Transcript OSGeo Presentation Template

The Open Source
Geospatial Foundation –
an opportunity for the
conservation community
Ned Horning
[email protected]
American Museum of Natural History’s
Center for Biodiversity and
Conservation
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Overview
• Introduction to open source geospatial
software
• Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
• OSGeo committees and projects
• Conservation community
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Open source software
• Open source software is software that has the source code
freely available and is licensed so that it can be freely
distributed and modified as long as appropriate credit is
provided to the developers
• Community participate by providing programming help,
writing documentation, and by providing feedback with
regard to what works and what could be modified to improve
the program
• The opposite of “open source” is “proprietary” – there are
several examples of successful commercial open source
projects
• The strength of an open source project comes from a
strong community of users
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Open source geospatial software
• Open source geospatial software includes image
processing, GIS, spatial databases, map servers
• These tools are available for desktop and server
environments
• Focus is shifting from developing code libraries to
developing user interfaces to provide easy access to the
capabilities offered by the robust set of open source
libraries.
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Why use open source software?
• Software (source code and executable) is available at no
charge
• Can be freely distributed
• Can be freely modified
• User community is an integral part of the development
process
• Support from the user community is typically very strong
• Paid professional support options are increasingly available
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Some considerations
• There are costs (financial, learning, and compatibility)
associated with introducing and learning new software
• Documentation often lags behind software development
• Deciding which software project(s) to embrace can be
difficult
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Is it “Free” or “Open Source”?
• In the open source community “Free” is usually used
as freedom and free speech not as free beer
• The terms “open source” and “free” are more or less
the same
• Use of “free” supported by the Free Software
movement which preceded the open source movement
• A philosophical issue that often causes confusion
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OSGeo Introduction
• Catalyst was the formation of the Mapserver
Foundation in November 2005 when Autodesk released
their web mapping software, MapGuide, as open source
• OSGeo was formed February 4th, 2006 at an inaugural
meeting in Chicago
• Initial financial support comes from Autodesk
• Mission - “To support the development of open source
geospatial software, and promote its widespread use.”
• Web site: https://www.osgeo.org/
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Key OSGeo Goals of Interest
• To provide resources for foundation projects to cover
infrastructure, legal, funding activities and more
• To promote the use of open source software in the
geospatial industry
• To promote freely available geodata through the Public
Geospatial Data Project
• To encourage the implementation of open standards and
standards-based interoperability in foundation projects
• To provide support for the use of OSGeo software in
education via curriculum development, outreach, and
support
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Committees at OSGeo
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Board of Directors
Website Committee
Fundraising Committee
Incubation Committee
Promotion and Visibility Committee
Public Geospatial Data Committee
Education and Curriculum Committee
System Administration Committee
Certification Committee
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Education and Curriculum Committee
• Aims to create and promote educational material that
supports the use of Open Source Geospatial Software
•Targeting a broad audience - academia, professionals,
and the general public
• Cooperation with existing academic projects
• Three sub-groups:
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Data packaging
Education resources
Research outreach
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GeoData Committee
• Promote the use of open and free standards for
geodata exchange
• Promote open licenses for geographic data
• Advocate for public access and contribution to national
geodata
• Maintain a repository of open-licensed data
• Provide support for educational packages for OSGeo
projects
• Connect open source projects to data projects
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OSGeo Founding Projects
Eight Founding Projects will define the incubation
process for future projects to join the foundation :
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GDAL (Raster & Vector Data Access Library)
GeoTools
GRASS
MapBender
MapBuilder
MapGuide Open Source
MapServer
OSSIM
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GDAL / OGR
• Cross platform C++ translator library for raster and
vector geospatial data formats
• Single geospatial data model for all formats
• The most widely used geospatial data access library supports over 50 raster (GDAL) and over 20 vector
(OGR) formats
• Plugin architecture and bindings for Python, Java, Perl,
Ruby
• Utilities for:
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Format translation
Spatial filtering
Attribute filtering
Reprojection/warping
Mosaicing
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GeoTools
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Open source GIS toolkit using the latest Java tools
and environments
• Modular architecture allows extra functionality to be
easily incorporated
• Implements many Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC) specifications
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Two rendering engines:
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LiteRenderer – Stateless, low memory for server-side
environments
J2D – Stateful renderer with optimization for update rate for
client-side display
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GRASS
• Raster (including voxel) and vector GIS, image
processing, graphics production, and spatial modeling
system
• Around since 1982 and is currently undergoing
changes to make it more user friendly and more usable
on Windows computers
• Includes sophisticated processing algorithms and the
ability to link with other open source packages such as R
• Translated into several languages
• Very active users group
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Mapbender
• Framework for managing spatial data services
• Implements the latest web technologies using PHP,
JavaScript, and XML
• Provides a data model and interfaces for displaying,
navigating, and querying OGC compliant map services
• Authentication and authorization services with security
proxy functionality
• Management interfaces for user, group, and service
administration
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MapBuilder
• Geographic mapping client that runs in a web browser
• Designed to empower communitied to collaboratively
build and shate geographic data using standards-based
open source tools
• Standards compliant supporting OGC standards
• Renders maps from Web Map Services (WMS) Web
Feature Services (WFS), GeoRSS, and Google Maps
• Allows users to build their own maps, then save and
share them using Web Map Context (WMC) and Open
Web Services Context
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MapGuide Open Source
• Web-based platform from Autodesk that enables users
to quickly develop and deploy web mapping applications
and geospatial web services
• Features an interactive viewer the includes support for
feature selection, property inspection, map tips, and
operations such as buffer, select, and measure
• Extensive server-side APIs
• Quality cartographic output
• Autodesk offers proprietary versions (Enterprise and
Studio) of MapGuide as well
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MapServer
• Development environment for building spatiallyenabled web mapping applications and services.
• Fast, flexible, reliable, and can be integrated into just
about any GIS environment
• Uses MapScript, a powerful scripting environment that
support many programming languages
• Large and supportive user community
• Integrates with popular front-end environments such as
ka-Map, Chameleon, Mapbender, MapBuilder, and
Cartoweb
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OSSIM
• High performance engine for remote sensing, image
processing, GIS, and photogrammetry.
• Funded by several US Government agencies in
intelligence and defense community
• Designed as a series of software libraries written in
C++
• Includes a GUI called ImageLinker
• Uses image processing chains that are effectively a
series of processing steps that can be created, saved,
and edited
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Where does the conservation
community fit?
• Open source software is a necessary component to
realize the principals of the Conservation Commons “to
improve open access to and unrestricted use of, data,
information, and knowledge related to the conservation
of biodiversity…”
• There is a big difference between making data
available and making it accessible – open source is all
about access!
• Open source software is ideal for developing and
sharing (with everyone) algorithms, models, and
application toolsets for conservation practitioners
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Where does the conservation
community fit?
• Important to look at the broad community and long term
impact of supporting open source software
• Collectively the conservation community can have a
strong voice in the development of OSGeo projects
•Should explore forming a link between OSGeo and the
conservation community (Conservation Commons?)
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