OpenGeo

Via All Points Blog, apparently the upcoming release of MapInfo will include native support for PostGIS. That means that MapInfo users can now easily plug directly into the OpenGeo Suite, reading and writing their data in PostGIS, and publishing it to the GeoWeb via the other components of the Suite.

You may have noticed that we have recently rebuilt our website. Here are some new sections you might find helpful:

• The OpenGeo Suite Matrix now explains the differences between our three OpenGeo Suite contracts: Basic, Professional, and Enterprise.
• The Core Development Roadmaps describe the features we plan to build into the projects we support (GeoServer, OpenLayers, PostGIS, GeoWebCache, and GeoExt) as part of our mission. You can hire us to develop these features; because they are on our roadmap we will work for a reduced rate.
• We have devoted part of our website to tell you more about who is on our team. Many of our team members are luminaries in the open source geospatial world, and we want to tell you all about them.

Take some time to explore the new website today and tomorrow, as we will be updating its content often over the coming weeks.

Back in the “good old days” (prior to, say, 2000) organizations that needed to collect geospatial information from their operational staff had a few clear technology choices:

• Build some form and query extensions to ArcView 3. Relatively cheap on developer time, but expensive for roll-out because of per-workstation licensing. Roll-out involved installing on all desktops.
• Build a desktop application using a “developer toolkit” like MapObjects. Required more developer skills, but was cheaper to roll-out. Rollout involved installing on all desktops.
• Grit teeth and build a web-based application using new-fangled software like ArcIMS. Required quite a bit of development skill, using cutting-edge web technology, and building many very basic components (zoom boxes, map frames) from scratch. Some aftermarket technology grew up to support application building, but it tended to be quite tightly bound to the application domains — you either loved it, or it was useless to you.

In the intervening years, general purpose technology for building web applications has caught up to the capabilities previously only available on the desktop. Google, and now Apple, are offering 100% web-based versions of software like spreadsheets and presentations that was previously only available on the desktop. The development effort required to build professional-quality user interfaces for the web has plummeted as toolkits like Prototype and ExtJS have become available.

Geospatial applications are following the footsteps of mainstream IT. Open source toolkits like OpenLayers allow maps to be embedded in web pages without the encumbrance of Google or Microsoft license agreements, and without building core functionality from scratch. GeoExt is tying the map functions of OpenLayers to the desktop-style interface elements of ExtJS.

The result is a new age in custom spatial applications. The web is the new ArcView, and a GeoExt/OpenLayers/Geoserver technology stack can be used to build interactive applications quickly.

And the best part is, the deployment cost is the same, whether there are 2 end users or 2000 end users. Perhaps the good old days weren’t so good after all!