback ==

==== Site Layout & Design ====
* Generally +ve response on the layout of the site
* OSGeo logo should be there '''We have added it to the side bar'''
* Tour host logo is unnecessary and detracts from OSGeo '''all Tour Hosts websites have our logo as it is one of the small ways we promote ourselves.'''
* Tourhosts contact info OK, but no graphic identity.
* I wonder if it's a bit too tall (taking more vertical space than really needed) '''We can make it smaller, but I think then we would lose some of the photo. What do others think?'''
* If it couldn't convey more information(e.g. the 2007 page banner, in addition to 'some images' and the logo includes a 'message', the full name of the conference, and the conference dates: http://www.foss4g2007.org/) '''Done'''
* Any "items" in the banner, such as images or text, should be links back to the Home page '''Do you mean you want to link the banner to go the home page? '''

===== Side Bar (Left) =====
* Generally OK, however, how will it look when categories need 'subcategories'? For example, what if "Program" needs "Workshops", "Labs", "Presentations", etc? Should the order of the existing menu items be changed? (e.g. Committee doesn't need to be 'at the top')'''We can add subcategories, so that when someone clicks on a item such as 'Program' the subcategories come down'''
* Contact Us Block on Left Side: I don't think this belongs here at all. There should be a separate "Contact Us" page(but maybe "Contacts" is better? That's what 2007 used), with a corresponding link in the Menu. '''We have moved this information to the footer and have added a contact us page.'''

===== Main Content (Center) =====
* No general comments.

===== Side Bar (Right) =====
* Will all pages have a 'right column', or perhaps only some pages? For example, for 2007, most pages did not have a right column, but the Home and Sponsorship pages did, where it was used to display the sponsor logos. As for the current "Expression of Interest" right column, get rid of it - it doesn't belong there, even at this stage (more about this below).''' We have moved the SOGeo Logo here, I like having a side bar on each page, What do others think?'''

===== Footer =====
* This div is too tall for the information it contains. Get rid of the copyright notice. Use the footer for some 'contact info', like what was done for 2007. Use a personal email address, not "Webmaster". Get rid of the "Website validate XHTML and CSS" text (not because the pages don't validate, but because it is unnecessary to advertise this). '''We have taken off the above information and added the contact information to the footer.'''

===== Page Titles =====
* The page's Title element should change from page to page (not always be the same as the Home page) in order to aid visitors who may bookmark specific pages

===== 404 Error =====
* The default "404 Not Found" behavior for typical 'root page names' such as "index.htm" and "index.html" should be a redirect to "default.asp", if that is the name of the website's home page.
* Some good practices for handling 404s http://alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/

===== Standard Validations =====
* All pages should validate to the required standards. The current Home page has 27 errors for the XHTML, and the CSS has 1 error and 23 warnings. I didn't do any accessibility checks, or check other pages.

* If this website content is "incomplete", which we know it will be for the next while, do not include 'essentially empty' placeholder pages (e.g. Program, Social, Sponsorship, Accommodation, Registration). Only add such pages when there is 'real content'. The Home page can convey the "watch this space" message to site visitors (but don't use vague terms like 'coming soon'). '''Done'''

===== Committee page =====
* Remove the word "Local". '''Done'''
* How about a map showing where the committee members are located? '''We are happy to add this, does someone want to put it together?'''
* It's a webpage, so include links where possible (e.g. see the 2007 About page: http://www.foss4g2007.org/about_foss4g/). ''' We can do this, however we would require more information about what link to add'''
* I think it would look better if each person had:

- name
- job title (i.e. not 'committee title')
- company name
- city/region/country
- possibly committee title
(Chair is fine, but do we also want to add things like Workshop Coordinator, etc?)

* I tidied up the OSGeo section of the governance wiki page, and updated my info as an example:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_Governance. '''We are happy to do this, can everyone update their details on the wiki and we will update it on the website'''

===== Contacts page =====
* Add a 'Contacts' (or 'Contact Us') page, including a form that people can fill out. Mandatory parts of the form would be email address, subject, and 'comments', but other fields, if they exist, such as Title, Organization, etc. would be optional. Don't default "Title" to "Mr". '''Done'''

===== Add a "Stay Informed" page =====
* There may be a better name than 'Stay Informed', and it's likely that this page should be mentioned/linked from some text on the Home page (and maybe the "Contacts" page?). This page would cover any means that people can use to stay informed about FOSS4G2009. For now, the minimum would be to have a paragraph about this mailing list (and perhaps also the Wiki?). As they are developed, other things can be added. Some possibilities are: '''We are doing this through the Expression of interest form. This information that people entre into each field is captured and we send e-blasts to them telling them about what is happening with the Conference'''

- mention of any other mailing lists, such as a FOSS4G2009 Announcements mailing list
- info about a 'FOSS4G2009 blog'
- an RSS feed of 'website updates' (i.e. when new pages/content are added to existing pages)
- an RSS feed similar to 2007 for Presentations, if there is to be a community review

Also see [[#Social_Networking_Elements | Social Networking Elements]]

===== Expression of Interest =====
* Do away with this functionality. The "Stay Informed" page will direct people to 'pull' methods of receiving information about FOSS4G2009, and the "Contacts" page provides better functionality, as it's form would allow people to ask questions. '''See above'''

===== Sponsorship page =====
* Do not include a checkbox for "Potential Sponsor" on the "Contacts" page, but on that page (and perhaps other pages) direct potential sponsors to the Sponsorship page. On this page provide some relevant information now, so that this page exists right from the start of the website. Provide both an email address to contact as well as a form to use for making contact. (do not use "click here" for email addresses)'''We have taken this page off'''

==== Site URL & Domain Name ====
* Standardize on http://foss4g.org/2009
* Issue of using .asp . This is an Open Source techie conference and many techies will be disappointed to see a proprietary Microsoft driven site.

==== Social Networking Elements ====
For a general understanding of the importance of social networking element of the site please see
the [http://en.oreilly.com/webexny2008/public/content/home stay connected sidebar @Web2.0 Expo]
* Crowdvine page for the code sprint e.g. [http://wherecamp.crowdvine.com/ wherecamp]
* Twitter ([[User:sab|sab]] setup a conf account at http://twitter.com/foss4g2009) other e.g. [http://twitter.com/w2e_NY08 Web 2.0 Expo], [http://www.netsquared.org/blog/metromapper/use-twitter-conference-organize-and-meet-other-attendees reasoning about using twitter]
* ICal feed for the conference schedule: [http://en.oreilly.com/webexny2008/public/content/home Web 2.0 Expo]

== Standard Procedures for Website Additions/Updates ==

What process and policies will guide FOSS4G2009 website updates/additions?

=== Process: ===
Regardless of who is working on the update/addition, what "process" will be used? Some thoughts:

* while there may be an upside in terms of exposure, one downside of having 'the first cut' announced on this public list is that the list is archived and publicly available, therefore search engines may 'grab content' that we decide shouldn't be made public

* if the Organizing Committee doesn't review the content first, before it is available publicly, there may be the risk of wrong or mixed messages

* is a 'two step review' (Organizing Committee, then this public list) too much 'management'
* is the process any different for an update to the content of an existing page vs a new page

=== Policies: ===
What policies/guidelines will apply to updates/addition to the FOSS4G2009 website? Some thoughts:
* all pages must be valid (but what standard do we use to validate against? XHTML 1.0 Transitional?)
* the CSS used must be valid (but what standard do we use to validate against? CSS level 2?)
* what if any other standards must be met? (e.g. accessibility guidelines)
* which versions of which web browsers on which platforms must be used for testing, and are there specific types of tests that must be done?
* do 'interactive pages', such as pages with forms, need additional testing(i.e. to ensure that the form submission has been fully tested by multiple people, including 'the public', and that the submitted data is what is expected)
* is there a standard 'layout' that will be applied to all pages (e.g. top banner with 3-column layout below, + footer?)

== Website todo list ==

This section is intended to record ongoing tasks for the website:

*Integrate OCS for managing the presentation/paper submissions (including skinnig OCS inline with current css)
*Add ICal feed for Conference Programme
*Add CrowdVine link for codesprint
*Correct spelling of surname for Harley Prowse on committee page (made live 28/10/2008)
*Remove "GeoBiz" from details for Harley prowse on committee page (made live 28/10/2008)
*Look into options for presenting the conference schedule effectively online
*Add Privacy Policy Page
*remove target="blank" references (made live 28/10/2008)
*FOSS4G Wiki Site link on contacts page is incorrect (made live 28/10/2008)
*Stay connected - wiki link needs to be http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009 (made live 28/10/2008)
*On http://2009.foss4g.org/committee/ , link "Cameron Shorter" to http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com/ and "LISAsoft" to http://lisasoft.com (made live 28/10/2008)
*Once we have finalised details of the code sprint, update index.html to say "... will take place from Tuesday 20 - Friday 23 October, 2009 plus an extra XX days for software developers coming to the Code Sprint" (or similar).
*Header image to say "20-23 October + code sprint" or similar
*Add Jody Garnett to committee list (made live 28/10/2008)
*Fix typo in http://2009.foss4g.org/general/ - Planning your travel: The suggested arrival date is 15 November 2009. Should be October.

[[Category:FOSS4G2009]]

FOSS4G 2009 Logo Designs

2008-07-03T03:08:57Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* Logo Option 1 */

These are the final options for FOSS4G Sydney logos.

Could all FOSS4G2009 parties please add your votes before Friday 4 July 2008.

=Logo Option 1=

[http://www.tourhosts.com.au/download/foss4g/Option-1.gif Logo Option 1]

Votes:
* +1 Simon Hope
* +1 [[User: Torsten Brassat | Torsten Brassat]]
* +1 [[User: Astrid Emde]]
* +1 [[User: Verena Diewald]]
* +1 [[User: jmckenna | Jeff McKenna]]
* +1 [[User: Dpatton | Dave Patton]]
* +1 [[User: Rdewit | Roald de Wit]]

=Logo Option 2=

[http://www.tourhosts.com.au/download/foss4g/foss4g_logo4a_whiteAU.gif Logo Option 2]

Votes:
* +1 Cameron Shorter
* +1 [[User: danames | Dan Ames]] - Suggestion: use this one when a large logo is needed, and the other when a small logo is needed...

Luker Notes:
* +1 [[Arnulf Christl]] I support the suggestion to : use this one when a large logo is needed, and the other when a small logo is needed. Good idea.

[[Category: FOSS4G2009]]

User:Rdewit

2008-05-30T02:00:42Z

Wiki-Rdewit:

'''Roald de Wit''' 
Software Engineer 
LISAsoft Pty Ltd 
Melbourne, Australia 

'''Projects''' 
[http://www.osgeo.org/mapbuilder Community Mapbuilder] 
[http://www.osgeo.org/openlayers OpenLayers] 
[http://www.osgeo.org/geonetwork GeoNetwork opensource]

Roald de Wit

2008-05-30T01:52:22Z

Wiki-Rdewit: Redirecting to User:Rdewit

#redirect[[User:Rdewit]]
[[Category:OSGeo Member]]

User:Rdewit

2008-05-30T01:52:03Z

Wiki-Rdewit: New page: Roald de Wit Software Engineer LISAsoft Pty Ltd Melbourne, Australia

Roald de Wit
Software Engineer
LISAsoft Pty Ltd
Melbourne, Australia

Talk:Building Mapguide on Ubuntu 7.10 Server

2008-03-07T04:12:53Z

Wiki-Rdewit: New section: needed package: libace-dev

I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but I followed this tutorial to the letter and had two issues...

1) I had to apply the patch listed at http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/ticket/347

2) I had to add "AddHandler cgi-script .fcgi" into my httpd.conf for MapGuide's Apache

I'm new here so I'm not going to add anything to the main page, but maybe someone more experienced could?

Chris Bray (chris.bray@keynetix.com)

== needed package: libace-dev ==

I noticed that I needed libace-dev as well in order to compile.

Case Studies

2008-02-03T23:35:08Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* [http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain] */

''This page lists Case Studies of projects that include Geospatial Open Source components.''

=Case Studies=
==Complete Infrastructure==
===[http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvpontis&L=2 Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=es%7Cen&u=http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php%3Fid%3Dgvpontis%26L%3D2 English translation] by Google)''

Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is under a project of migrating "all" systems to open-source software. As a matter of fact, that was the reason to build [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvsig0&L=2 gvSIG]. All geospatial infrastructure (previously with ESRI) has been moved to open source (gvSIG, PostGIS, MapServer, deegree, geoNetwork opensource).

===[http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F209.85.173.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3ACTDxwL0ZUqoJ%3Awww.orzancongres.com%2Fadministracion%2Fupload%2FimgPrograma%2FN-004.pdf%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D1%26gl%3Dau%26client%3Dfirefox-a&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8 English translation] by Google)''

A migration of a big part of ESRI components to open-source has been made, with use of gvSIG, Geonetwork opensource, MapServer, GeoServer, deegree.

===NASA study ROI from Geospatial Open Standards===
''April 2005''

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Geospatial Interoperability Office studied the Return On Investment from using Geospatial Open Standards. The study showed
"There is a significant improvement in functionality and mitigation of cost when using open as opposed to proprietary standards. The project that implemented geospatial interoperability standards had a risk-adjusted ROI, or "Savings to Investment" ratio, of 119.0 percent throughout the five-year project life cycle."

* [http://www.geospatial-solutions.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=303345&pageID=1&sk=&date= Summary of Findings]
* [http://www.galdosinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/NASA_GI_ROI.pdf Copy of Report] (Original URL has suffered link rot)

==Web Clients==

==Desktop Clients==

==Web Services==

===[http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=101 Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Regulatory program]===
''25 September 2007. Powerpoint presentation from FOSS4G Conference''

The Army Corps successfully integrated a Proprietary Oracle Database, ARC SDE and Analysis tools, with Open Source WMS and WFS services, and free viewers like Google Earth and Google Maps.

==Databases==
===[http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/casestudies/ PostGIS Case Studies]===
A collection of PostGIS Case Studies collected by Refractions.

=Why write a Case Study?=
A case study demonstrates how a specific situation was initially identified, which solution was selected to resolve the issue, and a summary of the final results.

Solution architects use relevant case studies to support a solution they are building.

If you have developed a project based on Open Source, then writing a case study is likely to increase users of your technologies, which will lead to investment and improvements in your chosen products, which will feed back to your project.

We would like to see case studies which cover a range of use cases, especially from organizations with a low risk tolerance. Many organizations approach Open Source in little steps gradually integrating it with existing infrastructure and find targeted small case studies valuable.

=What to write?=

One to three pages is good, with a graphic per page.

The case study should cover:
* Problem
* Evaluations
* Implementation, including integration with other infrastructure
* Problems faced and how they were overcome
* Return on Investment
* Future plans

More hints found by googling: [http://www.klariti.com/business-writing/How-To-Write-Case-Study.shtml How to write a Case Study]

Case Studies

2008-02-03T23:34:51Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* [http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain] */

''This page lists Case Studies of projects that include Geospatial Open Source components.''

=Case Studies=
==Complete Infrastructure==
===[http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvpontis&L=2 Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=es%7Cen&u=http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php%3Fid%3Dgvpontis%26L%3D2 English translation] by Google)''

Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is under a project of migrating "all" systems to open-source software. As a matter of fact, that was the reason to build [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvsig0&L=2 gvSIG]. All geospatial infrastructure (previously with ESRI) has been moved to open source (gvSIG, PostGIS, MapServer, deegree, geoNetwork opensource).

===[http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F209.85.173.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3ACTDxwL0ZUqoJ%3Awww.orzancongres.com%2Fadministracion%2Fupload%2FimgPrograma%2FN-004.pdf%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26cd%3D1%26gl%3Dau%26client%3Dfirefox-a&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8 English translation] by Google''

A migration of a big part of ESRI components to open-source has been made, with use of gvSIG, Geonetwork opensource, MapServer, GeoServer, deegree.

===NASA study ROI from Geospatial Open Standards===
''April 2005''

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Geospatial Interoperability Office studied the Return On Investment from using Geospatial Open Standards. The study showed
"There is a significant improvement in functionality and mitigation of cost when using open as opposed to proprietary standards. The project that implemented geospatial interoperability standards had a risk-adjusted ROI, or "Savings to Investment" ratio, of 119.0 percent throughout the five-year project life cycle."

* [http://www.geospatial-solutions.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=303345&pageID=1&sk=&date= Summary of Findings]
* [http://www.galdosinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/NASA_GI_ROI.pdf Copy of Report] (Original URL has suffered link rot)

==Web Clients==

==Desktop Clients==

==Web Services==

===[http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=101 Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Regulatory program]===
''25 September 2007. Powerpoint presentation from FOSS4G Conference''

The Army Corps successfully integrated a Proprietary Oracle Database, ARC SDE and Analysis tools, with Open Source WMS and WFS services, and free viewers like Google Earth and Google Maps.

==Databases==
===[http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/casestudies/ PostGIS Case Studies]===
A collection of PostGIS Case Studies collected by Refractions.

=Why write a Case Study?=
A case study demonstrates how a specific situation was initially identified, which solution was selected to resolve the issue, and a summary of the final results.

Solution architects use relevant case studies to support a solution they are building.

If you have developed a project based on Open Source, then writing a case study is likely to increase users of your technologies, which will lead to investment and improvements in your chosen products, which will feed back to your project.

We would like to see case studies which cover a range of use cases, especially from organizations with a low risk tolerance. Many organizations approach Open Source in little steps gradually integrating it with existing infrastructure and find targeted small case studies valuable.

=What to write?=

One to three pages is good, with a graphic per page.

The case study should cover:
* Problem
* Evaluations
* Implementation, including integration with other infrastructure
* Problems faced and how they were overcome
* Return on Investment
* Future plans

More hints found by googling: [http://www.klariti.com/business-writing/How-To-Write-Case-Study.shtml How to write a Case Study]

Case Studies

2008-02-03T23:29:20Z

Wiki-Rdewit: /* [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvpontis&L=2 Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport] */

''This page lists Case Studies of projects that include Geospatial Open Source components.''

=Case Studies=
==Complete Infrastructure==
===[http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvpontis&L=2 Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport]===
''in Spanish''
''(view [http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=es%7Cen&u=http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php%3Fid%3Dgvpontis%26L%3D2 English translation] by Google)''

Valencian Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is under a project of migrating "all" systems to open-source software. As a matter of fact, that was the reason to build [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvsig0&L=2 gvSIG]. All geospatial infrastructure (previously with ESRI) has been moved to open source (gvSIG, PostGIS, MapServer, deegree, geoNetwork opensource).

===[http://www.orzancongres.com/administracion/upload/imgPrograma/N-004.pdf Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir River, Spain]===
''in Spanish''

A migration of a big part of ESRI components to open-source has been made, with use of gvSIG, Geonetwork opensource, MapServer, GeoServer, deegree.

===NASA study ROI from Geospatial Open Standards===
''April 2005''

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Geospatial Interoperability Office studied the Return On Investment from using Geospatial Open Standards. The study showed
"There is a significant improvement in functionality and mitigation of cost when using open as opposed to proprietary standards. The project that implemented geospatial interoperability standards had a risk-adjusted ROI, or "Savings to Investment" ratio, of 119.0 percent throughout the five-year project life cycle."

* [http://www.geospatial-solutions.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=303345&pageID=1&sk=&date= Summary of Findings]
* [http://www.galdosinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/NASA_GI_ROI.pdf Copy of Report] (Original URL has suffered link rot)

==Web Clients==

==Desktop Clients==

==Web Services==

===[http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=101 Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Regulatory program]===
''25 September 2007. Powerpoint presentation from FOSS4G Conference''

The Army Corps successfully integrated a Proprietary Oracle Database, ARC SDE and Analysis tools, with Open Source WMS and WFS services, and free viewers like Google Earth and Google Maps.

==Databases==
===[http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/casestudies/ PostGIS Case Studies]===
A collection of PostGIS Case Studies collected by Refractions.

=Why write a Case Study?=
A case study demonstrates how a specific situation was initially identified, which solution was selected to resolve the issue, and a summary of the final results.

Solution architects use relevant case studies to support a solution they are building.

If you have developed a project based on Open Source, then writing a case study is likely to increase users of your technologies, which will lead to investment and improvements in your chosen products, which will feed back to your project.

We would like to see case studies which cover a range of use cases, especially from organizations with a low risk tolerance. Many organizations approach Open Source in little steps gradually integrating it with existing infrastructure and find targeted small case studies valuable.

=What to write?=

One to three pages is good, with a graphic per page.

The case study should cover:
* Problem
* Evaluations
* Implementation, including integration with other infrastructure
* Problems faced and how they were overcome
* Return on Investment
* Future plans

More hints found by googling: [http://www.klariti.com/business-writing/How-To-Write-Case-Study.shtml How to write a Case Study]