Zachary,
I think this is a good idea and i'd suggest you take a look at OSSIM
http://www.ossim.org which is more focused on photogrammetry and
remote sensing. It already performs orthorectification, precision
terrain correction, map projection/datum shifts, and supports several
rigorous camera models. OSSIM is an OSGeo project, but is not as
well known as some of the online mapping tools due to its more
scientific orientation and corresponding learning curve. OSSIM would
certainly benefit from additional capabilities in some of these areas
and educational materials.
Contact me directly if you are interested in finding out more.
Mark Lucas
I think a chapter in New Mexico focused on the technologies that you
have defined would be an asset to the overall OSGeo effort.
On Feb 4, 2007, at 7:11 PM, Zachary L. Stauber wrote:
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Hi All,
Some of us down here in New Mexico (or up depending on your
orientation) want
to start a local chapter. I've started a wiki here listing some
info on us.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/New_Mexico
Anyone think it's a great idea?
A bad idea?
Too small of an area?
Too big?
Just right?
Before you answer let me go into a little bit of why we need a
chapter. I work
for a private engineering firm that does photogrammetry that does a
high volume
of orthophotos plus I teach photogrammetry part time at the local
tech-voc
institute where we can't afford the usual software. I'd like to
see the
software cheaper (specifically, free) and developers pay more
attention to bug
fixes and so on, which open source usually does. So I need a
vehicle for
starting up photogrammetry in open source, and rather that
duplicating efforts,
we figured we'd join OSGeo. My co-worker John Nipper is a
programmer with
experience in programming for aerial cameras and LiDAR sensors and
wants to
help. But we also need to be able to solicit help from experts in
the field,
professors of photogrammetry and surveying, mathematics, etc., and
open source
is the only neutral ground on which we can easily work together.
My colleague and chair of the GIT program at the tech-voc school
Amy Ballard
wants to offer a class just on open source software. She believes
it's taking
off and will is useful in real jobs around New Mexico, and she
wants to
encourage its further use.
R. Cliff Wilkie, geodetic surveyor for the City of Albuquerque,
wants to offer
users some shifting and reprojection software for surveyors to
manipulate their
points that operates transparently and has a good manual or
explanation of the
mechanics internally so people know what's happening to their data,
for people
like him to whom 1mm is a significant error.
Karl Benedict is hosting the server. He's the senior research
analyst and IT
manager for the University of New Mexico's Earth Data Analysis
Center. He's
been 100% open source for years now, big user of the usual suspects
(MapServer,
Linux, SOAP, and so on), and is all for encouraging their use in
the GIS
community in New Mexico.
I think we have a unique setup here, not only having people from
all three
communities (private, government, and academic) but most important
working in
some fields that are somewhat esoteric. GoogleEarth has millions
of users, and
with it things like MapServer. Desktop GIS has tens of thousands
around the
world, but photogrammetry and high accuracy geodesy, probably only
several
hundred. So there are a lot of things being developed in the high
volume areas
of open source that get a lot of attention, and the esoteric ones
don't so much,
which is too bad because the commercial software available suffers
in quality
from the same dynamic. There are only a dozen photogrammetry
packages out there
compared to scores of desktop GIS, and most of them are flirting
with a price
around US$20,000 per component, per license.
The US National Geodetic Survey provides some tools for datum
shifts and
reprojecdtions like CorpsCon, but they are US-centric, and the
development is
controlled by a body which is not funded as well as it should be
considering
it's the foundation on which all geographic data is collected.
Some software is
still DOS-only.
We need to be part of OSGeo so development can make sure the
intellectual
property rests in the public domain and the development is still
controlled by a
long-lived body devoted to the task like OSGeo rather than the US
federal
government or any private business. They can donate money and
their peoples'
time to us, grants, etc., but development that goes into a private
box is
notoriously cumbersome to update, doesn't have a wide range of
users to test it,
and has a habit of dying off.
-Zack Stauber
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