From jgomezdans at gmail.com Mon Aug 1 09:11:54 2005 From: jgomezdans at gmail.com (Jose Gomez-Dans) Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 09:11:54 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Rasters, Vectors and spatial databases In-Reply-To: <931f8ea905072906136ac143fe@mail.gmail.com> References: <91d218430507290506653dc98@mail.gmail.com> <931f8ea905072906136ac143fe@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <91d21843050801001141489b2@mail.gmail.com> Hi Frank, Thank you very much for your prompt reply. It is really very appreciated! > OGR, the vector side of GDAL/OGR can support Oracle Spatial, > so in if you build it carefully to include Oracle support you could use > OGR to extract the polygon(s) from Oracle. Either at the commandline > with ogr2ogr, using the C++ API or perhaps from Python. OK, this looks like a doable possibility. There's also a C interface to OGR, is there not? > I'm not sure what you have been using to rasterize he polygons so > far, but I do know of folks doing this sort of thing with MapServer. > The whole process could also be automated in GRASS which includes > GDAL raster access and OGR vector access as well as good polygon > rasterization for masking, and sophisticated sorts of raster analysis. > You might need to be somewhat handy with shell scripting to automate > it in GRASS. I think my colleagues working ont he GIS side have used some propietary software, but rasterisation is problematic for a number of reasons, and needs a fair bit of user input. Ideally, I would like to have the polygon edges, and select the pixel values which lie within said polygon. I have coded similar algorithms in the past, but have found that my implementation was *ahem* not optimal :), and I was thinking that there ought to be a better implementation. OSSIM has an implementation (see ), so this could be re-implemented (given it is free software) for our purposes. I was actually wondering whether GDAL and OGR are connected somehow. Again, thank you for your comments, Jos? From fwarmerdam at gmail.com Mon Aug 1 16:33:58 2005 From: fwarmerdam at gmail.com (Frank Warmerdam) Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 10:33:58 -0400 Subject: [Freegis-list] Rasters, Vectors and spatial databases In-Reply-To: <91d21843050801001141489b2@mail.gmail.com> References: <91d218430507290506653dc98@mail.gmail.com> <931f8ea905072906136ac143fe@mail.gmail.com> <91d21843050801001141489b2@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <931f8ea905080107337b64940@mail.gmail.com> On 8/1/05, Jose Gomez-Dans wrote: > Hi Frank, > Thank you very much for your prompt reply. It is really very appreciated! > > OGR, the vector side of GDAL/OGR can support Oracle Spatial, > > so in if you build it carefully to include Oracle support you could use > > OGR to extract the polygon(s) from Oracle. Either at the commandline > > with ogr2ogr, using the C++ API or perhaps from Python. > > OK, this looks like a doable possibility. There's also a C interface > to OGR, is there not? Jose, Yes, there is a C interface to OGR as well. > > I'm not sure what you have been using to rasterize he polygons so > > far, but I do know of folks doing this sort of thing with MapServer. > > The whole process could also be automated in GRASS which includes > > GDAL raster access and OGR vector access as well as good polygon > > rasterization for masking, and sophisticated sorts of raster analysis. > > You might need to be somewhat handy with shell scripting to automate > > it in GRASS. > > I think my colleagues working ont he GIS side have used some > propietary software, but rasterisation is problematic for a number of > reasons, and needs a fair bit of user input. Ideally, I would like to > have the polygon edges, and select the pixel values which lie within > said polygon. I have coded similar algorithms in the past, but have > found that my implementation was *ahem* not optimal :), and I was > thinking that there ought to be a better implementation. OSSIM has an > implementation (see > ), > so this could be re-implemented (given it is free software) for our > purposes. I was actually wondering whether GDAL and OGR are connected > somehow. I didn't actually see any methods on the ossimPolygon for rasterization. If you are prepared to do some work reimplemnting, it should be possible to use the polygon rasterization code from OpenEV (gvrasterize.c and llrasterize.c) or go back to GD for polygon rasterization code. Best regards, -- ---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Programmer for Rent From carlos.grohmann at gmail.com Mon Aug 1 19:28:27 2005 From: carlos.grohmann at gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Carlos_Gu=E2no_Grohmann?=) Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 14:28:27 -0300 Subject: [Freegis-list] OSSIM Message-ID: Does anyone can point me a good tutorial on how to build and start on OSSIM? I've been looking in remotesensing.org, but I foud the pages a little confuse.. lots of files in sourceforge but little explanation, broken links cited in readme etc.. tks -- +-----------------------------------------------------------+ Carlos Henrique Grohmann - Guano Geologist M.Sc - Doctorate Student at IGc-USP - Brazil Linux User #89721 - carlos dot grohmann at gmail dot com +-----------------------------------------------------------+ From jan at intevation.de Wed Aug 3 14:45:02 2005 From: jan at intevation.de (Jan-Oliver Wagner) Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 14:45:02 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Looking for a FreeGIS maintainer for geodata entries In-Reply-To: <20050719092906.GL13160@vishnu.tridity.org> References: <20050714133117.GA24683@intevation.de> <20050718213333.GA2472@intevation.de> <20050719092906.GL13160@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <20050803124502.GA30375@intevation.de> On Tue, Jul 19, 2005 at 02:29:06AM -0700, Jo Walsh wrote: > On Mon, Jul 18, 2005 at 11:33:33PM +0200, Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: > > licensing for geodata is indeed a matter that needs further discussion. > > So far, most datasets are Public Domain or some BSDish license, some > > are GNU GPL. Some CC are interesting as well. > > on the openstreetmap mailing list we've had a lot of discussion about > open geodata licensing in a practical context, leading to no definite > conclusion other than a loose convergence on CC-BY-SA but that too has > its drawbacks. > > http://bat.vr.ucl.ac.uk/pipermail/openstreetmap/2005-January/000211.html > http://bat.vr.ucl.ac.uk/pipermail/openstreetmap/2005-February/000271.html > http://bat.vr.ucl.ac.uk/pipermail/openstreetmap/2005-April/000488.html > > Giles Lane got advice from Creative Commons UK on putting together a > CC-style license as a model for the Ordnance Survey which could be > uses for nonprofit licensing of possibly slightly generalised > state-collected geodata. > http://www.okfn.org/geo/geodata_cc_license_draft.rtf IMHO any license excluding commercial use creates the risk for anyone using the data because "commercial use" is not defined. In practice, even most universities can not be called anymore to act non-commercial. The same applies to "non-profit". A profit can even be any arbitrary thing other than money. Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ From fwarmerdam at gmail.com Mon Aug 15 22:26:40 2005 From: fwarmerdam at gmail.com (Frank Warmerdam) Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:26:40 -0400 Subject: [Freegis-list] FWTools 0.9.9 Released Message-ID: <931f8ea905081513267c70c103@mail.gmail.com> Folks, The FWTools 0.9.9 release is now available. FWTools is a packaged build including recent snapshots of OpenEV, MapServer, GDAL, PROJ.4 and a variety of underlying packages. It aims to be "cutting edge" with recent developments and also to include as many optional formats as practical. It also includes a complete Python instance, and python binding support for GDAL and MapServer. It should work smoothly on Windows, and most 32bit Intel Linux platforms regardless of native packaging system. More information is available at: http://fwtools.maptools.org/ Direct downloads are available from: Windows: http://www.gdal.org/dl/fwtools/FWTools099.exe Linux: http://www.gdal.org/dl/fwtools/FWTools-linux-0.9.9.tar.gz Best regards, -- ---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Programmer for Rent From fwarmerdam at gmail.com Mon Aug 15 23:42:52 2005 From: fwarmerdam at gmail.com (Frank Warmerdam) Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 17:42:52 -0400 Subject: [Freegis-list] GDAL/OGR 1.3.0 Released Message-ID: <931f8ea905081514427f6eed62@mail.gmail.com> Folks, At last, the GDAL/OGR 1.3.0 final release is out there. http://www.gdal.org/dl/gdal-1.3.0.tar.gz http://www.gdal.org/dl/gdal130.zip From bh at udev.org Tue Aug 16 00:28:54 2005 From: bh at udev.org (Benjamin Henrion) Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:28:54 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? Message-ID: <20050815222854.GR22595@localhost> Hi, I had a look at the amendments proposed in second reading by Parliament/Council on the Inspire Directive, but none of the amendments seems to say that data collected with public money should be put in the Public Domain, like it seems to be the case in the US (if you can clarify the situation of geo-data in the US, please do so). The current legislative proposal seems to go for strong copyright for geo-data producers, in order to "recover their costs". This is a shame for public geo-data, and I think a campaign should be launched for rejection. No new amendments can be introduced for the second reading in the European Parliament. -- Benjamin Henrion http://bh.udev.org << Software patents are a Temptation >>> << Temptation leads to Stagnation >>> << Stagnation leads to the Dark Side. >>> From mike-nospam at orb.dreamhost.com Tue Aug 16 07:01:39 2005 From: mike-nospam at orb.dreamhost.com (Mike M) Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:01:39 -0500 Subject: [Freegis-list] Algorithms/Code Needed to Remove Overlap of Markers on a Map Message-ID: <20050816050140.B162053831@hoggle.dreamhost.com> I am looking for algorithms to reduce/remove overlap/stacking of geographic coordinate markers on a map. These markers are an overlay on a map (in my case the new Google Maps API). The algorithm would accept a set of points and dimensions of the marker used at each point, and would re-arrange the points so that marker overlap is either reduced by to zero or some tunable amount (for example, you might specify that every point should be at least 50% visible). I've seen this type of algorithm described as geometric packing. So far I have come up empty on searches (I'm still looking though), and wanted to see if anyone knows of any free GIS APIs/systems that provide this, as perhaps I can re-use their algorithm(s). Or general algorithms I should seek out. Many thanks, -Mike P.S. I'm probably using incorrect terms here: I am a geodata / computational programming newbie. From gould at lsi.uji.es Tue Aug 16 09:51:01 2005 From: gould at lsi.uji.es (michael gould) Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 09:51:01 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <20050815222854.GR22595@localhost> Message-ID: <000201c5a237$3fb47820$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Benjamin, You have hit upon a concern that has been voiced repeatedly on the EGIP (egip at jrc.it) and other Inspire-related lists. The Inspire proposed framework directive is being watered down, as these Euro agreements often do, through the comitology (co-decision) process. Whereas in many governments bipartisan agreement must be reached...or perhaps among 4 or 5 parties...here we have 25+ chiming in, and also tension between Parliament, Council and Commission. The current thinking among Inspire creators/supporters, is that it is better to get a weak directive signed, and then work on the implementation rules to try to tighten things up, than to try to get a strong version passed up front only to see it rejected for all sorts of minor objections from each of the 25+. It's called consensus, and it's how OGC and other orgs (and most governments) get things done. (Remember that Europe has a 20+ year history of GI initiatives dying unsigned on some Commissioner's desktop; this time we want some sort of result!) The process of drafting implementation rules is already under way; the first meeting of the so-called Drafting Teams is Oct 3-4. I am on the metadata DT, and will do my best to try to get things tightened up there: not merely state that ISO19115/39 should be implemented, but rather demanding, in as strong a language as possible, that md generation be automated and made easier (and even fun) to create and publish. Also that the "right" md be collected in the right way at the right time. If not then perhaps the whole house of cards falls, in the same sense that other semantic web initiatives rely on md glue holding them together. Back to your point. Campaign for rejection? I don't think that wise, as currently there is no alternative solution on the table...so at this time what we have is better than nothing. The current GI situation in Europe is heavily NMA-controlled, however I see their position(s) evolving some over the past few years. I anticipate they will tend toward a new role as SDI coordinators (as apparently USGS is doing also) rather than (only) data producers. As coordinators they will find the current licensing and pricing schemes too messy and will themselves lobby for more open distribution (sharing) among the partners they are coordinating. Alternative to campaign for rejection? Gentle pressure in the form of alternatives proposed on lists such as this one. It is my impression that more radical approaches --especially those from individuals or small groups labeling themselves as hackers (!)-- do not get decision-makers' attention and are too easily dismissed. Practical demos of how things could be different seem to be working better. The people at geowankers list are good at producing these examples...new ideas appear daily. But remember that complete solutions are not only tech-related. They need to include solutions for tricky legal issues such as digital rights management, versioning, etc. So let's hear fully-developed ideas on how to migrate 25 NMAs from cost recovery mode to public dissemination mode! These are going to be interesting times (next 5 years or so). ----------- Michael Gould Department of Information Systems (LSI) Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castell?n Spain E-mail: gould (at) lsi.uji.es http://www.mgould.com http://www.geoinfo.uji.es -----Mensaje original----- De: freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de [mailto:freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de] En nombre de Benjamin Henrion Enviado el: martes, 16 de agosto de 2005 0:29 Para: freegis-list at intevation.de Asunto: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? Hi, I had a look at the amendments proposed in second reading by Parliament/Council on the Inspire Directive, but none of the amendments seems to say that data collected with public money should be put in the Public Domain, like it seems to be the case in the US (if you can clarify the situation of geo-data in the US, please do so). The current legislative proposal seems to go for strong copyright for geo-data producers, in order to "recover their costs". This is a shame for public geo-data, and I think a campaign should be launched for rejection. No new amendments can be introduced for the second reading in the European Parliament. -- Benjamin Henrion http://bh.udev.org << Software patents are a Temptation >>> << Temptation leads to Stagnation >>> << Stagnation leads to the Dark Side. >>> _______________________________________________ Freegis-list mailing list Freegis-list at intevation.de https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list From taw at users.sf.net Tue Aug 16 14:09:30 2005 From: taw at users.sf.net (Tomasz Wegrzanowski) Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:09:30 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Algorithms/Code Needed to Remove Overlap of Markers on a Map In-Reply-To: <20050816050140.B162053831@hoggle.dreamhost.com> References: <20050816050140.B162053831@hoggle.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <20050816120930.GA24057@taw.pl.eu.org> On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 12:01:39AM -0500, Mike M wrote: > I am looking for algorithms to reduce/remove overlap/stacking of geographic > coordinate markers on a map. These markers are an overlay on a map (in my > case the new Google Maps API). > > The algorithm would accept a set of points and dimensions of the marker used > at each point, and would re-arrange the points so that marker overlap is > either reduced by to zero or some tunable amount (for example, you might > specify that every point should be at least 50% visible). > > I've seen this type of algorithm described as geometric packing. So far I > have come up empty on searches (I'm still looking though), and wanted to see > if anyone knows of any free GIS APIs/systems that provide this, as perhaps I > can re-use their algorithm(s). Or general algorithms I should seek out. I think what the problem you're referring to is usually called "label placement" problem, which is NP-hard, and the solution you're looking for is the "simulated annealing" algorithm, which doesn't guarantee anything, but is very fast and efficient in typical cases, but requires a bit of problem-specifitc tuning. There are plenty of papers on simulated annealing and its application in GIS available online. From ari.jolma at tkk.fi Wed Aug 17 09:38:32 2005 From: ari.jolma at tkk.fi (Ari Jolma) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 10:38:32 +0300 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and the academia Message-ID: <4302E978.7050301@tkk.fi> Hello, I'm interested in the links between the GIS industry and academia. By "GIS industry" I mean also FOSS GIS, of which a growing part is outside academia. How could we strengthen the link between the academia and the developers of the free GI software? My background is not in computer science nor in geography/surveying but I've been writing some GI software related for my research (I'm not actually sure which way the causal link is). Now I guess I should be focusing more in GI software development in my research as also in teaching. In general I feel that I don't know well enough what would be relevant research, which would 1) benefit free GIS and 2) get funded. I attended OSG'05, and that was very helpful in this respect. For example I would be interested in usability / interface related topics. ESRI used to be quite good in getting the top researchers contribute (or sell, I guess) their results to ArcGIS (at least methods, I don't know about interface or other things), but I've heard rumours that they are not happy with the current situation. So maybe we can expect more university labs become ESRI development labs? (I see some worrying signs in my university). GRASS probably gets much input from academia but a lot more could be done. I'm thinking about (in fact, I've been asked to) organising a workshop at the iEMSs 2006 conference, and this is the topic I have in mind. The workshop would focus on links between environmental modellers and geoinformaticians, as the topic of the conference is environmental modelling, but the links should be discussed also from the point of view of environmental management practitioners and freegis developers. Ari -- Prof. Ari Jolma Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma From Michel.Garand at frankfurt-oder.de Wed Aug 17 10:29:56 2005 From: Michel.Garand at frankfurt-oder.de (Michel.Garand@frankfurt-oder.de) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 10:29:56 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] UNDP-APDIP's draft primer on Free/Open Source Software: Open Stan dards Message-ID: <4951B8C94306D9118ABF00105A096D7E01286AAD@nt_server_3.frankfurt-oder.de> Greetings! below is a communiqu? from the UNDP-APDIP International Open Source Network / FOSS-PDI mailing list which seeks public feedback and comments to its draft document concerning FOSS /Open Standards. If anyone feels to be an expert in this field, please lets help them with info regarding standards in the area of GIS / SDI. Best regards, Michel Garand Stadt Frankfurt (Oder) Abteilung Stadtentwicklung > Amt f?r Strategie, Wirtschafts- und Stadtentwicklung Goepelstrasse 38, D-15234 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Tel.: +49 (0)335 / 552-6016 Fax: +49 (0)335 / 552-6099 michel.garand at frankfurt-oder.de ######################################################################### UNDP-APDIP's International Open Source Network has produced a draft primer on Free/Open Source Software: Open Standards. Date: August 16th 2005 Download the primer: * Open Document format (111KB) http://www.iosn.net/open-standards/foss-open-standards-primer/foss-openstds- v01-1.odt * PDF format (485KB) http://www.iosn.net/open-standards/foss-open-standards-primer/foss-openstds- v01-1.pdf Many public institutions like government agencies and civil society organizations are obliged by new legislation to place information in the public domain. Unfortunately many of them are using proprietary formats which require members of the public to purchase or illegally copy proprietary software. This primer provides an overview of standards setting bodies and FOSS software and tools to create new content as well as migrate to solutions based on Open Standards. The primer provides existing case studies on the polices and initiatives of governments implementing open standards policies. It also covers current patent and licensing issues with Open Standards implementations. This IOSN Primer is an initiative of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) ** This pre-publication version is made available for public review and feedback. Please do not cite or quote. ** Feedback and comments are welcome and should be received by 5th September 2005. Please send feedback to info at iosn.net This publication is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. For full details of the license, please refer to the following: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalcode Contact: Sunil Abraham and Khairil Yusof info at iosn.net Tel: (66-2) 288-1234 About UNDP-APDIP International Open Source Network -------------------------------------------------- The International Open Source Network (IOSN - http://www.iosn.net) is a Centre of Excellence for Free/Open Source Software in the Asia-Pacific Region. IOSN is an initiative of the Asia-Pacific Information Development Programme (APDIP - http://www.apdip.net), which has been supporting the strategic and effective use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for poverty alleviation and sustainable human development in the Asia-Pacific region since 1997. Via a small secretariat, the IOSN is tasked specifically to facilitate and network Free/Open Source Software advocates and human resources in the region. About the International Development Research Center (IDRC) ---------------------------------------------------------- The IDRC is a Canadian public corporation that works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies. For more information please see http://www.idrc.ca. _______________________________________________ FOSS-PDI mailing list FOSS-PDI at lists.apdip.net http://lists.apdip.net/mailman/listinfo/foss-pdi FOSS-PDI is a joint initiative of Bridges.org (www.bridges.org); FOSSFA (www.fossfa.net); OWSA (www.oneworldsouthasia.net, www.digitalopportunity.org); UNDP/APDIP (www.apdip.net); APDIP/IOSN (www.iosn.net); UNESCO (www.unesco.org). From jo at frot.org Wed Aug 17 11:48:05 2005 From: jo at frot.org (Jo Walsh) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 02:48:05 -0700 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <000201c5a237$3fb47820$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> References: <20050815222854.GR22595@localhost> <000201c5a237$3fb47820$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Message-ID: <20050817094805.GW22515@vishnu.tridity.org> dear Michael, list, On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 09:51:01AM +0200, michael gould wrote: > The current thinking among Inspire creators/supporters, is that it is better > to get a weak directive signed, and then work on the implementation rules to > try to tighten things up. It would be good to hear your assessment of where the proposed Directive has been 'weakened' and how that might be subject to fixing non-legislatively. > The current GI situation in Europe is > heavily NMA-controlled, however I see their position(s) evolving some over > the past few years. To an EU process and GI industry outsider, it looks as if INSPIRE has been dictated by the concerns of a cartel of National Mapping Agency representatives, at the expense of data holders and users. These are valid concerns: because NMAs can and do operate in competitive commercial markets, government pressure to semi-privatise mapping agencies, and reduce their public budget is intense. This is part of a bigger debate surrounding the ethics, if you like, of commercialising government-collected information of all kinds. The 'weak' directive does not reflect this debate; it enshrines existing copyright and IP policies in EU law, decreasing our chances of amending it locally. It entrenches the NMAs in a historic position, rather than reflecting their changing role as it rapidly emerges. It makes expensive and unnecessary stipulations about data distribution, *mandating* e-commerce services for all geodata sources that are not openly accessible - quite a cost and implementation burden in itself. > producers. As coordinators they will find the current licensing and pricing > schemes too messy and will themselves lobby for more open distribution > (sharing) among the partners they are coordinating. Then why the rush to entrench IP stances in EU law now? Again, why can't this be addressed at the national level before rushing into a Directive that is evasive and unclear? > Alternative to campaign for rejection? Gentle pressure in the form of > alternatives proposed on lists such as this one. It is my impression that > more radical approaches --especially those from individuals or small groups > labeling themselves as hackers (!)-- do not get decision-makers' attention > and are too easily dismissed. I understand that to have a voice at an EU level, one needs to be not merely an organisation, but a coalition of organisations. These structures reflect the priorities of large-scale business and professional lobbying organisations, not of loose groups of small companies and individual developers. This is why we set up http://www.okfn.org/geo/ and why, as a small coalition of projects, we've been working to propose a not-for-profit free license for state-collected geodata, generalised if necessary, very similar to that being used by the BBC to provide more open access to its archives. I've been Inspire-watching for a year and would have had no idea how to submit amendments or acquire a voice in the process; especially when large coalitions of state-funded data holders and creators (the marine/oceanographic people) have had their needs and views sidelined. > Practical demos of how things could be > different seem to be working better. "Chicken, meet egg." Most of the interesting activity on the geowanking list is from US and some Canadian projects. Without open access to the GI that describes our own parts of the world, how can we develop metadata sharing and web services solutions that will appear meaningful, recognisable to those we are trying to convince? I co-authored 'Mapping Hacks' to have the chance to present interesting Open Source GIS tools and semantic web principles in the context of the data access and dissemination debate. I hang my head when i confess to my UK/EU friends that 75% of the 'hacks' in the book are only possible in the US because of the data access policy that obtains there. I don't keep up with the OpenSDI conversation, but there is at least a candidate free software solution for Total Spatial Data Infrastructure in the world. I don't see where the route to informing 'decision makers' at the INSPIRE level of these solutions is. Can you help? > But remember that complete solutions are not only tech-related. They need to > include solutions for tricky legal issues such as digital rights management, > versioning, etc. Without access to real-world, meaningful data to make test cases out of, we can't develop these solutions at a free-software, free-time level. > So let's hear fully-developed ideas on how to migrate 25 NMAs from cost > recovery mode to public dissemination mode! I would rather hear these ideas emerging from the NMAs themselves, or hear more about where this debate is being conducted inside the INSPIRE implementation process now. I think that a free-for-non-profit-use license, available without supplication, is the turnkey in enabling academic and private researchers to build integration and translation solutions driven by their own needs. Given the messy history of European GI directives i appreciate that you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. I would like to see an alternative to INSPIRE and deeply regret having been unable to mobilise an amendment campaign before the first reading was complete. I'd like to see an analysis of where it is really still weak, and where it makes IP and copyright assumptions that will suppress innovation and economic activity, before any campaign to throw the whole thing out, which i fear would just be an energy sink for those of us working towards free information infrastructures. http://www.ael.be/index.php/InspireDirective seems like a good place to start, at least. Paolo, i think, suggested a while back that the freegis 'community' could be putting together a whitepaper on open standards, open source driven approaches to the 'implementing rules'. Again, i don't know how such proposals are inserted or accepted into the INSPIRE working groups, or how to make sure this would just not sink without trace. This is perhaps not the FFII's normal thing, Benjamin, but perhaps it could help assemble a 'working group' / provide online space for such an effort. > These are going to be interesting times (next 5 years or so). I'm still waiting for the Big Information Crunch. -jo From gould at lsi.uji.es Wed Aug 17 13:29:09 2005 From: gould at lsi.uji.es (michael gould) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:29:09 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <20050817094805.GW22515@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Good to hear from you Jo. Brief responses below in-line. ----------- Michael Gould Department of Information Systems (LSI) Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castell?n Spain E-mail: gould (at) lsi.uji.es http://www.mgould.com http://www.geoinfo.uji.es -----Mensaje original----- De: Jo Walsh [mailto:jo at frot.org] Enviado el: mi?rcoles, 17 de agosto de 2005 11:48 Para: michael gould CC: 'Benjamin Henrion'; freegis-list at intevation.de Asunto: Re: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? dear Michael, list, On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 09:51:01AM +0200, michael gould wrote: > The current thinking among Inspire creators/supporters, is that it is better > to get a weak directive signed, and then work on the implementation rules to > try to tighten things up. It would be good to hear your assessment of where the proposed Directive has been 'weakened' and how that might be subject to fixing non-legislatively. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] Chris Corbin has been publishing (EGIP list) a stream of documents coming out of the comitology process, so you have lots of examples there, where plenty of "must"s have become "should"s, etc. And then the document states in many places that it is up to each member state to detrmine how each guideline or rule is applied. Standard EU practice. > The current GI situation in Europe is > heavily NMA-controlled, however I see their position(s) evolving some over > the past few years. To an EU process and GI industry outsider, it looks as if INSPIRE has been dictated by the concerns of a cartel of National Mapping Agency representatives, at the expense of data holders and users. These are valid concerns: because NMAs can and do operate in competitive commercial markets, government pressure to semi-privatise mapping agencies, and reduce their public budget is intense. This is part of a bigger debate surrounding the ethics, if you like, of commercialising government-collected information of all kinds. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] Regarding the NMAs dictating, please remember that the EU is a union of member states, who always have the last word. Member states are made up of ministries, and one or another in each MS runs the NMA. So naturally NMAs are going to have a LOT more say than you or I do. The 'weak' directive does not reflect this debate; it enshrines existing copyright and IP policies in EU law, decreasing our chances of amending it locally. It entrenches the NMAs in a historic position, rather than reflecting their changing role as it rapidly emerges. It makes expensive and unnecessary stipulations about data distribution, *mandating* e-commerce services for all geodata sources that are not openly accessible - quite a cost and implementation burden in itself. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] It seems a rather typical agreement...not perfect but good enough to get passed. If you put too many teeth in it, the MS representatives would simply be ordered to vote NO and go on to the next issue on their agenda. It's trickier business than many of us might expect. > producers. As coordinators they will find the current licensing and pricing > schemes too messy and will themselves lobby for more open distribution > (sharing) among the partners they are coordinating. Then why the rush to entrench IP stances in EU law now? Again, why can't this be addressed at the national level before rushing into a Directive that is evasive and unclear? [gould>>>] [gould>>>] Because all previous attempts to lay anchor (i.e. have a Euro equivalent to the Clinton mandate of 1994) have failed. And I do not believe it is more evasive or unclear than all the rest... I think it is just that here we are more sensitized. And regarding the national level, essentially EVERYTHING does happen at national level, implementation-wise at least. This framework directive attempts to harmonize national efforts, so that Europe ends up with more or less a single coherent puzzle of national SDI pieces (each composed of local pieces)...? la GSM, instead of a sordid collection of 25+ pieces (25+ special case SDIs) that do not fit together. > Alternative to campaign for rejection? Gentle pressure in the form of > alternatives proposed on lists such as this one. It is my impression that > more radical approaches --especially those from individuals or small groups > labeling themselves as hackers (!)-- do not get decision-makers' attention > and are too easily dismissed. I understand that to have a voice at an EU level, one needs to be not merely an organisation, but a coalition of organisations. These structures reflect the priorities of large-scale business and professional lobbying organisations, not of loose groups of small companies and individual developers. This is why we set up http://www.okfn.org/geo/ and why, as a small coalition of projects, we've been working to propose a not-for-profit free license for state-collected geodata, generalised if necessary, very similar to that being used by the BBC to provide more open access to its archives. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] Great idea!! Go for it! The more critical mass the better, but remember that status quo proposals are best fought against (and corrected) by sound counter-proposals. Politicians are not going to simply drop an initiative and leave a vacuum; they need viable alternatives. I've been Inspire-watching for a year and would have had no idea how to submit amendments or acquire a voice in the process; especially when large coalitions of state-funded data holders and creators (the marine/oceanographic people) have had their needs and views sidelined. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] I understand your frustration. But I cannot imagine that "our" voices were any stronger or relevant during the GSM hearings, or before many other important initiatives were heard. Here in Spain the socialist government won in the 1980s on the campaign pledge to keep out of NATO. Then they won and joined NATO. A few years back the centre-right party decided to join Bush and Blair in Iraq, despite something like 80% of the population opposed. Not to be overly pessimistic mind you :-) A recent example: the PSI directive is now in force, supposedly. Do you see any difference where you live? Here there is supposely a commission (ministry of Culture!) to decide what to do about it...I am not holding my breath. Question is (IMHO): are we better with or without the PSI on the books? Same goes for Inspire I suspect. A similarly vague Clinton mandate seems to have served USA...although arguably the results have not been spectacular. > Practical demos of how things could be > different seem to be working better. "Chicken, meet egg." Most of the interesting activity on the geowanking list is from US and some Canadian projects. Without open access to the GI that describes our own parts of the world, how can we develop metadata sharing and web services solutions that will appear meaningful, recognisable to those we are trying to convince? [gould>>>] [gould>>>] In my mind a demo of interoperable map servers (and the like) showing mostly data from outside our region IS indeed useful, because it shines a spotlight on our own lack of access. Also, in many european countries data layers are being released, slowly... You happen to live in a special-case (for multiple reasons) member state :-( I co-authored 'Mapping Hacks' to have the chance to present interesting Open Source GIS tools and semantic web principles in the context of the data access and dissemination debate. I hang my head when i confess to my UK/EU friends that 75% of the 'hacks' in the book are only possible in the US because of the data access policy that obtains there. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] That and other such publications and demos ARE helping to change minds. Rest assured that you are on the (short) list of individuals who really do make a difference in this debate. I don't keep up with the OpenSDI conversation, but there is at least a candidate free software solution for Total Spatial Data Infrastructure in the world. I don't see where the route to informing 'decision makers' at the INSPIRE level of these solutions is. Can you help? [gould>>>] [gould>>>] Thre EGIP list. The EC-GIS conference, recently held in Sardinia. And also the Inspire website, where you are invited to contribute papers and other possibly useful docs to the process. > But remember that complete solutions are not only tech-related. They need to > include solutions for tricky legal issues such as digital rights management, > versioning, etc. Without access to real-world, meaningful data to make test cases out of, we can't develop these solutions at a free-software, free-time level. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] Access to data could be a LOT better for sure. But the gvSIG project (free soft gis/sdi client) in our region --to cite just one example-- has found plenty of bits and pieces of data to demo. For demos we are fine: the question is to get the demos to decision-makers' desks, and have them ask the typical question "why doesn't my neighborhood show up?" And careful, because now due to publicity many of these people have seen Google Earth.!!! It is now on our shoulders to convince them that buying the $149 version is not enough (that is, it's not a SDI)! :-) > So let's hear fully-developed ideas on how to migrate 25 NMAs from cost > recovery mode to public dissemination mode! I would rather hear these ideas emerging from the NMAs themselves, or hear more about where this debate is being conducted inside the INSPIRE implementation process now. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] NMAs follow their established chain of decisions. That is, they do not search for innovation; they try their best to comply with the mandate set by their minister. Convince the minister to change data access policy and the NMA will gladly do so (in most cases). Those who argue that it's not so simple need only be reminded that after most general elections, entire ministries are merged, created and vaporized, at the swish of a pen. In Portugal, a decade ago a young MBA-toting minister of technology and whatever, decided to connect 100% of the nations schools to Internet, and so it was. Spain is still hoping to some day reach 50%. I think that a free-for-non-profit-use license, available without supplication, is the turnkey in enabling academic and private researchers to build integration and translation solutions driven by their own needs. Given the messy history of European GI directives i appreciate that you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. I would like to see an alternative to INSPIRE and deeply regret having been unable to mobilise an amendment campaign before the first reading was complete. I'd like to see an analysis of where it is really still weak, and where it makes IP and copyright assumptions that will suppress innovation and economic activity, before any campaign to throw the whole thing out, which i fear would just be an energy sink for those of us working towards free information infrastructures. http://www.ael.be/index.php/InspireDirective seems like a good place to start, at least. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] I think perhaps we (you) are over- AND underestimating Inspire. Overestimating the change it might effect...whereas not even the Inpsire drafters are expecting miracles and complete turnaround of the GI data market. And underestimating the mild effect that any directive may have in pressuring some (most) data providers to provide better accessibility. As mild, I argue, as was the effect of the Clinton Mandate. Paolo, i think, suggested a while back that the freegis 'community' could be putting together a whitepaper on open standards, open source driven approaches to the 'implementing rules'. Again, i don't know how such proposals are inserted or accepted into the INSPIRE working groups, or how to make sure this would just not sink without trace. This is perhaps not the FFII's normal thing, Benjamin, but perhaps it could help assemble a 'working group' / provide online space for such an effort. [gould>>>] [gould>>>] I agree that the bottom-up approach should be followed at the same time we are awaiting improvements from the top-down. I might even go so far as predict that the way technology is progressing (GPS, RFID, free software, cell phone capabilities, map servers, google-like apps, etc.) that NMAs and their products may indeed become irrelevant to all but the small core of partner government agencies. > These are going to be interesting times (next 5 years or so). I'm still waiting for the Big Information Crunch. [gould>>>] Please elaborate! Ciao, MG -jo From jan at intevation.de Thu Aug 18 12:11:50 2005 From: jan at intevation.de (Jan-Oliver Wagner) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 12:11:50 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and the academia In-Reply-To: <4302E978.7050301@tkk.fi> References: <4302E978.7050301@tkk.fi> Message-ID: <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> On Wed, Aug 17, 2005 at 10:38:32AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote: > I'm interested in the links between the GIS industry and academia. By > "GIS industry" I mean also FOSS GIS, of which a growing part is outside > academia. How could we strengthen the link between the academia and the > developers of the free GI software? I have some general remarks: - IMHO, a GIS methodology should be explained in general and then tried in practice with at least two different tools. Students learn to know that there are alternatives and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many students. Hopefully at least one of the tried tools is a Free Software, because students can actually look at the implementation of a discussed algorithm - wow! - If ever something is implemented during studies, the result should be Free Software. Even better is to start upon a Free Software and invent something new rather then invent the wheel again. Contributing to a existing project improves a lot more skills than just geoinformatics. Good for the students. Both, the proprietary and the Free Software GIS industry will be interested in such students. Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ From gould at lsi.uji.es Thu Aug 18 13:29:44 2005 From: gould at lsi.uji.es (michael gould) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 13:29:44 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and theacademia In-Reply-To: <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> Message-ID: <000801c5a3e8$2221d570$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Jan, Some university programs focus on employment, and for them it's important the students know the most popular software...usually proprietary. Others focus on concepts...with the idea that the students should know --as you say--- the alternatives available, and that to get a job done the brand name is not so important. For our computer science students *using* GIS is not very interesting; they prefer to --and do-- program their own solutions. This is FAR easier now that important libraries and components are available (foss), than was the case a decade ago. In that sense I don't see how foss develpers and academia could collaborate more...things are pretty open and fluid from what I can see. Our students collaborate directly with the gvSIG foss project. In fact, instead of keeping them around after graduation, as a sort of temporary research associate (with uncertain future), I have been turning them loose to work for/with the government agency and contracted company which are producing gvSIG. Ciao, ----------- Michael Gould Department of Information Systems (LSI) Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castell?n Spain E-mail: gould (at) lsi.uji.es http://www.mgould.com http://www.geoinfo.uji.es -----Mensaje original----- De: freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de [mailto:freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de] En nombre de Jan-Oliver Wagner Enviado el: jueves, 18 de agosto de 2005 12:12 Para: freegis-list at intevation.de Asunto: Re: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and theacademia On Wed, Aug 17, 2005 at 10:38:32AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote: > I'm interested in the links between the GIS industry and academia. By > "GIS industry" I mean also FOSS GIS, of which a growing part is outside > academia. How could we strengthen the link between the academia and the > developers of the free GI software? I have some general remarks: - IMHO, a GIS methodology should be explained in general and then tried in practice with at least two different tools. Students learn to know that there are alternatives and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many students. Hopefully at least one of the tried tools is a Free Software, because students can actually look at the implementation of a discussed algorithm - wow! - If ever something is implemented during studies, the result should be Free Software. Even better is to start upon a Free Software and invent something new rather then invent the wheel again. Contributing to a existing project improves a lot more skills than just geoinformatics. Good for the students. Both, the proprietary and the Free Software GIS industry will be interested in such students. Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ _______________________________________________ Freegis-list mailing list Freegis-list at intevation.de https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list From jan at intevation.de Thu Aug 18 15:21:16 2005 From: jan at intevation.de (Jan-Oliver Wagner) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:21:16 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and theacademia In-Reply-To: <000801c5a3e8$2221d570$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> References: <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> <000801c5a3e8$2221d570$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Message-ID: <20050818132116.GB31651@intevation.de> Michael, On Thu, Aug 18, 2005 at 01:29:44PM +0200, michael gould wrote: > Jan, Some university programs focus on employment, and for them it's > important the students know the most popular software...usually proprietary. > Others focus on concepts...with the idea that the students should know --as > you say--- the alternatives available, and that to get a job done the brand > name is not so important. I hope _any_ university tagets good chances for employment of their students ;-) The target employers may differ though. In Germany with have in theory the concept of universities and polytechnics. The latter give a more close-to-commercial-practice education while universities concentrate on conceptual thinking. A ESRI product training might be OK for polytechnics, but not for a university. Well, in real life unfortunately many universities turned to mono-product training as well believing that they are more attractive for students this way (and more attractive for the government to give them money). > For our computer science students *using* GIS is > not very interesting; they prefer to --and do-- program their own solutions. > This is FAR easier now that important libraries and components are available > (foss), than was the case a decade ago. In that sense I don't see how foss > develpers and academia could collaborate more...things are pretty open and > fluid from what I can see. > > Our students collaborate directly with the gvSIG foss project. In fact, > instead of keeping them around after graduation, as a sort of temporary > research associate (with uncertain future), I have been turning them loose > to work for/with the government agency and contracted company which are > producing gvSIG. I can only recommend to study at Michael's university where the right spirit lives :-) Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ From dallas.masters at colorado.edu Thu Aug 18 17:24:04 2005 From: dallas.masters at colorado.edu (dallas.masters@colorado.edu) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 09:24:04 -0600 Subject: [Freegis-list] reading 32 bit/sample tiffs Message-ID: I recently downloaded a NED 1/3 elevation Geotiff file from the USGS SDDS (Seamless...). The Geotiff has 32 bit/sample according to tiffinfo, but I can't find anything simple (on Linux) which will read this file or convert it to an 8 bit/sample file. Any ideas? Any reason why USGS would distribute such a format? Thanks. Dallas -- Dallas Masters, Ph.D. Research Associate Aerospace Engineering Sciences CB 431 / CCAR University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0431 (303) 492-4075 ---------------------- http://www.venganza.org/ From fwarmerdam at gmail.com Thu Aug 18 17:36:12 2005 From: fwarmerdam at gmail.com (Frank Warmerdam) Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 11:36:12 -0400 Subject: [Freegis-list] reading 32 bit/sample tiffs In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <931f8ea905081808365c0f2c0f@mail.gmail.com> On 8/18/05, dallas.masters at colorado.edu wrote: > I recently downloaded a NED 1/3 elevation Geotiff file from the USGS > SDDS (Seamless...). The Geotiff has 32 bit/sample according to > tiffinfo, but I can't find anything simple (on Linux) which will read > this file or convert it to an 8 bit/sample file. Any ideas? Any > reason why USGS would distribute such a format? Thanks. Dallas, I'm not sure of the details of the dataset. Perhaps it is 32bit floating point to preserve better than 1m vertical resolution. You can use "gdal_translate" to rescale this to 8bit using a command like: gdal_translate -scale -ot Byte 32bit_ned.tif 8bit_ned.tif You can find prebuilt binaries for linux and win32 at: http://fwtools.maptools.org/ Details about GDAL are available at: http://www.gdal.org/ I'm not sure what you want to rescale the elevation data to 8bit for. It won't be directly useful as elevation values any more. Depending on your needs you may find it helpful to convert to 16bit without changing elevation values (well possibly truncating them): gdal_translate -ot Int16 32bit_ned.tif 16bit_ned.tif Or controlling the scaling to 8bit: gdal_translate -scale 0 3000 0 255 -ot Byte in.tif out.tif Best regards, -- ---------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Programmer for Rent From ari.jolma at tkk.fi Fri Aug 19 09:53:57 2005 From: ari.jolma at tkk.fi (Ari Jolma) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 10:53:57 +0300 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and the academia In-Reply-To: <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> References: <4302E978.7050301@tkk.fi> <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> Message-ID: <43059015.3080104@tkk.fi> Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: > Students learn to know that there are alternatives > and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many > students. > > Maybe I'm just revealing my ignorance ;) but.. I should be teaching just that among other things. How would you go about it? Do you have any good texts in mind, especially GIS specific? Ari -- Prof. Ari Jolma Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma From jan at intevation.de Fri Aug 19 10:14:00 2005 From: jan at intevation.de (Jan-Oliver Wagner) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 10:14:00 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and the academia In-Reply-To: <43059015.3080104@tkk.fi> References: <4302E978.7050301@tkk.fi> <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> <43059015.3080104@tkk.fi> Message-ID: <20050819081400.GE6129@intevation.de> On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 10:53:57AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote: > Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: > > Students learn to know that there are alternatives > > and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many > > students. > > Maybe I'm just revealing my ignorance ;) but.. I should be teaching just > that among other things. How would you go about it? Do you have any good > texts in mind, especially GIS specific? my comment derived from what I have seen in german universities. For example georeferencing of raster pictures: why have all the students work only with a single proprietary product to try out in practice what they learned in theory (well, I've seen courses where the theory part was kept to a minimum, say the users manual on how to georeference) Why not instead have some students try product A, some product B etc. and later report how they did in practice what they learned during theory. Yes, I am aware this creates extra-work for the staff, but I hope you get what I mean. Unfortunately I do not have good texts at hand... Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ From ari.jolma at tkk.fi Fri Aug 19 15:03:43 2005 From: ari.jolma at tkk.fi (Ari Jolma) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 16:03:43 +0300 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and the academia In-Reply-To: <20050819081400.GE6129@intevation.de> References: <4302E978.7050301@tkk.fi> <20050818101150.GA31458@intevation.de> <43059015.3080104@tkk.fi> <20050819081400.GE6129@intevation.de> Message-ID: <4305D8AF.5000505@tkk.fi> Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: >On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 10:53:57AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote: > > >>Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: >> >> >>>Students learn to know that there are alternatives >>>and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many >>>students. >>> >>> > >Why not instead have some students try product A, some product B etc. >and later report how they did in practice what they learned during >theory. Yes, I am aware this creates extra-work for the staff, but >I hope you get what I mean. > > > Well, I try to teach the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) and say that anybody who mentions Arc-something while she or he is in analysis or design phase, will get a long minus. But still, many students start the whole thing saying the "We take ArcGIS and...". The same design can normally be used for FOSS, COTS, or other software. By evaluation of alternatives (not the E in ADDIE) I understand comparing these solutions (cost, support, requirements from the other systems, etc). You had the example of georeferencing a raster image with different tools and then comparing the experiences. To me that sounds like something that you would do on "GIS usability" course. To do that in some basic GIS course sounds too laborous at least in a university. Ari -- Prof. Ari Jolma Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma From ari.jolma at tkk.fi Fri Aug 19 15:38:38 2005 From: ari.jolma at tkk.fi (Ari Jolma) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 16:38:38 +0300 Subject: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and theacademia In-Reply-To: <000801c5a3e8$2221d570$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> References: <000801c5a3e8$2221d570$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Message-ID: <4305E0DE.6080001@tkk.fi> michael gould wrote: >This is FAR easier now that important libraries and components are available >(foss), than was the case a decade ago. In that sense I don't see how foss >develpers and academia could collaborate more...things are pretty open and >fluid from what I can see. > > At least in the environmental problem solving (EPS) scene, with which I'm somewhat familiar with, I see problems. Maybe things work well and nicely in small groups, as seems to be with gvSIG (by the way, from freegis.org: "The homepage is in spanish."...). But in general there are many communities, which participate in EPS, and unless the whole project can agree from the beginning the use GRASS or similar FOSS environment/framework, the solution in practise is usually COTS. May the solution is just "let's use open standards" but it also could be some winning edge FOSS has (together with good usability) because there is this connection to academia. Maybe the solution is to evangelise scientists to implement their new innovative methods as QGIS plugins, I don't know. Probably there is no one solution. I got into this thinking after visiting Geocomputation conference, where some people were lamenting that their tools are not being used much, and presented open sourcing as one solution. In one keynote Duane Marble asked if there were any environmental modellers in the audience or if people knew environmental modellers, I didn't see many hands. By the way, I was just listening to Asit Biswas (from Third World Centre for Water Management) giving a guest lecture here at TKK, and he said that he knows nobody, who is researching the effect of ICT on water management in global sense. My feeling is that solutions and tools, which are based on closed commercial tools (GIS is just one but important), are not very flexible, innovative or open to participation (by public or by local scientists). Ari >Our students collaborate directly with the gvSIG foss project. In fact, >instead of keeping them around after graduation, as a sort of temporary >research associate (with uncertain future), I have been turning them loose >to work for/with the government agency and contracted company which are >producing gvSIG. > > >Ciao, >----------- >Michael Gould >Department of Information Systems (LSI) >Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castell?n Spain >E-mail: gould (at) lsi.uji.es >http://www.mgould.com >http://www.geoinfo.uji.es > > >-----Mensaje original----- >De: freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de >[mailto:freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de] En nombre de Jan-Oliver Wagner >Enviado el: jueves, 18 de agosto de 2005 12:12 >Para: freegis-list at intevation.de >Asunto: Re: [Freegis-list] On the links between FOSS developers and >theacademia > >On Wed, Aug 17, 2005 at 10:38:32AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote: > > >>I'm interested in the links between the GIS industry and academia. By >>"GIS industry" I mean also FOSS GIS, of which a growing part is outside >>academia. How could we strengthen the link between the academia and the >>developers of the free GI software? >> >> > >I have some general remarks: > >- IMHO, a GIS methodology should be explained in general > and then tried in practice with at least two different > tools. > Students learn to know that there are alternatives > and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many > students. > Hopefully at least one of the tried tools is a Free Software, > because students can actually look at the implementation > of a discussed algorithm - wow! > >- If ever something is implemented during studies, the result > should be Free Software. Even better is to start upon > a Free Software and invent something new rather then > invent the wheel again. Contributing to a existing project > improves a lot more skills than just geoinformatics. Good > for the students. > >Both, the proprietary and the Free Software GIS industry will >be interested in such students. > >Best > > Jan > > > -- Prof. Ari Jolma Kartografia ja Geoinformatiikka / Cartography and Geoinformatics Teknillinen Korkeakoulu / Helsinki University of Technology POBox 1200, 02015 TKK, Finland Email: ari.jolma at tkk.fi URL: http://www.tkk.fi/~jolma From cavallini at faunalia.it Sat Aug 20 07:47:17 2005 From: cavallini at faunalia.it (Paolo Cavallini) Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 07:47:17 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> References: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Message-ID: <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> A pragmatic approach that may be useful: 1. draft an explicit model (or more) for open geodata licence, as an alternative to current situation; this may follow GPL, or the Creative Commons; care should be taken not to allow what NMA pecieve as theft of data from commercial companies 2. put together a few lines on why geodata should be free (examples from the USA, etc); several of you have already written good things about this 3. start circulating a petition on this; it worked for software patents, why not for geodata? I'm available to help, if needed. All the best. pc At 13:29, mercoled? 17 agosto 2005, michael gould has probably written: ... -- Paolo Cavallini cavallini at faunalia.it www.faunalia.it www.faunalia.com Piazza Garibaldi 5 - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy Tel: (+39)348-3801953 From jo at frot.org Sat Aug 20 08:28:21 2005 From: jo at frot.org (Jo Walsh) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 23:28:21 -0700 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> References: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> Message-ID: <20050820062821.GM11918@vishnu.tridity.org> On Sat, Aug 20, 2005 at 07:47:17AM +0200, Paolo Cavallini wrote: > 1. draft an explicit model (or more) for open geodata licence, as an > alternative to current situation; this may follow GPL, or the Creative > Commons; care should be taken not to allow what NMA pecieve as theft of data > from commercial companies > 2. put together a few lines on why geodata should be free (examples from the > USA, etc); several of you have already written good things about this > 3. start circulating a petition on this; it worked for software patents, why > not for geodata? http://okfn.org/geo/minifesto.php is the attempt i have made to do this. There is a draft non-commercial use Creative Commons based license linked there which was submitted to our NMA, the Ordnance Survey, and more or less sank without trace. There is a signup system on the bottom on of the document, the idea is you register your support for the statements it contains. Steve Coast created a 'pledge' when i started putting it together, which includes a pledge to donate ten quid to the good cause of making our own free of copyright maps and tools to help others do it: http://www.pledgebank.com/geodata Asking for generalised data - 5/10m would not be unacceptable - wouldn't impact too severely on the business model that the NMAs are attempting to preserve. Meanwhile the press reports that our e-government initiatives are being held back because of disputes over intellectual property rights concerning the OS's holding and distribution of other authorities' street and addressing data: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1550761,00.html Canada seems the best bet for acquiring hard numbers on the economic and innovative positive effect of actively opening up geodata access, with active government funding of open source GIS projects such as uDig. ( http://udig.refractions.net/ , http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/ ) I hear Canada is releasing a big, TIGER-style open access street and addressing model soon if not already. -jo From jo at frot.org Sat Aug 20 17:46:29 2005 From: jo at frot.org (Jo Walsh) Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 08:46:29 -0700 Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to State-collected Geospatial Data Message-ID: <20050820154629.GQ11918@vishnu.tridity.org> Very few world citizens enjoy open access to the information that describes their surroundings; particularly the geospatial data collected and brokered by their National Mapping Agencies, an essential framework for understanding civic information of all kinds. http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php is a set of statements about Open Access to State-collected Geospatial Data. * All government-collected geodata should be open, that is, available for free distribution and re-use under a ShareAlike license. * Online mapping projects creating freely reusable geodata should offer a compatible open license. * Common, standard formats for describing and exchanging data should be adopted. * Ultimately, all state-collected information should be freely available, in a structured machine-readable format. An open data policy has economic benefits in terms of reduced cost and increased innovation; it facilitates e-government and citizen engagement. Please read the manifesto and, if you agree with the statements it contains, sign up to support it: http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php#signup -jo -- http://mappinghacks.com/ From M.Trevisani at arpat.toscana.it Sun Aug 21 15:59:46 2005 From: M.Trevisani at arpat.toscana.it (Maurizio Trevisani) Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 15:59:46 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to Geospatial Data Message-ID: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> Coul'd you help me? Where can I find samples of licence, similar tu the ones available for open source software (GPL, MPL, and so on), for geospatial data? Is there a site similar to http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.php specifically about geodata? Thanks, Maurizio Trevisani Jo Walsh wrote: >Very few world citizens enjoy open access to the information that >describes their surroundings; particularly the geospatial data >collected and brokered by their National Mapping Agencies, an >essential framework for understanding civic information of all kinds. > >* All government-collected geodata should be open, > that is, available for free distribution > and re-use under a ShareAlike license. > >* Online mapping projects creating freely reusable geodata > should offer a compatible open license. > >* Common, standard formats for describing and exchanging data > should be adopted. > >* Ultimately, all state-collected information > should be freely available, > in a structured machine-readable format. > >An open data policy has economic benefits in terms of reduced cost and >increased innovation; it facilitates e-government and citizen engagement. > > From M.Trevisani at arpat.toscana.it Sun Aug 21 16:06:54 2005 From: M.Trevisani at arpat.toscana.it (Maurizio Trevisani) Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 16:06:54 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Freegis-list] DWG to Georeferenced Tiff Message-ID: <1413.83.176.23.254.1124633214.squirrel@83.176.23.254> I'm looking for an open software to convert vector DWG files to raster TIFF (or Jpeg) files, producing the world file (.TFW) needed to use such files in a Gis. I've to convert several hundred of DWG files, so I need a program I could use in a batch file, or I could program (as Grass, and so on). I even need to light on or off some layers of the DWG files before converting them, possibly setting these controls in the program or in the batch file. Any help? Thanks in advance, Maurizio Trevisani From strk at keybit.net Sun Aug 21 23:02:51 2005 From: strk at keybit.net (strk) Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 23:02:51 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to State-collected Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <20050820154629.GQ11918@vishnu.tridity.org> References: <20050820154629.GQ11918@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <20050821210251.GA7427@keybit.net> I've written an Italian translation of the manifesto. I post it here in case other Italian people can review it before putting it online. In particular italian-specific informations about geodata economy or free license use examples would be nice to have. Thank you. --strk; On Sat, Aug 20, 2005 at 08:46:29AM -0700, Jo Walsh wrote: > Very few world citizens enjoy open access to the information that > describes their surroundings; particularly the geospatial data > collected and brokered by their National Mapping Agencies, an > essential framework for understanding civic information of all kinds. > > http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php is a set of statements about Open > Access to State-collected Geospatial Data. > > * All government-collected geodata should be open, > that is, available for free distribution > and re-use under a ShareAlike license. > > * Online mapping projects creating freely reusable geodata > should offer a compatible open license. > > * Common, standard formats for describing and exchanging data > should be adopted. > > * Ultimately, all state-collected information > should be freely available, > in a structured machine-readable format. > > An open data policy has economic benefits in terms of reduced cost and > increased innovation; it facilitates e-government and citizen engagement. > > Please read the manifesto and, if you agree with the statements it contains, > sign up to support it: http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php#signup > > > -jo > > -- > http://mappinghacks.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Freegis-list mailing list > Freegis-list at intevation.de > https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list -------------- next part -------------- Accesso libero ai dati cartografici raccolti dallo Stato Crediamo che i dati cartografici raccolti dallo stato debbano essere liberamente disponibili per i cittadini. Firma in fondo alla pagina per supportare questo manifesto. Come Funzionarebbe Tutti i dati geografici collezionati dai governi dovrebbero essere aperti, cioe' liberamente distribuibili e ri-utilizzabili con una licenza ShareAlike. I dati geografici sono un bene pubblico. Un accesso aperto ad essi, sotto una licenza 'Commons' (ShareAlike), e' il modo migliore per vederne realizzati i suoi pieni benefici da parte di industrie e cittadini. Allo stesso tempo questa politica, richiedendo agli utilizzatori di ridistribuire aggiornamenti e migliorie, porta ad una disponibilita' maggiore ed a una migliore qualita' dei dati, con costi minori. Progetti correlati includono il modello di non-profit open geodata license sviluppata da Urban Tapestries in collaborazione con Creative Commons UK. La licenza e' stata sottoposta all' Agenzia Nazionale Inglese, la Ordnance Survey, come base per una collaborazione aperta. I progetti di mappatura online che creano dati geografici liberamente riutilizzabili dovrebbero offrire una licenza aperta compatibile. Il progetto OpenStreetmap offre la sua banca dati crescente sotto una licenza "Attribution-Sharealike", che consente ogni tipo di riuso dei dati fintanto i lavori derivati rimangano a loro volta di pubblico dominio. Dovrebbero essere adottati formati standard per lo scambio e la descrizione di dati geografici. L' Open Geospatial Consortium ha creato una famiglia di standard per lo scambio aperto di dati geografici su Internet, e i metadati standard del World Wide Web Consortium sono generalmente utilizzati. In ultima analisi, tutte le informazioni raccolte dallo stato dovrebbero essere disponibili in maniera aperta, in un formato strutturato e leggibile dalle macchine. In Che Modo Questo Aiuterebbe Dati aperti vuol dire dati migliori e piu' economici. Quando piu' produttori di informazione hanno l'opportunita di contribuire all'accuratezza e all'aggiornamento dei dati, la qualita' migliora. Quando piu' organizzazioni hanno la possibilita'di offrire servizi di informazione spaziale competitivi, i prezzi scendono. Lo Stato Italiano paga grosse societa' di proprieta' dello Stato stesso o a partecipazione statale per produrre dati cartografici che vengono poi venduti nuovamente allo Stato con licenze e sublicenze; una falsa economia che esclude i cittadini ordinari e le organizzazioni no-profit impossibilitati a sostenere i prezzi monopolistici delle licenze. I dati geografici aperti aiutano l'economia. Negli Stati Uniti, la politica nazionale mette tutte le informazioni geospaziali raccolte dal governo nel pubblico dominio, senza costo e senza restrizioni d'uso. Questo abbatte i costi della ricerca e dello sviluppo, e l'innovazione da parte dell'industria e degli individui crea un'attivita' economica. L'accesso libero ai dati geografici aiuta la democrazia e la partecipazione dei cittadini. Il 75-80% delle informazioni generate dal governo ha una componente spaziale. Perche' l'informazioni del settore pubblico sia efficace, essa deve avere la piu' ampia disponibilita' possibile. Le leggi europee sulla liberta' di informazione enfatizzano fortemente la disponibilita' di dati geografici. I dati geografici sono alla base di servizi sviluppati da gruppi di informazione civica no-profit, come "Write To Them" e "They Work For You". Sono indispensabili per i progetti di analisi delle informazioni pubbliche e per renderle maggiormente disponibili al pubblico interessato. # persone hanno firmato in supporto a questa dichiarazione. Se condividi queste dichiarazioni, per favore aggiungi il tuo nome. Stiamo raccogliendo firme di utilizzatori di dati spaziali e sviluppatori di software GIS da tutto il mondo per aiutare a dimostrare un'ampio supporto per le politiche di accesso libero ai dati geografici. Nome: ____________________ Email: ___________________ non pubblicheremo l'email, ma potremmo volerti contattare Organizzazione: __________ Sito web: ________________ Nazione: _________________ Visita la lista dei firmatari Per favore, aggiungi commenti e link nella pagina wiki sul "Manifesto Per I Geodati Aperti". Per informazioni di base e link, visita le pagine relative ai "Geodati Aperti" sul wiki della "Open Knowledge Foundation". From cavallini at faunalia.it Sun Aug 21 23:05:34 2005 From: cavallini at faunalia.it (Paolo Cavallini) Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 23:05:34 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> References: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> Message-ID: <200508212305.47787.cavallini@faunalia.it> This might be of interest to you: http://www.dpi.inpe.br/gilberto/papers/commons_giscience2004.pdf Also see: http://okfn.org/geo/minifesto.php If you do not already have it. All the best. pc At 15:59, domenica 21 agosto 2005, Maurizio Trevisani has probably written: > Coul'd you help me? > Where can I find samples of licence, similar tu the ones available for > open source software (GPL, MPL, and so on), for geospatial data? > Is there a site similar to http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.php > specifically about geodata? > Thanks, > Maurizio Trevisani > > Jo Walsh wrote: > >Very few world citizens enjoy open access to the information that > >describes their surroundings; particularly the geospatial data > >collected and brokered by their National Mapping Agencies, an > >essential framework for understanding civic information of all kinds. > > > >* All government-collected geodata should be open, > > that is, available for free distribution > > and re-use under a ShareAlike license. > > > >* Online mapping projects creating freely reusable geodata > > should offer a compatible open license. > > > >* Common, standard formats for describing and exchanging data > > should be adopted. > > > >* Ultimately, all state-collected information > > should be freely available, > > in a structured machine-readable format. > > > >An open data policy has economic benefits in terms of reduced cost and > >increased innovation; it facilitates e-government and citizen engagement. > > _______________________________________________ > Freegis-list mailing list > Freegis-list at intevation.de > https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list -- Paolo Cavallini cavallini at faunalia.it www.faunalia.it www.faunalia.com Piazza Garibaldi 5 - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy Tel: (+39)348-3801953 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.intevation.de/pipermail/freegis-list/attachments/20050821/f9fb8156/attachment.bin From cavallini at faunalia.it Sun Aug 21 23:10:04 2005 From: cavallini at faunalia.it (Paolo Cavallini) Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 23:10:04 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] DWG to Georeferenced Tiff In-Reply-To: <1413.83.176.23.254.1124633214.squirrel@83.176.23.254> References: <1413.83.176.23.254.1124633214.squirrel@83.176.23.254> Message-ID: <200508212310.05340.cavallini@faunalia.it> I believe GRASS compiled with (non-free) OpenDWG library should do the job. However, please check if there isn't another version of the same data, as rarely large amounts of GIS data are produced directly as DWG, but rather they are converted from some (easier) format. pc At 16:06, domenica 21 agosto 2005, Maurizio Trevisani has probably written: > I'm looking for an open software to convert vector DWG files to raster > TIFF (or Jpeg) files, producing the world file (.TFW) needed to use such > files in a Gis. > I've to convert several hundred of DWG files, so I need a program I could > use in a batch file, or I could program (as Grass, and so on). > I even need to light on or off some layers of the DWG files before > converting them, possibly setting these controls in the program or in the > batch file. > Any help? > > Thanks in advance, > Maurizio Trevisani -- Paolo Cavallini cavallini at faunalia.it www.faunalia.it www.faunalia.com Piazza Garibaldi 5 - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy Tel: (+39)348-3801953 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.intevation.de/pipermail/freegis-list/attachments/20050821/be0d9936/attachment.bin From jo at frot.org Mon Aug 22 00:32:32 2005 From: jo at frot.org (Jo Walsh) Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 15:32:32 -0700 Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <200508212305.47787.cavallini@faunalia.it> References: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> <200508212305.47787.cavallini@faunalia.it> Message-ID: <20050821223232.GA3363@vishnu.tridity.org> On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 11:05:34PM +0200, Paolo Cavallini wrote: > This might be of interest to you: > http://www.dpi.inpe.br/gilberto/papers/commons_giscience2004.pdf > Also see: > http://okfn.org/geo/minifesto.php [ http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php preferred URL for the final version ] Daniel Faivre has done some good thinking about a GPL-equivalent 'Public Geodata License' http://www.omsug.ca/dl/osgis2004/pgl_mapserver2004.pdf http://www.omsug.ca/dl/osgis2004/licenses.pdfhttp://www.omsug.ca/dl/osgis2004/licenses.pdf I recall just missing a presentation about this in the Open Source GIS track at libresoftwaremeeting 2003, can't find archives, *assuming* that this was Daniel also. While searching for references i ran across this interesting looking paper on managing DRM in data distribution with the OGC standards: http://www.urisa.org/Journal/Under_Review/joffe/geodata_access_while_managing.htm Giles Lane worked on the compromise-oriented non-commercial use CC derived license that was submitted to the Ordnance Survey: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/geo-discuss/2005-April/000012.html As Rufus noted, 'Non-commercial' is hard to define, especially on the web. Does selling keyword-based advertisement space to subsidise a free-to-access web mapping service constitute commercial use? Probably. -jo From jan at intevation.de Mon Aug 22 08:38:32 2005 From: jan at intevation.de (Jan-Oliver Wagner) Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 08:38:32 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <20050820062821.GM11918@vishnu.tridity.org> References: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> <20050820062821.GM11918@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <20050822063832.GA10631@intevation.de> On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 11:28:21PM -0700, Jo Walsh wrote: > On Sat, Aug 20, 2005 at 07:47:17AM +0200, Paolo Cavallini wrote: > > 1. draft an explicit model (or more) for open geodata licence, as an > > alternative to current situation; this may follow GPL, or the Creative > > Commons; care should be taken not to allow what NMA pecieve as theft of data > > from commercial companies > > 2. put together a few lines on why geodata should be free (examples from the > > USA, etc); several of you have already written good things about this > > 3. start circulating a petition on this; it worked for software patents, why > > not for geodata? > > http://okfn.org/geo/minifesto.php is the attempt i have made to do > this. There is a draft non-commercial use Creative Commons based license linked > there which was submitted to our NMA, the Ordnance Survey, and more or > less sank without trace. note that a license for non-commercial use in conjunction with example of the US-Model is a bad idea. The US-Model is successful because it is not just 'free for non-commercial use' - they made the data public domain which naturally inludes the commercial use. Well, in Europe the status of 'public domain' could only be reached through waiting 80 (IIRC) years. It can't be used as a 'license'. Hence, indeed we must have a license for geodata. Next, I believe that we have the chance only for a single license within decades to get lobbied until implementation. Though a free-for-non-commercial-use license might be easier and faster to get a consensus on, it would block the implementation of a license concept similar to the US and thus block all the economic potentials. IMHO, it is not good anyway to use 'not-for-commercial-use' licenses at all. This is because 'Commercial' is not defined. For me, even most (soon all) universities are commercial entities; in fact it is hard to name any organization that truely could use geodata or software and act non-commerical. Debatable, of course! But thats the actual threat: it is debatable. You could find yourself at court because the owner might have a different view on what you though was a non-commercial activity. > Canada seems the best bet for acquiring hard numbers on the economic > and innovative positive effect of actively opening up geodata access, > with active government funding of open source GIS projects such as uDig. > ( http://udig.refractions.net/ , http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/ ) > I hear Canada is releasing a big, TIGER-style open access street and > addressing model soon if not already. I'd be interested if that one is licensed with 'non-commercial' restrictions. Anyone knows? Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ From jan at intevation.de Mon Aug 22 09:19:51 2005 From: jan at intevation.de (Jan-Oliver Wagner) Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:19:51 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <20050821223232.GA3363@vishnu.tridity.org> References: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> <200508212305.47787.cavallini@faunalia.it> <20050821223232.GA3363@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <20050822071951.GE10631@intevation.de> On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 03:32:32PM -0700, Jo Walsh wrote: > Daniel Faivre has done some good thinking about a GPL-equivalent > 'Public Geodata License' > http://www.omsug.ca/dl/osgis2004/pgl_mapserver2004.pdf > http://www.omsug.ca/dl/osgis2004/licenses.pdfhttp://www.omsug.ca/dl/osgis2004/licenses.pdf > I recall just missing a presentation about this in the Open Source GIS > track at libresoftwaremeeting 2003, can't find archives, *assuming* > that this was Daniel also. I can confirm this was indeed Daniel :-) Best Jan -- Jan-Oliver Wagner http://intevation.de/~jan/ Intevation GmbH http://intevation.de/ Kolab Konsortium http://kolab-konsortium.de/ FreeGIS http://freegis.org/ From gould at lsi.uji.es Sat Aug 20 10:09:50 2005 From: gould at lsi.uji.es (michael gould) Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 10:09:50 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> Message-ID: <003601c5a55e$8a35aed0$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> Paolo et al., It is not for lack of ideas. See for example the nicely developed Geo-creative commons paper here: http://www.dpi.inpe.br/gilberto/papers/commons_giscience2004.pdf The main problem is that you (we) are up against large burocracies, that are not easily won over using logical or technical arguments :-) This is why I believe that demos, easy and effective demos, are the best way to get the message across. Many of these same agancies probably fought against having websites, but then when it became so easy (and apparently safe; we'll see what the growing spam and hacker wars create) to have a website...they were left with no excuse. cheers, ----------- Michael Gould Department of Information Systems (LSI) Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castell?n Spain E-mail: gould (at) lsi.uji.es http://www.mgould.com http://www.geoinfo.uji.es -----Mensaje original----- De: freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de [mailto:freegis-list-bounces at intevation.de] En nombre de Paolo Cavallini Enviado el: s?bado, 20 de agosto de 2005 7:47 Para: freegis-list at intevation.de Asunto: Re: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? A pragmatic approach that may be useful: 1. draft an explicit model (or more) for open geodata licence, as an alternative to current situation; this may follow GPL, or the Creative Commons; care should be taken not to allow what NMA pecieve as theft of data from commercial companies 2. put together a few lines on why geodata should be free (examples from the USA, etc); several of you have already written good things about this 3. start circulating a petition on this; it worked for software patents, why not for geodata? I'm available to help, if needed. All the best. pc At 13:29, mercoled? 17 agosto 2005, michael gould has probably written: ... -- Paolo Cavallini cavallini at faunalia.it www.faunalia.it www.faunalia.com Piazza Garibaldi 5 - 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy Tel: (+39)348-3801953 _______________________________________________ Freegis-list mailing list Freegis-list at intevation.de https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list From jo at frot.org Mon Aug 22 09:50:32 2005 From: jo at frot.org (Jo Walsh) Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:50:32 -0700 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <20050822063832.GA10631@intevation.de> References: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> <20050820062821.GM11918@vishnu.tridity.org> <20050822063832.GA10631@intevation.de> Message-ID: <20050822075032.GF3363@vishnu.tridity.org> On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 08:38:32AM +0200, Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: > > http://okfn.org/geo/minifesto.php is the attempt i have made to do > > this. There is a draft non-commercial use Creative Commons based license linked > > note that a license for non-commercial use in conjunction with example > of the US-Model is a bad idea. The US-Model is successful because it is > not just 'free for non-commercial use' - they made the data public domain > which naturally inludes the commercial use. Noted. An argument i have seen often from the NMA lobby is, 'the US model has not worked because commercial entities (NavTEQ, mapquest et al) can augment and re-use state geodata to great profit without no obligation to put enhancements into the public domain, thus the timeliness and accuracy of state-collected geodata, especially in local government, suffers'. A ShareAlike clause helps bypass the criticisms of the US model; data is open to commercial re-use as long as enhancements are contributed back to the 'public domain'. (Often quoted against the US model is Laila Aslesen, IP lawyer for Norway's NMA. I heard anecdotally that Norway's emergency services can no longer access the spatial data they used to for search-and-rescue purposes, because the commercial entity responsible for collection, decided that sales cost/benefit was no longer economically viable in remote areas.) > Next, I believe that we have the chance only for a single license within > decades to get lobbied until implementation. > Though a free-for-non-commercial-use license might be easier and faster > to get a consensus on, it would block the implementation of a license > concept similar to the US and thus block all the economic potentials. Currently, small businesses or local government agencies feel pressured to retain IP rights in geodata because 'everyone else is doing so, we'll lose out if we don't, and be squashed by the major players'. Again, a ShareAlike license for the distribution of state-collected geodata would help defuse this situation; smaller organisations would not lose by putting data into the public domain; larger organisations would not unduly gain at public expense. -jo From neteler at itc.it Mon Aug 22 11:23:08 2005 From: neteler at itc.it (Markus Neteler) Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:23:08 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] GRASS GIS 6.0.1 released Message-ID: <20050822092308.GB18058@thuille.itc.it> Announcement GRASS GIS 6.0.1 released 22 August 2005 A bugfix release of GRASS GIS has been published today. What's new: * More than 140 fixes applied after 6.0.0. * A few MacOSX issues and other minor problems were fixed after 6.0.1RC1 and 6.0.1RC2. Full Announcement: * http://grass.itc.it/announces/announce_grass601.html Software download/CDROM: * http://grass.itc.it * http://grass.ibiblio.org Thanks to all contributors! Markus From Lena.Pahl at web.de Tue Aug 23 14:19:18 2005 From: Lena.Pahl at web.de (Lena Pahl) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:19:18 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] OGC-compliant requests in XML format Message-ID: <283634869@web.de> Hi everybody! I want to create OGC-compliant requests in XML format for a WFS. Is there some automated way to create those requests? Any help is very much appreciated! Thanks a million, Lena ______________________________________________________________ Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193 From mueller at lat-lon.de Tue Aug 23 18:18:53 2005 From: mueller at lat-lon.de (=?iso-8859-15?Q?Markus_M=FCller?=) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:18:53 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Freegis-list] OGC-compliant requests in XML format In-Reply-To: <283634869@web.de> References: <283634869@web.de> Message-ID: <58256.141.91.240.143.1124813933.squirrel@mail.lat-lon.de> Hi Lena, there is a number of free WFS clients available that can send WFS requests to WFS server and create those request for you, e.g. deeJUMP (http://deegree.sourceforge.net/src/demos.html#deejump) - this is an extension of JUMP able to send WFS requests. If you need plain XML example requests the deegree demo WFS includes some of them (the WFS spec BTW also). Is that what you are looking for? Markus >>>> Lena Pahl>>>> > > > Hi everybody! > > I want to create OGC-compliant requests in XML format for a WFS. Is > there some automated way to create those requests? > > Any help is very much appreciated! > > Thanks a million, > > Lena > > ______________________________________________________________ > Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! > Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193 > > _______________________________________________ > Freegis-list mailing list > Freegis-list at intevation.de > https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list -- Dr. Markus M?ller l a t / l o n GmbH (Hamburg) Gluckstr. 53a 22081 Hamburg, Germany phone ++49 +177 2470742 fax ++49 +228 18496-29 http://www.lat-lon.de http://www.deegree.org From arnulf.christl at ccgis.de Tue Aug 23 18:51:14 2005 From: arnulf.christl at ccgis.de (Arnulf Christl) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:51:14 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] OGC-compliant requests in XML format In-Reply-To: <283634869@web.de> References: <283634869@web.de> Message-ID: <430B5402.9060909@ccgis.de> Lena Pahl wrote: > > Hi everybody! > > I want to create OGC-compliant requests in XML format for a WFS. Is there some automated way to create those requests? > > Any help is very much appreciated! > > Thanks a million, > > Lena Hi, you can check out this demo: http://www.mapbender.org/demoserver.html Search for 5311 in "Suche Postleitzahlbereiche:" check the GML box and click OK. Look at the URL of the returned web page, it contains the WFS getFeature request. There are loads of application scenarios, a comprehensive set can be found here: http://www.flo.rlp.de It implements search functionality with WFS, highlighting and enables digitizing functionality. Best, Arnulf. From steve at fractalus.com Sat Aug 20 18:10:57 2005 From: steve at fractalus.com (SteveC) Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 17:10:57 +0100 Subject: [Freegis-list] Re: [Openstreetmap] Open Access to State-collected Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <20050820154629.GQ11918@vishnu.tridity.org> References: <20050820154629.GQ11918@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <20050820161057.GA23719@fractalus.com> And sign the pledge http://www.pledgebank.com/geodata * @ 20/08/05 04:46:29 PM jo at frot.org wrote: > Very few world citizens enjoy open access to the information that > describes their surroundings; particularly the geospatial data > collected and brokered by their National Mapping Agencies, an > essential framework for understanding civic information of all kinds. > > http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php is a set of statements about Open > Access to State-collected Geospatial Data. > > * All government-collected geodata should be open, > that is, available for free distribution > and re-use under a ShareAlike license. > > * Online mapping projects creating freely reusable geodata > should offer a compatible open license. > > * Common, standard formats for describing and exchanging data > should be adopted. > > * Ultimately, all state-collected information > should be freely available, > in a structured machine-readable format. > > An open data policy has economic benefits in terms of reduced cost and > increased innovation; it facilitates e-government and citizen engagement. > > Please read the manifesto and, if you agree with the statements it contains, > sign up to support it: http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php#signup > > > -jo > > -- > http://mappinghacks.com/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Openstreetmap mailing list > Openstreetmap at vr.ucl.ac.uk > http://bat.vr.ucl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstreetmap > have fun, SteveC steve at fractalus.com http://www.fractalus.com/steve/ From Lena.Pahl at web.de Wed Aug 24 09:40:23 2005 From: Lena.Pahl at web.de (Lena Pahl) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 09:40:23 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] OGC-compliant requests in XML format Message-ID: <285341241@web.de> Hello! Well, that sounds a bit to big for my purposes. I'm looking for a tool that is able to create GetFeature and Transaction requests (in XML). I want to send those request to GeoServer WFS. I tried sending demo requests and it works. So that tool (or whatever...) doesn't necessarily need to "communicate" with the WFS but to generate ogc-comliant requests like this: How do you generate this? Or is there no other way than plain "typing"? Thanks for your help anyway! Lena mueller at lat-lon.de schrieb am 23.08.05 18:18:55: Hi Lena, there is a number of free WFS clients available that can send WFS requests to WFS server and create those request for you, e.g. deeJUMP (http://deegree.sourceforge.net/src/demos.html#deejump) - this is an extension of JUMP able to send WFS requests. If you need plain XML example requests the deegree demo WFS includes some of them (the WFS spec BTW also). Is that what you are looking for? Markus >>>> Lena Pahl>>>> > > > Hi everybody! > > I want to create OGC-compliant requests in XML format for a WFS. Is > there some automated way to create those requests? > > Any help is very much appreciated! > > Thanks a million, > > Lena > > ______________________________________________________________ > Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! > Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193 > > _______________________________________________ > Freegis-list mailing list > Freegis-list at intevation.de > https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list -- Dr. Markus M?ller l a t / l o n GmbH (Hamburg) Gluckstr. 53a 22081 Hamburg, Germany phone ++49 +177 2470742 fax ++49 +228 18496-29 http://www.lat-lon.de http://www.deegree.org _________________________________________________________________________ Mit der Gruppen-SMS von WEB.DE FreeMail k?nnen Sie eine SMS an alle Freunde gleichzeitig schicken: http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021179 From mueller at lat-lon.de Wed Aug 24 13:45:05 2005 From: mueller at lat-lon.de (=?iso-8859-15?Q?Markus_M=FCller?=) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:45:05 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Freegis-list] OGC-compliant requests in XML format In-Reply-To: <285341241@web.de> References: <285341241@web.de> Message-ID: <56452.141.91.240.140.1124883905.squirrel@mail.lat-lon.de> Hi Lena hmm, easier than deeJUMP? ;-) deeJUMP is pretty easy to install - you only need a Java SDK. It includes a button that creates GetFeature request for arbitrary WFS servers. You can then let the software create the XML representation for you (by "create request").So you then have the choice of letting deeJUMP send the request - or sending them by another way. best regards Markus >>>> Lena Pahl>>>> > > Hello! > Well, that sounds a bit to big for my purposes. I'm looking for a tool > that is able to create GetFeature and Transaction requests (in XML). I > want to send those request to GeoServer WFS. I tried sending demo > requests and it works. So that tool (or whatever...) doesn't > necessarily need to "communicate" with the WFS but to generate > ogc-comliant requests like this: > > xmlns:topp="http://www.openplans.org/topp" > xmlns:wfs="http://www.opengis.net/wfs" > xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc" > xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" > xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wfs > http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.0.0/WFS-basic.xsd"> typeName="topp:GISUSER.FLURSTUECKE_1"> > > > > > > > > How do you generate this? Or is there no other way than plain "typing"? > Thanks for your help anyway! > Lena > > > > mueller at lat-lon.de schrieb am 23.08.05 18:18:55: > > Hi Lena, > > there is a number of free WFS clients available that can send WFS > requests to WFS server and create those request for you, e.g. deeJUMP > (http://deegree.sourceforge.net/src/demos.html#deejump) - this is an > extension of JUMP able to send WFS requests. > If you need plain XML example requests the deegree demo WFS includes > some of them (the WFS spec BTW also). > > Is that what you are looking for? > > Markus > >>>>> Lena Pahl>>>> >> >> >> Hi everybody! >> >> I want to create OGC-compliant requests in XML format for a WFS. Is >> there some automated way to create those requests? >> >> Any help is very much appreciated! >> >> Thanks a million, >> >> Lena >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! >> Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Freegis-list mailing list >> Freegis-list at intevation.de >> https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list > > > -- > Dr. Markus M?ller > l a t / l o n GmbH (Hamburg) > Gluckstr. 53a 22081 Hamburg, Germany > phone ++49 +177 2470742 fax ++49 +228 18496-29 > http://www.lat-lon.de http://www.deegree.org > > > > > _________________________________________________________________________ > Mit der Gruppen-SMS von WEB.DE FreeMail k?nnen Sie eine SMS an alle > Freunde gleichzeitig schicken: > http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021179 > > > > _______________________________________________ > Freegis-list mailing list > Freegis-list at intevation.de > https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list -- Dr. Markus M?ller l a t / l o n GmbH (Hamburg) Gluckstr. 53a 22081 Hamburg, Germany phone ++49 +177 2470742 fax ++49 +228 18496-29 http://www.lat-lon.de http://www.deegree.org From mueller at lat-lon.de Wed Aug 24 14:00:23 2005 From: mueller at lat-lon.de (=?iso-8859-15?Q?Markus_M=FCller?=) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:00:23 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Freegis-list] OGC-compliant requests in XML format In-Reply-To: <285341241@web.de> References: <285341241@web.de> Message-ID: <42427.141.91.240.140.1124884823.squirrel@mail.lat-lon.de> Hi Lena hmm, easier than deeJUMP? ;-) deeJUMP is pretty easy to install - you only need a Java SDK. It includes a button that creates GetFeature request for arbitrary WFS servers. You can then let the software create the XML representation for you (by "create request").So you then have the choice of letting deeJUMP send therequest - or sending them by another way. best regards Markus >>>> Lena Pahl>>>> > > Hello! > Well, that sounds a bit to big for my purposes. I'm looking for a tool > that is able to create GetFeature and Transaction requests (in XML). I > want to send those request to GeoServer WFS. I tried sending demo > requests and it works. So that tool (or whatever...) doesn't > necessarily need to "communicate" with the WFS but to generate > ogc-comliant requests like this: > > xmlns:topp="http://www.openplans.org/topp" > xmlns:wfs="http://www.opengis.net/wfs" > xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc" > xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" > xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wfs > http://schemas.opengis.net/wfs/1.0.0/WFS-basic.xsd"> typeName="topp:GISUSER.FLURSTUECKE_1"> > > > > > > > > How do you generate this? Or is there no other way than plain "typing"? > Thanks for your help anyway! > Lena > > > > mueller at lat-lon.de schrieb am 23.08.05 18:18:55: > > Hi Lena, > > there is a number of free WFS clients available that can send WFS > requests to WFS server and create those request for you, e.g. deeJUMP > (http://deegree.sourceforge.net/src/demos.html#deejump) - this is an > extension of JUMP able to send WFS requests. > If you need plain XML example requests the deegree demo WFS includes > some of them (the WFS spec BTW also). > > Is that what you are looking for? > > Markus > >>>>> Lena Pahl>>>> >> >> >> Hi everybody! >> >> I want to create OGC-compliant requests in XML format for a WFS. Is >> there some automated way to create those requests? >> >> Any help is very much appreciated! >> >> Thanks a million, >> >> Lena >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Verschicken Sie romantische, coole und witzige Bilder per SMS! >> Jetzt bei WEB.DE FreeMail: http://f.web.de/?mc=021193 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Freegis-list mailing list >> Freegis-list at intevation.de >> https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list > > > -- > Dr. Markus M?ller > l a t / l o n GmbH (Hamburg) > Gluckstr. 53a 22081 Hamburg, Germany > phone ++49 +177 2470742 fax ++49 +228 18496-29 > http://www.lat-lon.de http://www.deegree.org > > > > > _________________________________________________________________________ > Mit der Gruppen-SMS von WEB.DE FreeMail k?nnen Sie eine SMS an alle > Freunde gleichzeitig schicken: > http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021179 -- Dr. Markus M?ller l a t / l o n GmbH (Hamburg) Gluckstr. 53a 22081 Hamburg, Germany phone ++49 +177 2470742 fax ++49 +228 18496-29 http://www.lat-lon.de http://www.deegree.org From reed at interreality.org Wed Aug 24 16:19:05 2005 From: reed at interreality.org (Reed Hedges) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:19:05 -0400 Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> References: <1389.83.176.23.254.1124632786.squirrel@83.176.23.254> Message-ID: <20050824141905.GA18034@interreality.org> Simply applying the GPL or LGPL to geospatial data is valid. Consider the data to be the "source code" which is interpreted by computer to display, analyze, whatever. (See ) Here is the FSF's list of licenses: On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 03:59:46PM +0200, Maurizio Trevisani wrote: > Coul'd you help me? > Where can I find samples of licence, similar tu the ones available for > open source software (GPL, MPL, and so on), for geospatial data? > Is there a site similar to http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.php > specifically about geodata? > Thanks, > Maurizio Trevisani > From pcreso at pcreso.com Wed Aug 24 20:49:03 2005 From: pcreso at pcreso.com (Brent Wood) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:49:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Freegis-list] Open Access to Geospatial Data In-Reply-To: <20050824141905.GA18034@interreality.org> Message-ID: <20050824184903.39659.qmail@web33204.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Have a look at the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) licence. http://www.linz.govt.nz/docs/topography/topographicdata/topodtabase/licence_agreement_1.pdf The data is pretty much freely redistributable. Brent Wood --- Reed Hedges wrote: > > Simply applying the GPL or LGPL to geospatial data is valid. Consider the > data > to be the "source code" which is interpreted by computer to display, analyze, > whatever. > > (See > ) > > > Here is the FSF's list of licenses: > > > > > On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 03:59:46PM +0200, Maurizio Trevisani wrote: > > Coul'd you help me? > > Where can I find samples of licence, similar tu the ones available for > > open source software (GPL, MPL, and so on), for geospatial data? > > Is there a site similar to http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.php > > specifically about geodata? > > Thanks, > > Maurizio Trevisani > > > > _______________________________________________ > Freegis-list mailing list > Freegis-list at intevation.de > https://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list > From arnulf.christl at ccgis.de Thu Aug 25 00:27:54 2005 From: arnulf.christl at ccgis.de (Arnulf Christl) Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:27:54 +0200 Subject: [Freegis-list] Campaign for rejecting Inspire directive? In-Reply-To: <20050822075032.GF3363@vishnu.tridity.org> References: <000001c5a31e$e7fad910$6402a8c0@NOMADA1> <200508200747.17858.cavallini@faunalia.it> <20050820062821.GM11918@vishnu.tridity.org> <20050822063832.GA10631@intevation.de> <20050822075032.GF3363@vishnu.tridity.org> Message-ID: <430CF46A.1080604@ccgis.de> Jo Walsh wrote: > On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 08:38:32AM +0200, Jan-Oliver Wagner wrote: > >>>http://okfn.org/geo/minifesto.php is the attempt i have made to do >>>this. There is a draft non-commercial use Creative Commons based license linked >> >>note that a license for non-commercial use in conjunction with example >>of the US-Model is a bad idea. The US-Model is successful because it is >>not just 'free for non-commercial use' - they made the data public domain >>which naturally inludes the commercial use. > > > Noted. An argument i have seen often from the NMA lobby is, 'the US > model has not worked because commercial entities (NavTEQ, mapquest et al) > can augment and re-use state geodata to great profit without no obligation > to put enhancements into the public domain, thus the timeliness and accuracy > of state-collected geodata, especially in local government, suffers'. > > A ShareAlike clause helps bypass the criticisms of the US model; data > is open to commercial re-use as long as enhancements are contributed > back to the 'public domain'. > > (Often quoted against the US model is Laila Aslesen, IP lawyer for Norway's NMA. > I heard anecdotally that Norway's emergency services can no longer > access the spatial data they used to for search-and-rescue purposes, > because the commercial entity responsible for collection, decided that > sales cost/benefit was no longer economically viable in remote areas.) > > >>Next, I believe that we have the chance only for a single license within >>decades to get lobbied until implementation. >>Though a free-for-non-commercial-use license might be easier and faster >>to get a consensus on, it would block the implementation of a license >>concept similar to the US and thus block all the economic potentials. > > > Currently, small businesses or local government agencies feel pressured > to retain IP rights in geodata because 'everyone else is doing so, > we'll lose out if we don't, and be squashed by the major players'. > > Again, a ShareAlike license for the distribution of state-collected > geodata would help defuse this situation; smaller organisations would > not lose by putting data into the public domain; larger organisations > would not unduly gain at public expense. > > > -jo (ignore this if this has already been discussed in detail) Why not stick to the GNU/FDL? Its simple and effective. Try me on any definiton of "non-commercial use" or "commercial use" and i will find abundant arguments against them. None will not work with the emerging open distributed spatial server architectures. Besides that, the public administration (as a system) has long ago decided to free all data and there is practically no more poccibility of turning back. The people *governing* public administrations are on the verge of understanding but just don't want to believe it yet. Best, Arnulf. From patricia.matsumoto at gmail.com Thu Aug 25 07:17:24 2005 From: patricia.matsumoto at gmail.com (Patricia Megumi Matsumoto) Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 02:17:24 -0300 Subject: [Freegis-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?Getting_maps_of_S=E3o_Paulo?= Message-ID: Hello I'm a student in Brazil and I'm taking part in a project in which I have to implement an application for PDAs and I need to use GIS in order to do what I was asked to do. More specifically, I would like to implement an application in which I would be able to type some addresses and then, I would be able to see a map with some dots in the places which would correspond to the addresses I had typed before. (In the future, I intend to trace some routes in the map, in order to show to the user the best way to visit all the selected points). I've been looking for many (free) GISs and I've found many interesting projects. However, I couldn't find any site in which I could find maps (specifically of S?o Paulo) to use in my application. Would you have an idea where to find it? Would you have any suggestion concerning which API I should use for that? Thank you very much =) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.intevation.de/pipermail/freegis-list/attachments/20050825/b170f1f4/attachment.html From pcreso at pcreso.com Fri Aug 26 08:58:22 2005 From: pcreso at pcreso.com (Brent Wood) Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 23:58:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Freegis-list] cable network schema/OS GIS system? In-Reply-To: <42E78986.60905@gmx-topmail.de> Message-ID: <20050826065822.95381.qmail@web33206.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi, I've been asked to look into an Open Source solution for a GIS to support a fibre & network /ISP company. At this stage they are looking at a system to store fibre segment & node info, along with the appropriate spatial & aspatial attributes to both record the required attributes and relationship links. While I'm comfortable that this is doable with PostGIS, I'm wondering if anyone in the OS GIS community already has any schema's to suport this sort of system, or has already implemented a simple telco type network GIS with OS GIS tools? Thanks, Brent Wood From pfcsergioliminiana at yahoo.es Sat Aug 27 12:29:36 2005 From: pfcsergioliminiana at yahoo.es (Sergio Liminiana Bernat) Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 12:29:36 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Freegis-list] Coverage and GML 3.0 Message-ID: <20050827102936.37583.qmail@web25610.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Hello!! I want to know if anyone has a example of coverage with GML 3. I have the specification, but I prefer a example... only for view the format. Thank you very much ______________________________________________ Renovamos el Correo Yahoo! Nuevos servicios, m?s seguridad http://correo.yahoo.es