I work for a purpose-driven organization, the social purpose of the organization aligns with my own social purposes, and the work is challenging and sophisticated.
Open source fits the profile of an intrinsically motivating pursuit (for folks of the right technical bent) exceedingly well. A great talk and visual presentation.
Paul Ramsey, OpenGeo’s spatial database wizard and frequent poster to this blog, was recently interviewed by Matt Ball for V1 magazine. It’s a good read, and we think you’ll enjoy it.
While the interview covers a wide range of topics, here’s a quote that encapsulates OpenGeo’s software to me probably better than any white paper or business plan could:
Building a web map app is something that a technically inclined forester should be able to do, it shouldn’t require someone from the computer science department. The Web is evolving to be a place where people can put a basic set of development tools, JavaScript and HTML, to a lot of different uses. Not inventing their own language…We’re just providing some geo flavor on top.
We are pleased to announce the launch of GeoNode.org, the official website of the GeoNode project.
The GeoNode project is a partnership between the World Bank’s CAPRA initiative, OpenGeo, and other organizations from around the world. Our aim is to take the principles and practices of openness which have empowered the modern web, and use them to build a spatial data infrastructure solution appropriate for large NGO’s and government agencies.
The GeoNode is both an organizational partnership and an open source software project, built on the familiar projects of our OpenGeo Stack (GeoServer, OpenLayers, GeoExt, etc.) as well as Django and GeoNetwork. After several months of incubation and prototyping, GeoNode.org is the kick off to our new focus on the GeoNode community. Look there for the latest news on GeoNode technology, partnerships, and community resources.
The Economist, in its June 6th 2009 issue article “Mapping a better world,” discusses the role maps play in effecting social change. They seem to miss, however, how open source tools directly influence this development. Open source mapping is not about budgeting for the non-profit with limited resources. Rather, it provides solutions that work for all kinds of mapmakers.
The article initially captures the democratizing power of mapping:
For most people [maps are] a handy tool to find a nearby pizzeria or get directions to a meeting. But mapping technology has matured into a tool for social justice…[N]on-profit groups and individuals around the world are finding that maps can help them make their case far more intuitively and effectively than speeches, policy papers of press releases.
On the subject of the mapping software landscape, however, the article is less enlightened. After mentioning ESRI as “the market leader in mapping software,” the author adds, almost as an afterthought, “the rise of open-source projects such as MapServer, PostGIS, and GRASS GIS have made sophisticated mapping available to non-profit groups with limited resources.”
And here the article has fallen into the common assessment that open source software is merely a cheaper version of its proprietary brethren. Organizations, regardless of size, or for-profit status, want geospatial tools that meet their needs. To this end, cost is often a factor, but not always the most overriding one. With access to code, open source mapmakers can build the solution that works best for them, rather than being forced to work around a given product.
Such openness has fundamentally changed the landscape of web mapping, even helping make projects featured in The Economist article possible. The profiled Ushahidi, makers of crowd-sourcing social activism software, promises on their website to “make [our] mapping tool available globally for free.”
In this way, a diverse range of organizational models find open software well matched for their mission of social justice. From the Obama Administration’s Delivery on Change initiative, an interactive account of citizen action for change, to SourceMap, a platform for visualizing product supply chains, to the MarineMap Decision Support Tool, a public forum for designating the use of marine environments, organizations are choosing open source tools not because of limited resources but because “open” means the best tool for the job.
At OpenGeo, we are committed to making open source mapping a seamless experience. With such access and ease, any organization can take their vision of a better world and map it into reality.
OpenGeo’s Arne Kepp was interviewed by Directions Magazine regarding the recent release of GeoWebCache 1.0 .
This article is a fine, layperson’s introduction to the features and benefits of GeoWebCache, and we highly recommend giving it read.
GeoWebCache is a WMS tile-caching solution written in Java, and is a core component of the OpenGeo Stack, although it can operate against any compliant Web Map Service (WMS) implementation. Directions Magazine “publishes weekly newsletters about geographic information systems, global positioning systems, desktop mapping, cartography, computer-aided design, remote sensing, web services, and more.”
We are kicking off the new year by starting the OpenGeo blog. Here, we will articulate our vision of the Open Geospatial Web, highlight the technological progress we and others make towards it, and announce our growing as a social enterprise.
2009 promises to be an important year for us, both as contributors to the projects in the OpenGeo Stack and as a thriving organization. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements appearing here soon!