The Wonderful World of Open Source Geo

Tales from Topographic Maps

Just van den Broecke
just[AT]justobjects.nl
www.justobjects.nl

Idiom

• GIS - Geographic Information System; captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data linked to location
• GeoSpatial - combination of spatial software and analytical methods with terrestrial or geographic datasets
• GFOSS/GeoFOSS - Geospatial Free and Open Source Software
• FOSS4G - annual Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference (Sydney 2009)

Open

• Open Standards
• Open Source
• Open Data
• Open Process

Geo FOSS Compass

To get you started

• Open Standards
  • Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
    "The W3C of GFOSS"
  • standards like: Web Mapping Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS)
• Open Source
  • Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO)
    "The Apache Foundation" of GFOSS
• Open Data
  • example: OpenStreetMap

Q: how does Google Maps/Earth fit in ?

Raster is Faster - Vector is Correcter

Raster Data through WMS

    http://server.com/wms?service=WMS&request=GetMap&
      layers=top25&
      bbox=82967,452830,84203,454168&
      width=508&height=550&
      srs=EPSG:28992&format=image/jpeg
    

Vector Data through WFS

  http://server.com/wfs?service=WFS&request=GetFeature&
    typeName=hockeyclubs&
    featureid=hockeyclubs.85
    

How it fits together

OpenGeo Stack - "The LAMP of GFOSS"

(From OpenGeo)

Time to get Hands Dirty

The OpenGeo Stack in Action

1. Obtaining Data (The Web)
2. Converting Data (GPSBabel, GDAL, PROJ, PostGIS)
3. Managing Data (GeoServer)
4. Visualization (OpenLayers, QGIS)
5. Optimization (GeoWebCache)

Demo Setup

OpenGeo Stack - Learning

Further Reading

Conclusions

• Almost unlimited possibilities with GFOSS
• Interoperability
  • Open Standards
  • project integrations like GeoServer+GeoWebcache
  • enabler: "Solve your own problems"
• Quality: peer review, etc
• Support: active communities
• Development priorities driven by end-user needs
• Business: e.g OpenGeo

Why ?