OpenGeo

This week, OpenGeo released version 1.0 of our OpenGeo Suite.

When we initially announced the OpenGeo Suite, it was a notion — a collection of individual software pieces we would professionally support as a whole. Now, it’s a product in the conventional sense — one download that provides all the pieces in a simple installer for Windows, Mac, or Linux:

• GeoServer — a geospatial data and map server;
• GeoWebCache — a map accelerator;
• OpenLayers/GeoExt — user interface libraries for building map applications;
• (New!) GeoExplorer — a browser-based map composer and publisher;
• (New!) Styler — a WYSIWIG editor for map styles (SLD);
• (New!) Recipe Book — code samples and documentation for building your own map applications;
• Full documentation for all components; and
• (New!) Dashboard — a unified administration panel for starting and managing the components of the OpenGeo Suite.

Up to this point, we have concentrated on clients already adept at downloading, integrating, and using the pieces of the Suite. With version 1.0, anybody can start publishing their data and building applications right out of the box.

This ease of entry aligns with the OpenGeo mission.  As an organization, we want to democratize mapping. That means offering tools available under non-discriminatory legal terms, like open source. It also means lowering barriers so that more people can use, build, and grow these tools.

Both novice and expert benefit from the seamless integration of the OpenGeo Suite.  By placing everything together in one place — software, documentation, examples, administration — the Suite offers a central resource to navigate, configure, and support the various pieces of your mapping application.

At a decision making level, we provide a corporate entity tightly bound to the software, providing support, expertise and training services to the community of users and administrators.

Version 1.0 is the first step in a long journey, but we know where we are going. Every day we ask ourselves: can we make our product easier to use? can we make it easier to learn? can we make it easier to try? We would love your feedback, so download the free 30 day trial and let us know what you think!

We’re looking forward to an exciting 2010, meeting those goals and growing our community.

One of the items we launched with our new web site this spring was what we have been internally calling “the menu”, and ended up calling “core development“. The premise is that a generation of proprietary software experiences have broken customers of the idea that they can directly pay a vendor for a new feature — as customers we’ve been trained to just wait until the next version and hope.  But in an open source world, developers (us) are happy to work on new features directly for customers. So in our core development “menu” we try to provide customers with some guidance about what is possible, writing up some descriptions of larger development pieces and enumerating the functionality they would provide.

One of the items I put in my PostGIS menu last spring was “geodetic types“, native support for latitude/longitude coordinates that allows for indexing of features that cross the poles or dateline, provides direct calculation of distances and areas on the spheroid, and integrates with the other functions in PostGIS.  And a few months ago, that menu item was funded by a client!  We are currently approaching the final delivery date, the code is committed to the PostGIS SVN repository, and I’m spending the rest of the week testing and polishing.

Amazingly, the open source development started paying off almost immediately — I was getting testing and bug reports from third parties very early in the process, which means the final delivery will be that much stronger for the client. I’ve also added a large number of functions above and beyond those itemized in the contract terms, since this code is going to be in wide use as soon as it is released.

To get a feel for the functions that have been added, check out the documentation for the upcoming PostGIS release. For more technical details on using the new type, see this post.

I hope it was no surprise that my keynote at FOSS4G this week was partly about open source business models and the whole product, because that’s what I’ve been thinking about (and to an extent, blogging about here) for the last six months or so.

And the good news (to me) is that the concept appears to be striking a chord among right folks: managers and system integrators. We are getting lots of good feedback at the booth from those folks in addition to the regular stream of highly technical folks who are happy to chew the fat with our team of core developers.

On the business side, I think the system integrators are the really important ones. They can move from coming to clients with three or four different projects pulled from different places with different support options to coming in with just one infrastructure piece, the OpenGeo Suite. And on top of that, they can make use of the facilities of GeoServer and GeoExt to build nice tightly focussed business apps. The sales proposition for them with conservative customers gets a lot cleaner: the business app the client wants plus a single infrastructure piece with simple support story.

I have also been hearing tales of woe about the local distributors for the Leading Brand elbowing out independents for services work, which will seed a nice collection of disgruntled folks looking for an alternative.

So the challenge comes back to us: execute, execute, execute, on the technical side of polishing the Suite into a whole product worthy of the mainstream market, and on the business side signing up local partners to carry the message forward.

OpenGeo’s had a busy month as we have been ramping up to drive our technology and business in exciting new directions. Here is a quick preview of what is in store for us:

The OpenGeo Suite Installer. In an effort to bring open source geospatial software to new markets, we are unifying the OpenGeo Suite into one tight package. Soon we will be releasing a distribution of PostGIS, GeoServer, and GeoWebCache with a easy installer, an improved data importing interface, and an integrated Styler application based on Openlayers and GeoExt.

The GeoNode. In collaboration with the World Bank’s Central American Probabilistic Risk Assessment (CAPRA), we have been building the next generation of SDI technology with modern web principles in mind. This summer we have built a simple data clearing house with GeoServer and GeoExt. Soon we will extend it with reporting tools useful for disaster risk management experts in the field, as well as uploading and styling workflows. Keep an eye out here for updates on the GeoNode’s technical and community development.

Training and FOSS4G. We are improving our training curriculum and giving several workshops on our stack. We will have a strong presence at FOSS4G this year, and are eager to spread the news and knowledge of our latest open source developments, like GeoExt, to the rest of the open source geospatial community.

We want to make it as easy as possible for anyone to download and try out the OpenGeo Suite. A few months ago, we put together a LiveDisk, a bootable DVD image containing all of the software preconfigured. However, we recognize that a sandbox environment like that is only worthwhile as a first step. “That looks great,” I’ve heard, “but how do I get it on my machine?”

To this end, we have started work on the OpenGeo Suite Installer. This is an integrated package that installs and configures the OpenGeo Suite on your system. It makes the process of evaluating our software easy, within the familiarity of your own system.

We have a preliminary release available for you to try. The package contains the following:

• GeoServer (plus documentation)
• GeoServer Data Importer (an automated shapefile importer)
• GeoExplorer (plus documentation)
• Getting Started Guide

We have lots of plans for this project in the very near future, including integrated plugin support for GeoServer, GeoBuilder (which will combine graphical styling, map composition, and map export all in one), PostGIS support, and much else. Currently, the OpenGeo Suite installer is available for Windows only, but we anticipate adding support for other operating systems soon.

Give it a try, and let us know what you think.

By now you might have heard the buzz about the OpenGeo Suite, OpenGeo’s newest product offering that we unveiled at this year’s Where 2.0 Conference. Now we’re sure you’re looking for the details…

OpenGeo has an open pricing structure, and clients are encouraged to tailor their support hours to meet their unique needs. Every client gets access to core developers of each component of the OpenGeo Suite. OpenGeo has committers on all the projects it supports, ensuring that bugs will get fixed quickly – usually on the order of days or hours instead of weeks or years.

Take a look at the full press release for more.

You’ll see that OpenGeo has a shiny new Press Center - we’ll be using this space to keep the world updated on the happenings at OpenGeo, so check back to learn about what we’ve been up to.