Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Test polygons from "About Invalid, Valid and Clean Polygons"

[Paul Ramsey]

What’s the publication date on this? The PostGIS results are wrong, at least in 
that they only show the input validation (PostGIS will accept almost any WKT 
input, with the exception of unclosed rings) and not ST_IsValid validation.

P.

On Oct 25, 2013, at 5:47 PM, Mateusz Loskot  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> In the paper "About Invalid, Valid and Clean Polygons" [1], on page 11,
> there is a collection of test polygons used by the authors.
> 
> Does anyone happen to know where can I find a complete dataset or
> a form of data definition (WKT, GML, etc.)  with those test polygons?
> 
> [1] 
> http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9783540226109-c1.pdf
> 
> Best regards,
> -- 
> Mateusz  Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Proposed process for selecting OSGeo charter members

[Paul Ramsey]

http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership
http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership/dues

Both simpler, and better for the bottom line of OSGeo, if you want to
be a member, sign up as a member, collect your t-shirt, see you @
foss4g.

P.

On Thu, Jun 19, 2014 at 10:28 AM, Dimitris Kotzinos  wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> some thoughts on the proposed changes on the Charter Member election
> process.
> I will divide my comments into two parts, first some issues about the
> process itself and then some comments on the proposed changes.
>
> (A) the process per se:
> 1/ I think that whatever change in the election process should be validated
> by the Charter Members themselves, so I fully agree with Arnulf that we need
> to vote on that and not just the Board. And of course this contains no
> offense for the Board; it is just that I think that it is fair that the body
> who is affected by the changes to take the decisions.
> Moreover the charter members are the ones who elect the Board so it seems
> quite awkward to me that the smaller governing body will take such decision.
> 2/ I think that whatever decision taken should be enforced in next year's
> elections; members need some time to evaluate that. So it is good to
> conclude this process now but enforce it from next year.
>
> (B) the proposed changes:
> Before discussing the proposed changes I think that we should understand
> where the current system has failed. Do we have cases where recognized
> community leaders failed to be elected? If so please bring them forward. I
> doubt so though since if I recall correctly the last two years all charter
> member nominations were accepted without voting! Moreover the notion of a
> "recognized community leader" that cannot be elected as a charter member is
> a contradiction by itself. So why change?
> I am not against the idea of having some people becoming OSGEO Charter
> Members ex officio but for one I do not like the idea of having members of
> different categories and secondly I need to have a look at the data: how
> many of the committee chairs, PSC members, official Chapter chairs are not
> already OSGEO Charter members (and they wanted to be and failed)? Why are
> they not nominated to become ones and to be voted?
> And I don't see how the problem described here:
> "In previous years the Charter Member selection process has been a little
> contentious. We typically receive numerous nominations from high caliber
> members of our community, and insufficient positions to accept them all.
> This typically results in unnecessary disappointment and dissent."
> will be resolved: again we will have some people not becoming Charter
> Members if the seats are not enough. So some of us will still be
> disappointed, etc. So if the numbers are the same the only difference I see
> is that now we choose beforehand whom to disappoint and people working in
> the community but in not "official" positions will have less chances to be
> elected.
> If we want to open up the numbers, this is OK, more seats are offered every
> year anyway. But what else?
> And of course the first come first served approach if the recognized
> community leaders are more than the seats is a bit odd: to lighten up the
> discussion I cannot imagine people with the finger on the mouse waiting for
> the process to open in order to submit there nominations.
> Finally, for the voting process I completely disagree with the ability of a
> member to vote multiple times for the same person. This removes from the
> process the requirement of someone to be widely recognized within the
> community and potentially allows "a couple of friends" to elect whoever they
> want.
>
> I think that the discussion is interesting and thanks to the board and
> Arnulf :) for initiating it!
> I think that other solutions could also be considered if we feel that we
> need to differentiate on how charter members get elected, e.g. agree on a
> bonus percentage that a "community leader" gets when he goes through the
> standard process, so he still has to be voted by many...
>
> I apologize for the length of the e-mail and thanks for listening,
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dimitris Kotzinos
>
>
>
>
>>
>> Within 2 weeks we intend to start our annual process for selecting new
>> OSGeo charter members.
>>
>> In previous years the Charter Member selection process has been a little
>> contentious. We typically receive numerous nominations from high caliber
>> members of our community, and insufficient positions to accept them all.
>> This typically results in unnecessary disappointment and dissent.
>>
>> In response, the OSGeo board has agreed to trial tweaking the voting
>> process. The aim is to automatically accept recognised OSGeo community
>> leaders, while continuing with our existing process which attracts the
>> many valuable community members who contribute in other ways. Community
>> comments are encouraged, and will be considered over the next week.
>>
>> *Design

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Proposed process for selecting OSGeo charter members

[Paul Ramsey]

AAG has a sliding income scale, no reason something like that, or a
"hamburger index" multiplier, can't be used to fix that up.

http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index

P.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 7:25 AM, Bart van den Eijnden  wrote:
> Good food for thought Howard, can’t say I disagree with anything you say here.
>
> The only thing we need to consider is that for some countries 50 or 70 USD 
> can still be a lot of money.
>
> Best regards,
> Bart
>
> On 23 Jun 2014, at 16:12, Howard Butler  wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jun 20, 2014, at 7:38 AM, Cameron Shorter  
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Paul, Dimitris and Peter for your thoughts.
>>>
>>> Comments inline.
>>>
>>> On 20/06/2014 4:31 am, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>>>> http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership
>>>> http://www.aag.org/cs/membership/individual_membership/dues
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Both simpler, and better for the bottom line of OSGeo, if you want to
>>>> be a member, sign up as a member, collect your t-shirt, see you @
>>>> foss4g.
>>>>
>>> Yes Paul, "pay for membership" is simple, but I'd argue that the value of 
>>> OSGeo and OSGeo communities is the volunteer time we contribute, and "pay 
>>> membership" wouldn't capture that.
>>
>> This property is the nature of a professional organization, which in my 
>> opinion, OSGeo clearly is. There are a number of strong reasons why small 
>> annual fees for membership are very attractive. The first is there's no 
>> struggling with members who've dropped off, haven't voted, are no longer 
>> participating. Second, anyone who wants to associate themselves can simply 
>> do so by paying dues. Finally, a consistent, if small, operating revenue.
>>
>> The voting process has been an ad-hoc affair since the beginnings of the 
>> organization. Every year it the rules are tweaked. Every year members who've 
>> dropped off need to be nagged. Every year we end up just taking everyone 
>> who's nominated anyway. It's a lot of overhead and volunteer cost for very 
>> little gain.
>>
>> It is certain there are people who wish to be professionally associated with 
>> OSGeo who are unable to become members because they haven't generated enough 
>> public profile to be nominated. You can't nominate yourself. It's a chicken 
>> and egg problem that simply dissolves with paid-but-small membership dues.
>>
>> OSGeo's main revenue stream is the FOSS4G conference. It is an event run on 
>> the backs of local chapter volunteers. Please correct me otherwise, but I do 
>> not think any local chapter who has hosted FOSS4G has ever put in a proposal 
>> to host it again. This well may eventually run dry. Or, it may run dry for a 
>> year or two. 80-100k/year (~$50-70/year * 1500 persons) of membership dues 
>> is plenty to keep the lights on through droughts and still allow the 
>> organization to move forward.
>>
>> At the inception of the organization, a driving factor toward our current 
>> membership structure is because OSGeo is a volunteer organization, it 
>> shouldn't require members to pay money. I think this is misguided. Every 
>> other professional organization of which I'm a member requires membership 
>> dues. As an IRS classification, a professional organization has a clear path 
>> forward.
>>
>> I am a professional open source Geo/GIS software developer. I want to belong 
>> to a professional organization that represents me. I would be happy to pay 
>> some nominal membership dues that a) signify my membership, b) provide 
>> financial buffer for the organization to achieve its mission, and 3) clearly 
>> signal what the rules are to become a member.
>>
>> My $0.02.
>>
>> Howard
>>
>>
>> ___
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G Organizing

[Paul Ramsey]

I have two contradictory positions wrt LocationTech and event organizing, and 
I’ll start with this one, since it’s easier: as long as the organizations are 
separate, I think that OSGeo should maintain its own brand and use a 
professional organizer that is 100% dedicated to OSGeo without any conflicts of 
interest, perceived or otherwise.

There are a number of places to start in finding such a corporate partner for 
event planning. An obvious thing to do would be to look at other successful 
international technology events in our space and who organizes them.

 
http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/organizers/conference_organizer_contacts.html
 https://us.pycon.org/2014/about/staff/
 http://events.linuxfoundation.org/#event-services

If nothing else, folks at those organizations could refer us to other companies 
we may not have heard to so we could run a real competition for our business.

Since getting involved in a commercial relationship like this is a big, 
existential decision for the organization, I think it falls to the board to 
decide

(a) if moving to a single professional event organizer for all major foss4g 
events (international, na, eu) is warranted
(b) if so, assigning a small team to speak with the alternatives, and bring a 
concrete decision in the form of a recommended company and contract terms to 
the board

It is important to get a decision on (a) as quickly as possible, as the venue 
decision for 2016 will have to be made and which organizing principle it falls 
under is important to establish sooner than later.

P.

-- 
Paul Ramsey
http://cleverelephant.ca
http://postgis.net___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Call for Interest: PostGIS day in DC

[Paul Ramsey]

Hey all,
I'm thinking about organizing a PostGIS day (Nov 20) in Washington DC,
and I'm looking for folks who would be willing to present about (a)
their use of PostGIS or (b) the amazing insane magic they do with
PostGIS. We'd host in the spacious Boundless office, likely, and
probably do an afternoon/evening time frame.
Could you drop me a line if you'd be interested in presenting? (attending?)
Thanks!
P
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] [Ica-osgeo-labs] The LAS format, the ASPRS, and the “LAZ clone” by ESRI

[Paul Ramsey]

Carl,

No, it doesn't really clarify it. I think what people are wondering is
"does OGC have a default mission and position that closed formats are
bad for the industry and would it publicly admonish a member who took
actions that ran counter to that position".  I assume that, as a
"member driven organization" whose membership includes the offender,
the OGC will not be standing up and publicly saying "this company is
contravening the spirit of our organization and mission, that it is
supposedly supportive of".

Am I incorrect?

WRT to OSGeo, I think that black letter cases like this come along
infrequently enough that it would not be at all inappropriate for
OSGeo to publicly state what is wrong with the direction being taken
in the world of LAS formats. The only trouble is, it's exactly what
everyone expects we would do, and therefore will be greeted with a
collective yawn. But it is the right thing, so we should still do it.

ATB,

P.




On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 8:23 AM, Carl Reed  wrote:
> All -
>
> The OGC is not currently involved in activities related to defining or
> maintaining LIDAR specific modeling and related encoding standards. Any work
> the OGC has been doing WRT LIDAR is within the context of processing,
> visualization, and analytics. Obviously, existing OGC standards such as WCS
> and GMLJP2 can be used to encode and share small, processed LIDAR data sets.
> Feel free to check OGC email archives, project pages, and so forth for
> documentation on any ongoing discussions in the OGC related to LIDAR.
>
> http://www.opengeospatial.org/pub/www/ows9/innovations.html : The thread
> participants looked at NITF, LIDAR, and DAP/OPeNDAP, and investigated their
> re-implementation in an OWS environment with a focus on the Web.
>
> or
>
> http://koenigstuhl.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/publications/bonn/conference/LanigGeoinformatik09.pdf
>
> for examples.
>
> Hope this clarifies the current OGC position.
>
> Regards
>
> Carl
>
>
> -Original Message- From: Suchith Anand
> Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 4:20 AM
> To: Cameron Shorter ; P Kishor ; Suchith Anand
> Cc: discuss@lists.osgeo.org ; Hogan, Patrick(ARC-PX) ; bo...@lists.osgeo.org
> ; ica-osgeo-l...@lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Board] [OSGeo-Discuss] [Ica-osgeo-labs] The LAS format, the
> ASPRS, and the “LAZ clone” by ESRI
>
>
> Hi Cameron,
>
> Thank you for this excellent suggestion. I remember this previous
> Geoservices REST API issues and discussions.
>
> Patrick - Could you please start a wiki page and input as much information
> as you know on this (ideally in the same structure as the Geoservices REST
> API wiki ). Once it is ready, please email the community and OSGeo Board and
> we all can look into this.
>
> Anyone from OGC willing to help with this?
>
> I think this should be open letter from the OSGeo Board to the whole Geo
> community. I really hope this proprietary vendor (ESRI) will be decent
> enough to not keep repeating these inappropriate actions in the future.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
> 
> From: Cameron Shorter [cameron.shor...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 10:47 AM
> To: P Kishor; Suchith Anand
> Cc: discuss@lists.osgeo.org; Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX); bo...@lists.osgeo.org;
> ica-osgeo-l...@lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Ica-osgeo-labs] The LAS format, the ASPRS, and
> the “LAZ clone” by ESRI
>
> Patrick, others,
> OSGeo and related OGC communities have been successful previously in
> stopping ESRI's inappropriate creation of OGC standards. See here:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Geoservices_REST_API
>
> I'd suggest that if we as OSGeo wish to be effective at blocking a vendor
> lock-in tactic, as seems to be the case, then we should consider developing
> a similar wiki page for the LAS format debate.
>
> 0. Write an open letter (who to? OGC?)
> 1. Describe the issue. (Is there someone who knows the issues well enough to
> describe them?)
> 2. Describe technically why one format is or is not better than the other,
> on both a technical and commercial point of view.
> 3. Is the Open LIDAR format an OGC standard?
> 4. If needed, collect signatures.
> 5. If needed, ask OSGeo Board to present the open letter
>
> On 28/02/2015 11:18 am, P Kishor wrote:
> Thanks Patrick for surfacing this. Yes, this should be opened up for
> scrutiny by the entire community and we should all weigh in.
>
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 4:13 PM, Suchith Anand
> mailto:suchith.an...@nottingham.ac.uk>>
> wrote:
> Hi Patrick,
>
> Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I believe the OSGeo Board need to
> look into this and prepare a position paper with inputs from the community
> as this has wider implications. This also need to be discussed with like
> minded organisations. We all can provide the needed support for this.
>
> Jeff and OSGeo Board - please add this to the next month Board meeting's
> agenda items. Thanks.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
>
> ___

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Renaming FOSS4G

[Paul Ramsey]

On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:12 AM, Barry Rowlingson
 wrote:
> Okay, this is probably sticking a match under a pile of dry wood but
> here goes...
>
> Can we rename The FOSS4G Conference to The OSGeo Conference?

Get off my lawn.

https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2006-September/30.html

So weary,
P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4GNA - Someone is watching you :-o

[Paul Ramsey]

Agree w/ Daniel in all ways. We want our events to succeed, no? So we
use marketing techniques to do so. Emails and so on. And we track who
opens them so we can get better at marketing. Like any other business
trying to succeed. Mail chimp is currently convenient, in the past
other technologies were convenient (I spammed people in 2007 using a
custom perl script, because I am a God Among Men), in the future
different technologies will be convenient. But they are all going
towards making a good event.

Naturally the first targets of marketing the event will be people who
have attended past events under the same/similar umbrella. I provided
the 2007 attendance list to foss4g events for a number of years until
it had grown entirely stale. I felt good about it. I revelled in the
goodness of it.

I have spammed. I will spam again, in the service of a good cause.
That is my weakness. That is my strength.

P.



On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 7:20 AM, Daniel Morissette
 wrote:
> On 2015-12-16 10:00 AM, Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:
>>
>> On 2015/12/16 18:37, Pat Tressel wrote:
>>>
>>> MailChimp is a very popular product. If you have a provable accusation
>>> against them -- that they were acting **independently of the account
>>> administrator** to alter lists, then that would be significant. As Rob
>>> has stated, MailChimp did not do something by itself. The list was
>>> aggregated from previous lists and events in which people participated.
>>
>>
>> I have also received a similar unsolicited mail. I would like to know
>> who has authorized
>> the aggregation and usage of email address from "previous lists and
>> events in which
>> people participated". I think every event has a privacy policy and
>> e-mail address provided
>> are only to be used for communicating about the specific event and not
>> for aggregating for
>> future use.
>>
>
>
> For the record, the use of such mailing services for FOSS4G promotion is not
> new. Even FOSS4G 2015 (Seoul) used MailChimp in a very similar way, I still
> have some of their mails in my archives, and I'm sure other past events did
> as well but I didn't bother digging any further.
>
> How can you realistically expect to do outreach to new people if you only
> announce your event on osgeo-discuss?
>
> This anti-anything-locationtech-does drama is becoming boring, please let's
> get over it.
>
> --
> Daniel Morissette
> http://www.mapgears.com/
> T: +1 418-696-5056 #201
>
> http://evouala.com/ - Location Intelligence Made Easy
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] how did the paris code sprint go

[Paul Ramsey]

Here's mine

http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2016/03/paris-code-sprint-postgis-recap.html

On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Jody Garnett  wrote:
> Taking this out to a seperate email thread - several projects had a plan
> going in, how did it go?
>
> PostGIS Agenda
> SFCGAL Agenda
> OTB Agenda
> GDAL Agenda
> GRASS GIS Agenda
> MapServer Agenda
> Point Cloud Agenda
> iTowns Agenda
>
> Oliver has gathered blog posts and feedback from participants on the wiki.
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] PostGIS 2.2.2 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

http://postgis.net/2016/03/22/postgis-2.2.2/

With some fixes for correctness in some features, a handful of
crashing cases, and with some important updates for upgrade cases,
from 2.1 and to 2.3, as well as for users with raster data restore
issues (read the linked docs for more information on those!)

  - #3463, Fix crash on face-collapsing edge change
  - #3422, Improve ST_Split robustness on standard precision double
   systems (arm64, ppc64el, s390c, powerpc, ...)
  - #3427, Update spatial_ref_sys to EPSG version 8.8
  - #3433, ST_ClusterIntersecting incorrect for MultiPoints
  - #3435, ST_AsX3D fix rendering of concave geometries
  - #3436, memory handling mistake in ptarray_clone_deep
  - #3437, ST_Intersects incorrect for MultiPoints
  - #3461, ST_GeomFromKML crashes Postgres when there are
   innerBoundaryIs and no outerBoundaryIs
  - #3429, upgrading to 2.3 or from 2.1 can cause loop/hang on some
   platforms
  - #3460, ST_ClusterWithin 'Tolerance not defined' error after upgrade
  - #3490, Raster data restore issues, materialized views
Scripts postgis_proc_set_search_path.sql, rtpostgis_proc_set_search_path.sql
refere to 
http://postgis.net/docs/manual-2.2/RT_FAQ.html#faq_raster_data_not_restore
  - #3426, failing POINT EMPTY tests on fun architectures
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Sol Katz Award - Call for Nominations

[Paul Ramsey]

I'd like to nominate Sean Gillies, who

https://github.com/sgillies

- has brought spatial-with-pythonic-principles to the masses of python
users via the popular shapely and rasterio libraries
- had a hand in the birthing and nurturing of the geojson format, including
its recent entry into the IETF
- was an early articulator of rest principles for geospatial and an
important contributor to thinking in that area
- continues to chug away at bringing more spatial smarts into the world of
pythonistas

And if that's not enough, support his nomination just for the lulz.

P.


On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 4:05 PM, Venkatesh Raghavan <
ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to open nominations
> for the 2016 Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source
> Software.
>
> The Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software
> (GFOSS) will be given to individuals who have demonstrated leadership
> in the GFOSS community. Recipients of the award will have contributed
> significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals
> in the geospatial realm.
>
> Sol Katz was an early pioneer of GFOSS and left behind a large body of
> work in the form of applications, format specifications, and utilities
> while at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. This early GFOSS archive
> provided both source code and applications freely available to the
> community. Sol was also a frequent contributor to many geospatial list
> servers, providing much guidance to the geospatial community at large.
>
> Sol unfortunately passed away in 1999 from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but
> his legacy lives on in the open source world. Those interested in
> making a donation to the American Cancer Society, as per Sol's
> family's request, can do so at https://donate.cancer.org/index.
>
> Nominations for the Sol Katz Award should be sent to
> solkatzaw...@osgeo.org with a description of the reasons for this
> nomination. Nominations will be accepted until 23:59 UTC on August
> 4th
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=8&day=4&year=2016&hour=23&min=59&sec=59
> .
>
> A recipient will be decided from the nomination list by the OSGeo
> selection committee.
>
> The winner of the Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source
> Software will be announced at the FOSS4G-Bonn event in August. The
> hope is that the award will both acknowledge the work of community
> members, and pay tribute to one of its founders, for years to come.
>
> It should be noted that past awardees and selection committee members
> are not eligible.
>
> More info at the Sol Katz Award wiki page
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Sol_Katz_Award
>
> Past Awardees:
>
>- 2015: Maria Brovelli
>- 2014: Gary Sherman
>- 2013: Arnulf Christl
>- 2012: Venkatesh Raghavan
>- 2011: Martin Davis
>- 2010: Helena Mitasova
>- 2009: Daniel Morissette
>- 2008: Paul Ramsey
>    - 2007: Steve Lime
>- 2006: Markus Neteler
>- 2005: Frank Warmerdam
>
> Selection Committee 2016
>
>- Venkatesh Raghavan (chair)
>- Frank Warmerdam
>- Markus Neteler
>- Steve Lime
>- Paul Ramsey
>- Sophia Parafina
>- Daniel Morissette
>- Helena Mitasova
>- Martin Davis
>- Arnulf Christl
>- Gary Sherman
>- Maria Brovelli
>
> Best
>
> Venka
>
>
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Sol Katz Award - Call for Nominations

[Paul Ramsey]

I'd like to nominate Vladimir Agafonkin, who

https://github.com/mourner

- birthed the most popular open source Javascript interface for mapping,
which has been a gateway drug for javascript and web UI folks around the
internet
- continues to add important javascript geospatial pieces to the open
source world, like the rbush, the simpleheat, and many other small and
useful utilities that people assemble into their solutions in the open
source tradition
- has become a spokes-person for doing lightweight spatial and simple web
development patterns as a means to solving spatial access problems
- killed the chorus in "we're up all night to get mappy" in Nottingham

A community member already with a huge record of contribution and seemingly
no end in sight!

P.


On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 4:05 PM, Venkatesh Raghavan <
ragha...@media.osaka-cu.ac.jp> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> The Open Source Geospatial Foundation would like to open nominations
> for the 2016 Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source
> Software.
>
> The Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software
> (GFOSS) will be given to individuals who have demonstrated leadership
> in the GFOSS community. Recipients of the award will have contributed
> significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals
> in the geospatial realm.
>
> Sol Katz was an early pioneer of GFOSS and left behind a large body of
> work in the form of applications, format specifications, and utilities
> while at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. This early GFOSS archive
> provided both source code and applications freely available to the
> community. Sol was also a frequent contributor to many geospatial list
> servers, providing much guidance to the geospatial community at large.
>
> Sol unfortunately passed away in 1999 from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but
> his legacy lives on in the open source world. Those interested in
> making a donation to the American Cancer Society, as per Sol's
> family's request, can do so at https://donate.cancer.org/index.
>
> Nominations for the Sol Katz Award should be sent to
> solkatzaw...@osgeo.org with a description of the reasons for this
> nomination. Nominations will be accepted until 23:59 UTC on August
> 4th
> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=8&day=4&year=2016&hour=23&min=59&sec=59
> .
>
> A recipient will be decided from the nomination list by the OSGeo
> selection committee.
>
> The winner of the Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source
> Software will be announced at the FOSS4G-Bonn event in August. The
> hope is that the award will both acknowledge the work of community
> members, and pay tribute to one of its founders, for years to come.
>
> It should be noted that past awardees and selection committee members
> are not eligible.
>
> More info at the Sol Katz Award wiki page
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Sol_Katz_Award
>
> Past Awardees:
>
>- 2015: Maria Brovelli
>- 2014: Gary Sherman
>- 2013: Arnulf Christl
>- 2012: Venkatesh Raghavan
>- 2011: Martin Davis
>- 2010: Helena Mitasova
>- 2009: Daniel Morissette
>- 2008: Paul Ramsey
>- 2007: Steve Lime
>- 2006: Markus Neteler
>- 2005: Frank Warmerdam
>
> Selection Committee 2016
>
>- Venkatesh Raghavan (chair)
>- Frank Warmerdam
>- Markus Neteler
>- Steve Lime
>- Paul Ramsey
>- Sophia Parafina
>- Daniel Morissette
>- Helena Mitasova
>- Martin Davis
>- Arnulf Christl
>- Gary Sherman
>- Maria Brovelli
>
> Best
>
> Venka
>
>
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2020 Early Paper Deadline is Feb 4!

[Paul Ramsey]

FOSS4G 2020 will be in Calgary, Canada this year, from August 24-29. 
It seems so far away, and yet, the first submission deadline is almost here…

  https://2020.foss4g.org/early-acceptance/

If you submit your talk to the Call for Papers before February 4,  
you will be eligible for Early Acceptance!

  https://2020.foss4g.org/speakers/

Why submit early? We hope early acceptance will help speakers begin 
planning their conference experience earlier, with the certainty 
that you'll be an accepted speaker. Early acceptance also helps 
us build out the program and communicate the value of FOSS4G 
to new attendees.

Help yourself, help us, submit your talk early!
Thanks for your help, 
We're looking forward to seeing you all in August,
Paul and the FOSS4G 2020 program committee
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] GEOS 3.9.0 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

The GEOS community is pleased to announce the 3.9 release of the GEOS
computational geometry library. 

http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.9.0.tar.bz2

The headline feature of 3.9 is the new overlay engine, which is also new 
to JTS. Intersection, union, difference and symdifference all use this
new engine, which provides more robust results than the old engine. 
This should dramatically reduce and hopefully eliminate topology exceptions
when used with valid inputs.

We have continued to work on performance at the C++ implementation
level, and in general hope to demonstrate faster operation for most 
uses.

- New things:
  - OverlayNG engine from JTS, now the default (Martin Davis, Paul Ramsey)
  - MaximumInscribedCircle and LargestEmptyCircle (JTS-530, Paul Ramsey)
  - CAPI: Fixed precision overlay operations (Sandro Santilli)
  - CAPI: GEOSPreparedNearestPoints (#1007, Sandro Santilli)
  - CAPI: GEOSPreparedDistance (#1066, Sandro Santilli)
  - CAPI: GEOSGeom_setPrecision uses OverlayNG (Paul Ramsey)
  - SimpleSTRTree spatial index implementation (Paul Ramsey)
  - Add support for pkg-config for GEOS C API (#1073, Mike Taves)

- Improvements:
  - Stack allocate segments in OverlapUnion (Paul Ramsey)
  - Improve performance of GEOSisValid (Dan Baston)
  - Update geos-config tool for consistency
and escape paths (https://git.osgeo.org/gitea/geos/geos/pulls/99)
changes mostly affect CMake MSVC builds (#1015, Mike Taves)
  - Testing on Rasberry Pi 32-bit (berrie) (#1017, Bruce Rindahl, Regina Obe)
  - Replace ttmath with JTS DD double-double implementation (Paul Ramsey)
  - Fix bug in DistanceOp for geometries with empty components (#1026, Paul 
Ramsey)
  - Remove undefined behaviour in CAPI (#1021, Greg Troxel)
  - Fix buffering issue (#1022, JTS-525, Paul Ramsey)
  - MinimumBoundingCircle.getMaximumDiameter fix (JTS-533, Paul Ramsey)

- Changes:
  - Drop SWIG bindings, including for Ruby and Python (#1076, Mike Taves)


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] PostGIS 3.1.0 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

The PostGIS Team is pleased to release the release [0] of PostGIS 3.1.0!

This version exposes the new features of GEOS 3.9 [1] as well as numerous core 
performance enhancements for spatial joins, large object access, text format 
output and more.

Performance [2] is a key feature of this release, with improvements to spatial 
joins, text outputs [3], large object reads [4], vector tile output [5], and a 
host of smaller tweaks.

The k-means clustering [6] code has been enhanced to support weighting and 
higher dimensional clusters.

Geometry generators to create hexagonal and square tilings [7] have been added, 
for simpler in-the-database summarization queries.

Finally, PostGIS exposes the latest enhancements [8] in the GEOS geometry 
library 3.9 version. The new overlay engine (aka “OverlayNG” [9]) provides more 
robust [10] handling of difficult input geometries, using a set of new noding 
strategies [11] to process geometry. For the end user, this should mean no more 
“topology exceptions” when using the union, difference, intersection or 
symmetric difference functions. PostGIS also exposes the new fixed precision 
overlay capability via an additional grid-size parameter on ST_Intersection 
[12] and the other overlay functions.

Details of this release can be found in the NEWS file:

  https://git.osgeo.org/gitea/postgis/postgis/src/tag/3.1.0/NEWS

To everyone who helped out in testing and developing this release, we extent 
our wholehearted thanks!

Yours,
The PostGIS Team



[0] https://postgis.net/2020/12/18/postgis-3.1.0/
[1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geos-devel/2020-December/010003.html
[2] http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2020/12/waiting-postgis-31-1.html
[3] https://rmr.ninja/2020-12-06-waiting-for-postgis-3-1-output/
[4] https://rmr.ninja/2020-12-14-waiting-for-postgis-3-1-large_geometries/
[5] https://rmr.ninja/2020-11-19-waiting-for-postgis-3-1-mvt/
[6] https://postgis.net/docs/ST_ClusterKMeans.html
[7] http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2020/12/waiting-postgis-31-2.html
[8] http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2020/12/waiting-postgis-31-3.html
[9] 
https://lin-ear-th-inking.blogspot.com/2020/10/overlayng-lands-in-jts-master.html
[10] 
https://lin-ear-th-inking.blogspot.com/2020/06/jts-overlayng-tolerant-topology.html
[11] 
https://lin-ear-th-inking.blogspot.com/2020/06/jts-overlayng-noding-strategies.html
[12] http://postgis.net/docs/manual-dev/ST_Intersection.html


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] PostGIS 3.1.1 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

PostGIS 3.1.1 is a minor bugfix release, covering some critical issues in 3.1.0.

https://postgis.net/2021/01/28/postgis-3.1.1/

  - #4814, Crash passing collection with only empty components to ST_MakeValid
  - #4818, Make the VSICURL synthetic driver work as documented
  - #4825, Unstable results from ST_MakeValid
  - #4823, Avoid listing the same geometry in different collections


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] GEOS 3.9.1 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

The latest GEOS release is a bug fix release, which is highly recommended, as 
it fixes a bug that effects correct results of a small subset of Intersection() 
calculations. [1]

http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.9.1.tar.bz2

- Bug fixes / improvements:
  - Windows memory management quirk in createPolygon CAPI (#1050, Paul Ramsey)
  - Allow build on Apple ARM64 (Taras Zakharko)
  - Fix buffer to use largest enclosed area for invalid rings (#732, Paul 
Ramsey)
  - Preserve ordering of lines in overlay results (Martin Davis)
  - Fix overlay handling of flat interior lines (JTS-685, Martin Davis)

[1] https://github.com/libgeos/geos/issues/408
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] GEOS 3.8.2 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

The latest stable release of the 3.8 series includes a number of fixes for 
crash cases, so worth immediate upgrade for anyone using the 3.8 series. 

http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.8.2.tar.bz2

Changes in 3.8.2
2021-04-10

- Bug fixes / improvements

  - Fix Voronoi polygons robustness issue (#976)
  - Fix segfault in SimplePointInAreaLocator caused by casting
MultiPolygon to Polygon (#1047, Oliver Tan)
  - DistanceOp against geometry with empty components
crashes (#1026, Paul Ramsey)
  - Fix buffer fillet (JTS-526, #743, Paul Ramsey)
  - Remove undefined behaviour in CAPI (#1021, Greg Troxel)
  - WKT writing of MULTIPOINT with EMPTY component crash (#1027, Paul Ramsey)
  - Fix buffering problem (#1022, JTS-525, Paul Ramsey)
  - Fix segfault in GEOSInterpolate against empty eollections (#1055,
Sandro Santilli)
  - Fix GEOSProjectNormalized return -1 on exception (#1058, Joris Van den 
Bossche)
  - Fix memory management quirk in CAPI (#1050, Paul Ramsey)
  - Allow build on Apple ARM64 (Taras Zakharko)
  - Fix crash in GEOSPreparedIntersects and GEOSPreparedContains for
POINT EMPTY input (Even Rouault)

Also note that the 3.9 series is compatible with 3.8 so if you have the 
opportunity to upgrade, you can take advantage of the many performance and 
reliability improvements in 3.9.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] GEOS 3.8.2 Released

[Paul Ramsey]

On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 2:38 PM Alexandre Neto 
wrote:

> Probably not the right place or topic to ask, but here it goes... Is there
> a formal LTR version for GEOS?
>

No, we can barely handle the formality around cutting releases without
getting all formal about "long term" versus other stuff. Mostly new
releases are new features and faster old features, and only occasionally is
there anything backwards changing (the 3.9 overlay had some minor behaviour
changes, but not enough to warrant a 4.0 release).


> Or the 3.8.2 patch is only happening because of all the brand new
> precision feature on 3.9.x?
>

No, we try to backport things that are back-portable, because we recognize
that distros sometimes peg versions, even though upgrading is usually a
safe bet. 3.8.2 is just because that branch had accumulated a lot of fixes
without a release.

P


>
> The reason I ask is that conda-forge will skip this patch because there's
> already an higher version available.
>
> I wouldn't mind creating and maintaining a LTR branch on GEOS feedstock
> (the conda forge recipe), so that other packages (like QGIS) can use it if
> necessary.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alexandre Neto
>
>
> A sábado, 10/04/2021, 19:25, Paul Ramsey 
> escreveu:
>
>> The latest stable release of the 3.8 series includes a number of fixes
>> for crash cases, so worth immediate upgrade for anyone using the 3.8
>> series.
>>
>> http://download.osgeo.org/geos/geos-3.8.2.tar.bz2
>>
>> Changes in 3.8.2
>> 2021-04-10
>>
>> - Bug fixes / improvements
>>
>>   - Fix Voronoi polygons robustness issue (#976)
>>   - Fix segfault in SimplePointInAreaLocator caused by casting
>> MultiPolygon to Polygon (#1047, Oliver Tan)
>>   - DistanceOp against geometry with empty components
>> crashes (#1026, Paul Ramsey)
>>   - Fix buffer fillet (JTS-526, #743, Paul Ramsey)
>>   - Remove undefined behaviour in CAPI (#1021, Greg Troxel)
>>   - WKT writing of MULTIPOINT with EMPTY component crash (#1027, Paul
>> Ramsey)
>>   - Fix buffering problem (#1022, JTS-525, Paul Ramsey)
>>   - Fix segfault in GEOSInterpolate against empty eollections (#1055,
>> Sandro Santilli)
>>   - Fix GEOSProjectNormalized return -1 on exception (#1058, Joris Van
>> den Bossche)
>>   - Fix memory management quirk in CAPI (#1050, Paul Ramsey)
>>   - Allow build on Apple ARM64 (Taras Zakharko)
>>   - Fix crash in GEOSPreparedIntersects and GEOSPreparedContains for
>> POINT EMPTY input (Even Rouault)
>>
>> Also note that the 3.9 series is compatible with 3.8 so if you have the
>> opportunity to upgrade, you can take advantage of the many performance and
>> reliability improvements in 3.9.
>> ___
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Google Summer of Code

[Paul Ramsey]

This program funded three students last year who worked on Geotools  
projects.


http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/02/speaking-of-summer.html

It does require some volunteer time to administer, however.

P
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Google Summer of Code

[Paul Ramsey]

Just to re-iterate, OSGeo would be an obvious and easy candidate to be a 
"mentoring organization" which could serve as an umbrella for SoC 
submissions on all sorts of open source spatial projects. I would 
volunteer to be the administrator (I did it last year when Refractions 
was a mentoring organization) but this year I have FOSS4G as a 
responsibility, so I cannot make more time.


OSGeo would have to provide

- 1 Administrator to handle all the organizational aspects and be a 
point of contact to the Google SoC administration

- N Mentors, one for each student project
-- Mentors must review the students work, provide them support and 
"getting started" help, and write up two short evaluations (mid- and final).


Presumably the mentors would arise naturally from projects proposing 
work items they want done and thereby also volunteering to oversee those 
items.


In return, OSGeo gets N students, working on their projects for four 
months, and $500 cash money per mentor, which can either be given to the 
mentor, or kept, depending on what policy osgeo wants to adopt.


Paul

Paul Ramsey wrote:
This program funded three students last year who worked on Geotools 
projects.


http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/02/speaking-of-summer.html

It does require some volunteer time to administer, however.



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Google Summer of Code

[Paul Ramsey]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:


Howard Butler is already doing some legwork to identify projects, and
students around GDAL but it hadn't occured to me to utilize OSGeo as the
mentoring organization.  If the different projects come up with a number
of projects a students is it likely to be disadvantagous to have them all
come from one organizations (OSGeo) as opposed to spread out as several
different organizations submitting requests?


You will need a sponsoring organization regardless, and if your 
organization is not accepted, the whole procedure becomes moot. Most 
"unknown" sponsors got the minimum three students last time. OSGeo, as 
an umbrella, nonprofit, multi-project, organization would probably get 
quite a few more. My feeling is that on balance the community would be 
better served using OSGeo as an umbrella rather than trying to go 
individually.  What is important is that a large number of top quality 
students do work in the community.


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Google Summer of Code

[Paul Ramsey]

Yes, but would be be willing to help out with *all* the administrative 
tasks :) that is, to be the official Administrator.


P

Landon Blake wrote:

I'd be willing to help out with some of the administrative tasks if the
OSGeo decided to take this on.

The Sunburned Surveyor

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Ramsey
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 12:06 PM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Google Summer of Code

Frank Warmerdam wrote:


Howard Butler is already doing some legwork to identify projects, and
students around GDAL but it hadn't occured to me to utilize OSGeo as

the

mentoring organization.  If the different projects come up with a

number

of projects a students is it likely to be disadvantagous to have them

all

come from one organizations (OSGeo) as opposed to spread out as

several

different organizations submitting requests?


You will need a sponsoring organization regardless, and if your 
organization is not accepted, the whole procedure becomes moot. Most 
"unknown" sponsors got the minimum three students last time. OSGeo, as 
an umbrella, nonprofit, multi-project, organization would probably get 
quite a few more. My feeling is that on balance the community would be 
better served using OSGeo as an umbrella rather than trying to go 
individually.  What is important is that a large number of top quality 
students do work in the community.





--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Google Summer of Code

[Paul Ramsey]

Landon Blake wrote:

Can you give me an idea of how much work would be involved?


Not that much work, but somewhat continuous attention. You need to be 
available when you are needed.  Main chunks of work are:


- At the start, get together the initial submission to be an organization.
- Get together good project ideas, weed out the bad ones, make sure that 
every idea has a committed mentor available, should it be proposed and 
accepted.

- Get together a mentor pool who will evaluate submissions.
- Answer questions from students during the student proposal phase.
- Whip mentors to do their evaluations.
- Once students are selected, ensure that people are happy and 
communicating on a regular basis.

- Whip mentors to do their midterm and final evaluations.

There are some good suggestions on screening project ideas and students 
from the Mentor Summit from last year.


http://www.red-bean.com/ospowiki/MentorSummit-2006



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [Geotools-devel] Google Summer of Code

[Paul Ramsey]

Jody Garnett wrote:

To be clear - this "idea list" is from the community to perspective 
students; what the students need to write up is considerably more 
detailed (and defined by the SoC process).


One of the things the SoC summit brought out was that ideas should be 
detailed enough to be clear about "requirements" but not so detailed as 
to lay out "design". If you can provide requirements, and ask the 
students to provide design and work plan in their proposals, you will be 
able to separate the wheat from the chafe. If you are too detailed in 
your descriptions you won't be able to tell regurgitators from people 
who have seriously studies the problem and needs.


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [postgis-users] Open Source GIS Gathering San Diego (OSG-SD) - June18th, 2007 at San Diego State University

[Paul Ramsey]

Thanks for the heads-up Dana,

We'll want to make sure to supply your meeting with a deck of invites to the 
Big 
Gathering (tm) :), FOSS4G 2007, as well as other goodies. I would like to be 
there myself, but will have a young baby to deal with at the time, so may have 
to settle for just sending software and tee-shirts.

Paul

Quoting dnrg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> Folks, save the datum.
> 
> We're tentatively planning a 2nd Annual Open Source
> GIS Gathering to be held on Monday, June 18th -
> probably starting early afternoon, ending late in the
> evening. The same Monday of the Plenary Session(s) of
> another famous GIS conference held in San Diego.
> 
> Don't be lost in space... San Diego State University's
> Visualization Lab is easy to find via trolley from the
> San Diego Convention Center area.
> 
> We filled the Lab in 2006, and arrangements are being
> made to accommodate more. Suggested ideas for this
> year include technical workshops and roundtable
> discussions.
> 
> If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in
> presenting on an open source GIS topic, or conducting
> a technical workshop, please contact Dana Nibby here:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> There's now a mailing list for OSG-SD 2007. If you
> think you may be interested in attending, please
> sign-up below:
> 
> http://lists.telascience.org/mailman/listinfo/osg-sd
> 
> Spread the word to the extent possible.
> 
> 
> Spatial Regards,
> 
> Dana
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


> It's here! Your new message!
> Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.
> http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/
> ___
> postgis-users mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
> 




___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Oracle has submitted this workshop proposal to the "Free and Open Source 
Software for Geospatial 2007 Conference".


This workshop describes how to use Oracle Database Express Edition (XE) 
and Oracle MapViewer to develop a simple yet powerful geospatial web 
application called “Geo Tags”. Documents (photos, pdf or word docs, 
video clips) are geo-tagged and stored in the database. MapViewer 
displays the locations referenced in the geo-tags and retrieves 
documents at, or within, a user specified location.


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Oracle has submitted this workshop proposal to the "Free and Open Source
Software for Geospatial 2007 Conference".

  Developing GeoSpatial applications for Oracle XE
  (the free Express Edition of the Oracle database).

  This workshop describes how to use Oracle Database
  Express Edition (XE) and Oracle MapViewer to develop a
  simple yet powerful geospatial web application called
  “Geo Tags”. Documents (photos, pdf or word docs,
  video clips) are geo-tagged and stored in the database.
  MapViewer displays the locations referenced in the
  geo-tags and retrieves documents at, or within,
  a user specified location.

Looks great to me! I would go (hope it's not cross scheduled with *my* 
workshop...). And the software they are showing is free. So, a perfect fit.


P

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Oracle XE is free as in beer, and the submitters made the very 
reasonable assumption that it fit into the mandate of the conference, 
given that it prominently talks about using free software for 
geospatial.  Not everyone has heard of Richard Stallman (lucky buggers).


P



Gary Lang wrote:

Beer. No source. I think the limitation is 4GB of data store.

-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paulo Marcondes
 Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 11:04 AM To: OSGeo Discussions Subject:
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

2007/3/2, Paul Ramsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:


Developing GeoSpatial applications for Oracle XE (the free Express
Edition of the Oracle database).



Looks great to me! I would go (hope it's not cross scheduled with
*my* workshop...). And the software they are showing is free. So, a
perfect fit.



I am risking a flamewar here, but I thought I should raise the issue
here.

Which kind of 'free' are we talking here? Speech or beer?

On another related point, I am always careful with corporate
workshops/lectures/whatever, as they too often tend to be more of the
advertising than the technical type.



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Attendees are not just developers of free software, there are lots of 
people just looking to solve problems in a low-cost way. Some of those 
low cost solutions are free, others are free. My guess is that the 
proposed workshop would be heavily attended.


Allan Doyle wrote:
There are plenty of places Oracle can demo or hold a workshop. There are 
not so many places developers of Free and Open Source Software can do 
the same.


Let the non-free companies come and learn about FOSS. I'm not sure we 
have to teach the FOSS developers about non-free software.



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

XE goes beyond that and is actually fully free-as-in-beer for deployment 
as well as development, as you have pointed out in your previous 
examinations.


I am merely expressing our frustrations at having accidentally solicited 
a talk about free software, when what we really wanted were talks about 
free software.  I am really looking forward to explaining that point.  A 
lot.


P.

Bart van den Eijnden (OSGIS) wrote:
As Jody points out, isn't the OTN Development License only useful for 
creating prototypes and doing development?



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Paulo Marcondes wrote:


Paul, as for RMS, while I do not agree all the time with him, we need
to have the speech/beer issue quite clear at all times. And we have to
take a stand (at least on a personal basis - mine is speech)


The term "free" as used by this community is jargon 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon>, plain and simple, completely 
transparent to those in-the-know, opaque to outsiders. The workshop 
submission is just a clear example of that.


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Ned Horning wrote:

Paul Ramsey wrote:

The term "free" as used by this community is jargon
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon>, plain and simple, completely
transparent to those in-the-know, opaque to outsiders. The workshop
submission is just a clear example of that.


Would dropping "Free" and just using "Open Source" in the future make it
transparent to everyone? 


Transparent to everyone, but not necessarily acceptable to everyone :)


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Aaron Racicot wrote:

I am just in favor of Paul supplying free beer...


Just because you can freely imbibe it, and pass it on in modified form, 
doesn't mean it will be free-as-in-beer. :)



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] "Free"

[Paul Ramsey]

Au contraire, you'll find the GPL and LGPL duly listed as OSI-approved 
licenses here: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/


While the "free" folks might not like the flexibility displayed by the 
"open source" movement, they can be fully subsumed from a licensing 
point-of-view, if not an advocacy point-of-view.


  Would you like a free book?
  Oh, sorry, I meant you could freely copy it,
  change the spelling mistake in Chapter 5,
  and give it to your friends.
  You still owe me $15 for this one.

Paul

Allan Doyle wrote:

The FSF "can't" exist under the Open Source umbrella because they feel 
some Open Source does not guarantee Freedom over time. The Open Source 
people can't exist under the Free umbrella because they feel the GPL and 
its variants are too restrictive.



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Conf for 2008

[Paul Ramsey]

Absolutely correct Tim.  Hop on the conference committee list and  
agitate :)

P

On 26-Mar-07, at 4:39 AM, Tim Bowden wrote:

Ok, so we haven't even had this years conf, but given the time it  
takes
for a local chapter to organise a conf, I think it would be a good  
idea

to start the process for selecting the location for the 2008 conf.  If
all goes well, perhaps the 2008 conf location could be announced at  
the

closing session of foss4g2007?

Just a thought,
Tim Bowden

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Conf for 2008

[Paul Ramsey]

If you commit to a schedule now, that will give the teams time and 
MOTIVATION to start organizing themselves and figuring out things they 
need to know in advance of the request (what venues, what costs, what 
committee members, etc, etc).


For example:
- April 31, release RFP
- May 31, close RFP
- June 15, announce decision

There is nothing like ones imminent demise to focus the mind.

P

Jeff McKenna wrote:
As the conference committee chair I was thinking of an end of April 
release of the hosting-RFP (as Perry, it has been also on my mind, but 
Mar31st deadlines get in the way!).


jeff


Pericles S. Nacionales wrote:

Hey, Tim,

I was going to bring it up to the conference committee but you beat me 
to it.  You're absolutely right, of course, get the process started 
now so that the next year's host will have time to prepare.  Many of 
the big conference facilities need reservation almost a year in 
advance.  The earlier the location is selected the sooner the hosts 
can book a place.


-Perry

Tim Bowden wrote:

Ok, so we haven't even had this years conf, but given the time it takes
for a local chapter to organise a conf, I think it would be a good idea
to start the process for selecting the location for the 2008 conf.  If
all goes well, perhaps the 2008 conf location could be announced at the
closing session of foss4g2007?

Just a thought,
Tim Bowden

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
  


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss







--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4G 2007 Workshop Submission

[Paul Ramsey]

Jeroen,

I appreciate your frustration, and I know it is shared by many  
others, as only 12 of the 34 3-hour workshop submissions could be  
hosted.  The criteria the workshop committee used in their evaluation  
are here:


http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/ 
FOSS4G2007_Workshops#Criteria_used_by_the_workshop_committee_to_review_w 
orkshop_submissions


All the committee members ranked the submissions on those criteria  
and the rankings were averaged.  Two workshops in the top 12 that  
were topic duplicates were removed and the next-lowest-ranked non- 
duplicates were moved up.  It appears that being on the committee is  
no guarantee of satisfaction with the final result. The average of a  
bunch of lists people want is a list that no one is 100% happy with.


Paul

On 28-Mar-07, at 10:36 PM, Jeroen Ticheler wrote:


Dear people,

Thank you for your information. I have to say I find that pretty  
frustrating and annoying knowing that GeoNetwork opensource is one  
of the incubator projects of OSGEO, the number of OSGEO projects is  
(still) limited and FOSS4G is the OSGEO conference.


Participating with the project in OSGEO has multiple reasons, one  
of them being that it provides opportunities to work on synergies  
and work on marketing the OSGEO software stack. Now how does the  
intent of OSGEOs mission fit with refusing a (single) workshop on  
one of its projects. Maybe I miss something, but I'd assumed there  
was at least some kind of a relation!?


Looking forward to some good feedback and discussion on this, also  
on the OSGEO mailing list as I consider that discussion very  
relevant in the further development of outreach strategies for  
ourselves and the OSGEO foundation through conferences.


Core question:

"Should OSGEO projects have guaranteed workshop and presentation  
space for at least one session?"


Regards,
Jeroen

On Mar 28, 2007, at 5:58 PM, FOSS4G 2007 wrote:


Dear Jeroen Ticheler,

We regret to inform you that we will not be able to accept your  
Half Day
workshop, "Using the GeoNetwork opensource Spatial Data Catalog",  
for the
FOSS4G 2007 program.  We had a very large number of submissions  
this year, and

 have been able to accept less than half of them
.

We hope you will consider bringing some of your ideas to the  
conference in the
 form of a presentation. The Call for Presentations is currently  
open, and

there is room for 120 presentations at the conference this year
.

http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations

Yours,

The FOSS4G 2007 Conference Committee





___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4G 2007 Workshop Submission

[Paul Ramsey]

I'm sorry, but I don't have many other doors to open, and I cannot 
imagine you truly expected me to find alternative arrangements for all 
22 3-hour workshops that did not make the 12.  For every point 
("GeoNetwork is an OSGeo project") there is a counterpoint ("MapWindow 
is a popular project you OSGeo guys are ignoring!").


I have enough computers for 6 labs, which translates to 12 sessions.  In 
order to make EVEN MORE room we added the "short" format, now known as 
"labs", which added another 16 slots (2 tracks throughout the 
presentation portion of the conference). And we gave submitters the 
option of choosing which formats they felt they could use.


The long-format workshops had to be chosen and slotted ahead of 
registration because people are going to be PAYING for them, and we want 
them to get what they request. Perhaps next year the organizers can 
attempt Dan's choose-first-optimize-later approach, which has the 
benefit of reflecting actual demand from attendees and the drawback of 
higher organizational complexity.


The short format labs are not going to be scheduled until the program is 
made in July, and therefore subject to more potential change, should 
someone drop out of that list.


Paul

Jeroen Ticheler wrote:

Hi Paul,
Hard not to be frustrated if I look at the closed ranking/review 
process, the final list that includes non-OSGEO workshops and the fact 
that no consultation has taken place with workshop submitters on 
possible alternatives. Just the blunt email that closes the door.

Jeroen

On Mar 29, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Paul Ramsey wrote:


Jeroen,

I appreciate your frustration, and I know it is shared by many others, 
as only 12 of the 34 3-hour workshop submissions could be hosted.  The 
criteria the workshop committee used in their evaluation are here:


http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_Workshops#Criteria_used_by_the_workshop_committee_to_review_workshop_submissions 



All the committee members ranked the submissions on those criteria and 
the rankings were averaged.  Two workshops in the top 12 that were 
topic duplicates were removed and the next-lowest-ranked 
non-duplicates were moved up.  It appears that being on the committee 
is no guarantee of satisfaction with the final result. The average of 
a bunch of lists people want is a list that no one is 100% happy with.


Paul

On 28-Mar-07, at 10:36 PM, Jeroen Ticheler wrote:


Dear people,

Thank you for your information. I have to say I find that pretty 
frustrating and annoying knowing that GeoNetwork opensource is one of 
the incubator projects of OSGEO, the number of OSGEO projects is 
(still) limited and FOSS4G is the OSGEO conference.


Participating with the project in OSGEO has multiple reasons, one of 
them being that it provides opportunities to work on synergies and 
work on marketing the OSGEO software stack. Now how does the intent 
of OSGEOs mission fit with refusing a (single) workshop on one of its 
projects. Maybe I miss something, but I'd assumed there was at least 
some kind of a relation!?


Looking forward to some good feedback and discussion on this, also on 
the OSGEO mailing list as I consider that discussion very relevant in 
the further development of outreach strategies for ourselves and the 
OSGEO foundation through conferences.


Core question:

"Should OSGEO projects have guaranteed workshop and presentation 
space for at least one session?"


Regards,
Jeroen

On Mar 28, 2007, at 5:58 PM, FOSS4G 2007 wrote:


Dear Jeroen Ticheler,

We regret to inform you that we will not be able to accept your Half 
Day
workshop, "Using the GeoNetwork opensource Spatial Data Catalog", 
for the
FOSS4G 2007 program.  We had a very large number of submissions this 
year, and

 have been able to accept less than half of them
.

We hope you will consider bringing some of your ideas to the 
conference in the
 form of a presentation. The Call for Presentations is currently 
open, and

there is room for 120 presentations at the conference this year
.

http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations

Yours,

The FOSS4G 2007 Conference Committee





___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4G 2007 Workshop Submission

[Paul Ramsey]

Perhaps that is the approach you'll advocate next year when you 
volunteer for the committee.


Allan Doyle wrote:
I count 12 projects on the slightly twitchy osgeo.org home page. I would 
agree that osgeo projects should be given a strong preference if not an 
automatic slot. With 12 workshops, it's hard to see why each project 
doesn't get a slot.


Allan



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4G 2007 Workshop Submission

[Paul Ramsey]

Bob Basques wrote:


Why not simply have an all OSGEO conference.


FOSS4G is "presented by OSGeo", it is already an OSGeo conference.  This 
has the very real consequence that if the conference loses money OSGeo 
loses money. They are holding the financial risk bag.


If I am not satisfying everyone or being "too commercial" or talking too 
often about whether a certain thing will "attract delegates", it is 
because I take very SERIOUSLY my responsibility to OSGeo to make sure 
this conference does well and does cause a liability for the organization.


So I hustle for corporate sponsors of ALL KINDS, I market to ALL KINDS 
of potential attendees, and I try to make sure that if we do not please 
all of the people all of the time, we at least please most of the people 
most of the time.


Paul

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4G 2007 Workshop Submission

[Paul Ramsey]

Paul Ramsey wrote:

 I take very SERIOUSLY my responsibility to OSGeo to make sure 
this conference does well and does cause a liability for the organization.


I of course meant, "does NOT cause".
Murphy.

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2007 Referrals

[Paul Ramsey]

Daniel Ames wrote:
I told Paul that we have so far had about 200 
"click throughs" on our FOSS4G 2007 logo on the MapWindow.org home page, 
so the presumption is that some of these folks will attend, tell their 
friends, and so forth.


Referrals are fun, and provide an interesting metric on the relative 
sizing of some of the projects linking to the site.


http://www.foss4g2007.org/webstats/usage_200703.html#TOPREFS

P.

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4G 2007 Workshop Submission

[Paul Ramsey]

Arnulf Christl wrote:


without wanting to break your planning, would it be possible to cut the
Mapbender Workshop slot and share it with GeoNetwork (if they are happy
with 1.5 hs)? I would be pleased to shorten our part a bit to make some
space as I think that metadata actually is a highly important bit. So far
I do not see anything else on metadata.


It does break my planning, and it's also totally reactive, and unfair to 
everyone ELSE who did not receive a slot.


This is the first decision point and already people are saying "just 
reorganize the whole conference so you don't have to make any cuts". 
Well, no, sorry. When I double the number of workshop slots and halve 
the number of presentation slots and then have to cut 70% of the 
PRESENTATION submissions in three months, what will the suggestions be 
then?


Five days, 12 workshops, 18 labs, 120 presentations, 28 demonstrations, 
20 exhibitors, 1 code sprint, thousands of beers, and hundreds of happy 
attendees. Let's think positively, it'll all be OK.


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2007 Early Acceptance of Presentations

[Paul Ramsey]

Don't be shy now, more opinions is better!

Paul Ramsey wrote:

In order to provide some extra content about what FOSS4G is all
about, we will be accepting a few (10 or so) presentations early, so
we can publish them on the web site for folks interested in the
conference to see.

To help select those ten, I invite the members of this foss4g list
and OSGeo conference list to try out the community review process,
which is available here:

http://dev.foss4g2007.org/presentations/review/

This is the page we will be using after the close of submissions to 
gather community and registrant feedback on the submissions before 
building the final program.  Your feedback on the process is much 
appreciated, as this is an excellent opportunity to try a small dry

run before the big selection process in a couple months time.


--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G Postcards

[Paul Ramsey]

Folks, we have about 1000 FOSS4G postcards suitable for handing out  
at events. If you are going to be at an event where handing out  
FOSS4G propaganda is acceptable, please let me know, and I'll have a  
pile shipped to you.


Paul
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] [OSGeo-Conf] Proceedings - 2007

[Paul Ramsey]

Journalistas,

Could you review the link below, and provide me information about the
process you would like in place for accepting articles, schedule of
publication, etc.

http://foss4g2007.dyndns.org/presentations/publication/

Thanks,

Paul

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Conference_dev mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2007 Call for Presentations Closes in ONE WEEK

[Paul Ramsey]

June 29 is the close of the Call for Presentations for FOSS4G (Free  
and Open Source Software for Geospatial). If you plan on giving a 25  
minute presentation at FOSS4G, make sure you get your abstract in  
before the deadline!


  http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/

FOSS4G 2007 presentations are 25 minute talks, with 5 minute question  
and answer sessions at the end. Presentations cover the use or  
development of open source geospatial software. Anyone can can submit  
a presentation proposal and take part in the conference as a presenter.


Some topics of interest for this year are:

* Case Studies: Relate the experiences of you and your organization  
using open source geospatial. Where do things work well? Poorly? What  
problems did you solve, and at what cost? What do you recommend for  
others? Why?
* Benchmarks: Comparisons between pieces of geospatial software. How  
do features compare? Speed? Ease of use? What do you recommend for  
others?
* Visualization: Tell about your tips and tricks for effective  
visualization. How do you present information in a compelling way?  
3D? Cartographic tricks? Labelling and naming ideas? Graphs and  
hybrid map/data combinations?
* Development: What are the new developments in your open source  
geospatial software product? How does it work, how do people use it,  
what are the technical issues you are running into?
* Hacks and Mashing: Have you put together something novel or cool  
this year? What did you stick together, how did it work, show us your  
gizmo!
* Collaboration: What techniques are you using to improve  
collaboration between organizations and between individuals. Public  
geodata, collaborative data collection, data sharing, open standards,  
de facto standards, and more!

If you have an open source geospatial story to tell, we want to hear it!

DEMO THEATER

Looking to show off your project in a short format venue? Check out  
the demo theater! Note that space is limited, and sponsors get first  
priority for slots.


http://www.foss4g2007.org/exhibition/demotheatre/
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo Presenters @ FOSS4G

[Paul Ramsey]

Still surprisingly few OSGeo presenters @ FOSS4G, compared to other 
folks, I hope you are all planning on sharing your expertise with the 
world in a presentation!


Do not be afraid of giving a presentation on an introductory topic or a 
presentation you have given before, this is an EDUCATIONAL event as much 
as anything, and lots of attendees will be very very happy to hear an 
introductory talk.


Deadline is Friday...

P.

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo Presenters @ FOSS4G

[Paul Ramsey]

Helena Mitasova wrote:

many people don't submit until 24 hours before the deadline so I am sure 
more OSGEO contributions are coming


I hope so. Certainly the workshop submissions came in a rush on the last 
day.


That leads to a question - what happens to the submissions that do not 
get enough votes?


Well, they get a rejection letter.  That letter *could* indicate poster 
as an alternative, if we had someone to coordinate the postering.


Do you plan any poster session in case there are more submissions that 
can be accommodated for oral presentations, to give everybody who submits an acceptable 
abstract a chance to present?


I am looking for a Posters Coordinator. We have enough space in the 
conference center to accommodate posters, but I will need someone to 
coordinate the process of accepting submissions, etc. And again, we 
might have a supply/demand problem -- poster boards are an extra rental 
expense.


Any Poster Coordinators out there?

P

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2007 Community Program Review

[Paul Ramsey]

Coming to FOSS4G 2007? Help us build the FOSS4G 2007 program!

http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/review/

We want the attendees at the Free and Open Source Software for  
Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference to help us build the program, by  
providing rankings of the abstract submissions.


Go to the community ranking page at the link above, and follow the  
directions. Just tell us the 25 sessions that YOU want to see, and we  
will build the program that fits the highest number of attendees. The  
ranking data will also be used to assign presentations to  
appropriately sized rooms.


EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTS END SOON

Book now to get the early bird rates: conference registration before  
the deadline is just $395CAD; after July 27, registration is $565CAD.  
The early bird really does get the worm!

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGEO & OGC spec development

[Paul Ramsey]

That's not an option any more, only members and prospective members may 
attend TC henceforth.


Ian Turton wrote:


You could also just attend the meetings as a non-member as Paul Ramsey
does sometimes, or just ask some of us who do go to meetings to make
your points for you.



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Going to FOSS4G? Special rates for canadian flights

[Paul Ramsey]

Great advice, and note that Air Canada flies to lots of US destinations too.

Daniel Morissette wrote:
Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but if you are going to FOSS4G in 
September and haven't booked your flight yet then today might be the 
time to book it: http://aircanada.com/ has a special sale with up to 40% 
off on flights within Canada. This sale ends tonight at midnight.


I have been tracking the prices of flights for FOSS4G in the last few 
weeks and can confirm that today's prices are a real deal compared to 
Air Canada's regular rates (at least for my own flight).


More details at
http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/air/dailydeals/dailydeals.html
... and don't forget that this deal ends at midnight tonight.

I hope this helps some of you save some $$...

Daniel



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: BOF sessions

[Paul Ramsey]

Yes!

http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_BOF_Sessions

Dave Patton wrote:


Should we publicize the BOF wiki page, perhaps with
an email to the FOSS4G2007 and OSGeo-Discuss lists?




--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Board Geographic Diversity

[Paul Ramsey]

I think it's a terrible idea, unless we really consider geography to  
be the true organizing principle behind OSGeo.  Why not project-based  
board seats?  Or language?  Ethnicity?  How about all three! We can  
have a matrix board.


First, is there a problem: is our board representation bad relative  
to our membership and goals?


If you can clearly articulate a problem, perhaps we can discuss  
solutions, but slaving board representation to geography is a Big  
Hammer, so it better be the Most Important Thing we care about.


P.

On 13-Aug-07, at 11:06 AM, P Kishor wrote:


Hi all,

I would love hear from others about what they think of geography-based
Board seats. Please weigh in.

PS: If anyone is CDG tomorrow morning at 8.20a local time, page me,
but make sure to wear your OSGeo swag so I can recognize you... I'll
be there for two hours waiting for my flight to DEL.

On 8/11/07, P Kishor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

On 8/10/07, Steve Lime <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi all: Perhaps this has been discussed before, but... Given the  
apparent desire to maintain geographic diversity amongst OSgeo  
leadership perhaps in the future we might consider regionally  
based board seats.


This is absolutely the most wonderful, workable, and simplest idea to
this problem.

When I was casting my vote, I had little to go on. One vote went to
someone who I have met personally, if only briefly (that person won
the election). One vote went to someone from a geographic area other
than Europe/NA (that person did not win). The other votes were based
on my recollection of their contribution to the mailing lists,
software, activism, and somewhat on the nomination write-ups. It is
hard to compare someone who writes code (I don't as much... at least,
not basic code) to someone who evangelizes (I do a lot of that... I
just spent the entire morning yesterday giving a presentation on open
geospatial at the World Bank... it was received with a lot of
enthusiasm and interest).

Having regionally allocated board seats would cut down on some of  
this

comparison problem, and it would also ensure representation from
around the world, from regions that are different levels in diffusion
and adoption, and hence, need different kinds of work and  
involvement.


Thanks Steve, for suggesting this... I wholeheartedly second this.



That is, you have representatives from:

North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, South/Central America and  
Oceania


If the bulk of activity is in North America and Europe then given  
them two seats. Then you have nominations within a region and so  
on... Every other year different geographic regions would be up  
for re-election. As a voting member you'd vote for candidates in  
each region.


If organizational affiliation diversity is more important  
(government vs. higher education vs. private sector vs. hobbyist)  
than geographic diversity then the same idea would apply. We do  
that here in Minnesota for our state GIS/LIS consortium board.  
That board also has an at-large seat open to anyone.


Just a thought...

Steve
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss




--
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
S&T Policy Fellow, National Academy of Sciences http://www.nas.edu/
-
collaborate, communicate, compete
=




--
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
S&T Policy Fellow, National Academy of Sciences http://www.nas.edu/
-
collaborate, communicate, compete
=
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Session Chairs Needed

[Paul Ramsey]

Hi OSGeo folks:

I need 40 session chairs (8 sessions * 5 rooms) to help run the  
FOSS4G presentation program.  This is your time to help out the  
conference!  Please go to the session chairs wiki page and sign up  
for one or more sessions.


  http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_Session_Chairs

Thanks for the help!

Paul
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Session Chairs Needed

[Paul Ramsey]

Really, I mean it, if you're an OSGeo member, if you're on this list,  
please volunteer for session chair duty.  All it requires is a little  
foresight, to pick a session you'd be going to anyways, and claim  
your slot.  If you are feeling generous, volunteer for more than one  
session, there's no maximum number, and I need 40 people, so every  
piece of assistance is helpful.


Thanks,

Paul

On 18-Aug-07, at 9:38 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:

I need 40 session chairs (8 sessions * 5 rooms) to help run the  
FOSS4G presentation program.  This is your time to help out the  
conference!  Please go to the session chairs wiki page and sign up  
for one or more sessions.


  http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_Session_Chairs

Thanks for the help!


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Session Chairs Needed

[Paul Ramsey]

Completely not kidding, still looking for 14 more session chairs, thanks 
to all those who have signed up so far:


  http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_Session_Chairs

Don't be afraid, the attendees hardly ever beat the session chairs 
senseless. I mean it was just that one time, and really, he practically 
*asked* for it.


P.

Paul Ramsey wrote:
Really, I mean it, if you're an OSGeo member, if you're on this list, 
please volunteer for session chair duty.  All it requires is a little 
foresight, to pick a session you'd be going to anyways, and claim your 
slot.  If you are feeling generous, volunteer for more than one session, 
there's no maximum number, and I need 40 people, so every piece of 
assistance is helpful.


Thanks,

Paul

On 18-Aug-07, at 9:38 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:

I need 40 session chairs (8 sessions * 5 rooms) to help run the FOSS4G 
presentation program.  This is your time to help out the conference!  
Please go to the session chairs wiki page and sign up for one or more 
sessions.


  http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_Session_Chairs

Thanks for the help!




--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Data for the Integration Showcase

[Paul Ramsey]

And note, the POINT is to take it out of the database. And then provide 
your own service, that someone else consumes in turn...


Justin Deoliveira wrote:

The link provided by Jody is more for people who can access the data
directly from the postgis database.

If you are looking to get at the original data you will have to contact
the provider of the dataset: myself, Dave Patton, or Jason Birch.

-Justin

Bob Basques wrote:

Jody,

Not a big deal for me, just thinking about others that might try it.

I started through the first entry in Dave Pattons's list and still
haven't figured out where the download spot is,  I'm doing this between
other things though, so I'm easily distracted.

I'll do more of a random attempt at looking for the data sources next.

bobb



Jody Garnett wrote:

Bob Basques wrote:

Jody,

Ok, I must be dense, I don't see a link to any data anywhere on this
page: http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2007_IntegrationShowcase
A lot of reference and catalog description links though.

Is this it?  :http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Canadian_Geodata, not
exactly obvious from the previous page if you ask me.

Ok, this is a neat idea, but shouldn't there be one spot with a copy
of the data someplace, even just a subset of smaller datasets would
start folks going.   It would make it much easier to get started on
participation.

I only was aware of the data loaded into the PostGIS database there;
you can access the database to rip it out onto your machine. But it
sounds like the data is available separately at the link Dave Patton
described:
- http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Canadian_Geodata

We should edit the wiki to make this more obvious,
Jody


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss



___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

!DSPAM:4007,46cdbb64149442458217002!







--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Integration test bed thingy at FOSS4G

[Paul Ramsey]

Arnulf Christl wrote:


How does the Demonstration Theatre tie into this?
http://www.foss4g2007.org/exhibition/demotheatre/


It doesn't, they are orthogonal concepts. The Integration showcase runs 
throughout the conference, and people can go try various components of 
it at the different vendor/osgeo booths in the exhibition hall.  The 
demo theatre is N self-contained 10-minute demonstrations of anything at 
all.  No integration required, just tell us about your product/project.


P

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Return on Equity

[Paul Ramsey]

Indeed, and if you want to be subsidized further, come to the Wednesday 
Banquet, since the ticket price is less than the per-person cost by some 
30%. ;)


P

Frank Warmerdam wrote:

Sean Gillies wrote:
I'm contributing financially to OSGeo? How much? I don't remember 
reading anywhere on the conference website that the event is about 
OSGeo revenue.


Sean,

Relax, the conference sponsors are effectively subsidizing attendies.  If
the conference makes a small profit, then it does revert to OSGeo (as does
any loss), but it is really the sponsors that are making the difference.

Best regards,



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Return on Equity

[Paul Ramsey]

It depends a great deal on whether OSGeo wants to be self-sustaining  
at the $1000 level or the $10 level. At the $1000 level we shut  
everything down and put a paypal button on the front page, mission  
accomplished.  At the $10 level, job one is to direct the money  
at places where it will eventually generate more money, and a great  
deal will depend on whether this "open source geospatial" stuff is as  
big as we all seem to think it is.


P.

On 30-Aug-07, at 12:50 AM, Jason Birch wrote:


I sincerely hope that the new board (and Tyler) are making
this topic their highest priority.


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G Sunday Icebreaker

[Paul Ramsey]

Those of you arriving early, for workshops, teaching and touristing, I 
hope you will all join us on Sunday evening at the Sticky Wicket in the 
Clubhouse (initially, perhaps it will be sunny and we can move to the 
roof for some beach volleyball) from 6pm onwards.


Workshop teachers, make sure to finish your classroom inspections before 
hitting the beer. :)


The Wicket will, by virtue of its size, be our conference Default 
Hangout, so wander by there every evening to hook up with the conference 
 scene.


http://tinyurl.com/2vtcpr

Paul

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Presentation materials

[Paul Ramsey]

Chip,

They'll be found attached to the relevant abstract pages (e.g. 
http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=212). About 
40% of presenters have uploaded so far, and I will be harassing the 
stragglers in the days to come.


Paul

Chip Taylor wrote:

FOSS4G was a tremendous conference and I am glad I was given the opportunity
to attend.  Do we know when the presentation materials will be available
online and where they will be found?

Chip Taylor
Prepared Response, Inc


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Presentation materials

[Paul Ramsey]

Merci boucoup, good plan.

Venkatesh Raghavan wrote:

Paul Ramsey wrote:
...
They'll be found attached to the relevant abstract pages (e.g. 
http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=212). 
About 40% of presenters have uploaded so far, and I will be harassing 
the stragglers in the days to come.


It seems that the poster presenters haven't received e-mails requesting
to upload their presentations. I think atleast some of them will have
additional material to share.

Venka
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss



--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] foss4g.org

[Paul Ramsey]

So, what's the next step on moving this domain into a position where we 
can put it to conference use? (Thanks again for the use of it!)


P

--

  Paul Ramsey
  Refractions Research
  http://www.refractions.net
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Phone: 250-383-3022
  Cell: 250-885-0632
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [postgis-users] A bit off topic, but FOSS GIS clients...

[Paul Ramsey]

I realize it ain't easy. But could consolidation
(future effort) make it easier?


The only thing that can be consolidated is developer effort, and even  
where there are no programming language barriers (such as in the Java  
world) there are lots of countervailing reasons that make mergers  
impractical.


"Everyone should drop their projects and work on uDig."  But all the  
gvSIG developers are supported by funding from Spanish government  
that requires all the work be GPL; and they also prefer a pure Java  
implementation to the SWT/Eclipse implementation that uDig uses.  And  
the OpenJUMP people have an existing rich set of editing tools that  
are not easily portable to the uDig application model. Are they going  
to throw away all their existing functionality to move to another  
platform?  Why?  OpenJUMP works fine for them.


You are thinking the developers are working for you, the user, but  
they aren't. They are working for themselves and their employers, and  
they have perfectly good reasons to keep working on what they want to  
work on.  You, the freeloading user, are incidental to the process.


We, the developers and employers, are well aware of the strategic  
implications of choosing to join, or not join, a particular  
community, probably to a far finer degree than you, and don't worry  
-- we are looking after our interests.



What's Refractions' model? Paul? Presumably
Refractions is a for-profit entity and not an ESRI
Business Partner. Refractions seems to be quite
successful with PostGIS. PostGIS seems to be the de
facto FOSS spatial database extension, with PostgreSQL
being its host. Longer lead time, I know.


Actually we have been an ESRI business partner in the past, and would  
not mind being so again. We do a large percentage of our revenue on  
projects that use ESRI, Oracle and other proprietary tools.  PostGIS  
provides us with no direct revenue at all, nor does uDig.


http://geotips.blogspot.com/2005/10/open-source-company-oxymoron.html



Does Refractions not implement the FOSS GIS products
they help develop for pay? Do they not, like Google
(although Google has endless capital), allow their
programmers to work, at least part-time, on FOSS GIS
products during work hours?


To a degree, but relative to our overall revenue flow, not really.   
The pay-back on dollars spent on OSS development is much harder to  
put metrics around than the payback on things like direct sales  
effort, or proprietary software development.



Also, wasn't there a FOSS4G presentation about
consulting as a way to further FOSS GIS development
and make a living at it as well?


Bit of a myth, as far as I can tell.  This open source technology  
wedge is still so small that the business opportunities remain  
relatively tiny, particularly in North America, where the technology  
base is so homogenous and the mental lock-in to a vendor-led  
mentality so strong.



Is there a QGIS foundation? If not, could there be?
Should there be?


No, there's an OSGeo foundation, of which QGIS is a member, that's  
good enough. Once it's a 5013c, US donors will even be able to get  
tax receipts for their donations to QGIS development, and write off  
the donations.


P




___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

[Paul Ramsey]

Xen is one of those things where the market is SO DAMN HUGE that even  
the very SMALL proportion of money that an open source company can  
wring from the marketplace is actually non-trivial in an absolute  
sense.  If Red Hat is only monetizing 0.01% of the Linux marketplace,  
that's still fine, because they are making millions.  The best market  
places seem to be "enterprise" software with large new markets.   
Examples of success stories are JBoss, Red Hat, Sleepycat, MySQL, and  
note that the last two are actually "sort of" open source companies,  
in that they still fall back on the software-for-sale model for  
revenues.


The trouble with the geospatial marketplace is that it is relatively  
small, so the small proportion an open source company can monetize is  
smaller still.  The problem with service-oriented FOSS businesses is  
that they don't make money from software, so the easiest thing to cut  
in budgeting is core software development.  Let the product languish  
for a while, it doesn't cost you anything as long as service business  
keeps flowing in.  Or, in the case of pure consultancies, don't do  
any core development at all, just use the software.  The service- 
oriented FOSS business I think has serious structural problems, not  
around providing good service, but around strong incentives to  
nourish the underlying software.


P.



On 3-Jan-08, at 8:58 AM, Christopher Schmidt wrote:


On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 10:26:51AM -0500, Lucena, Ivan wrote:

Hi all,

I am *not* going to disagree with Andrea, Gilberto, Paul, Howard or
anybody else. I just want to point out a interesting open source
business model that is making a big impact this days. I am talking  
about

Xen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen].

I keep reading news and more news about new commercial products  
from big

software companies based on Xen. Is that possible on the GIS world?


Depending on what you're reading (I can't tell from a quick Google  
which

types of stories you're talking about), I'm not sure how Xen really
plays a part in the commercialization.  Xen can be used to host  
products

in a virtual environment, and if that is the case, there's no money
being made off *Xen*, money is being made off the other software.

I could be wrong. I just didn't find anything to back up either way in
the Wikipedia and related links.

Regards,
--
Christopher Schmidt
Web Developer
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2007 Wrap Up

[Paul Ramsey]

All,

I want to thank OSGeo for bringing FOSS4G 2007 to Victoria. We had a  
great conference, and for me personally it was a peak life  
experience, never to be replicated!


Our conference organizer, Sea To Sky Conferences, has been steadily  
closing off the books over the last few months, paying our suppliers  
and bringing in the final receivables.  Today I received the final  
report, and have placed a public version online on the conference site.


http://www.foss4g2007.org/foss4g2007-final-report-public.pdf

Thanks to a paid attendance that was 60% higher than expected,  
refunds from our A/V supplier (due to the wireless network and  
plenary issues) and lower than expected food costs, FOSS4G 2007 will  
return a surplus of just over $110,000CAD to OSGeo.


The huge extra attendance was a great reflection on the enthusiasm  
for OSGeo and what we are doing in the larger geospatial community.   
The comments and evaluations in the final report are well worth  
reading, they reflect the high value that people felt the  
presentations, labs, workshops and demos provided -- when our  
community gets together to talk, what we have to say has tremendous  
value.


Thanks again, everybody, for a great conference, and really memorable  
week.


Yours,

Paul
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Case studies for migrating to Geospatial FOSS?

[Paul Ramsey]

There are not very many extant descriptions of case studies of the  
kind I consider useful, namely the "traditional IT shop examines  
options and makes a change" sort.  gvSIG in Valencia makes a poor  
case study because it's so "big bang"... I mean, it's amazing a whole  
province decided to plunge off the OSS cliff, but it's not the stuff  
of most IT manager's dreams. They want small and incremental.  "We  
developed a new system from scratch" is the wrong message.  The right  
message is "we examined this wee module, and it looked OK, and we  
slotted it into our existing infrastructure".  The North Dakota  
postgis study is a good one.  Another one that is non-PostGIS, but a  
nice one is the BC ILMB integration of Mapserver into their  
operations.  They didn't actually replace anything at all, they just  
used Mapserver to enhance what they already had.


http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=172

Now that gvSIG is mature, I bet it has some good studies around the  
edges. Not Valencia itself, but other Spanish organizations that have  
been able to independently look at it and fold it into the edges of  
what they are doing.


P.

On 31-Jan-08, at 11:22 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:

Daniel, here is some feedback from one of the Australian agencies,  
I'm hoping for more feedback in the next day or so:


 I'd like to see where an organisation has successfully implemented  
OS Spatial products, including:

  - what drove them to do this
 - what evaluation they did
 - what benefits they found
  - what problems they faced and how they overcame them
  - unresolved issues
  - integration with existing spatial products and IT infrastructure
  - future plans

Daniel Ames wrote:

Cameron,

What type of a document are you looking for? In other words how  
much detail and what focus?  We might be able to find something  
that exists with respect to this EPA effort, or we could perhaps  
put it together.

Dan

On Jan 29, 2008 1:10 PM, Cameron Shorter  
<[EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:


Dr Dan Ames,

Gary suggested that you might be able to provide a case study or
similar
into the EPA's migration from ESRI to Open Source.
Specifically I have some Australian Government Agencies who  
would be

interested to use such work, and in general, such case studies
would be
very beneficial for the uptake of Open Source globally.

Gary Watry wrote:
> Contact Dr. Dan Ames at Idaho State University
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>
> - Original Message -
> From: Cameron Shorter
> Date: Monday, January 28, 2008 22:11
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Case studies for migrating to
Geospatial FOSS?
> To: OSGeo Discussions
>
>
>> Yes Gary, that would be great. Do you know where we can find
information about this?
>>
>> On Jan 29, 2008 2:07 PM, Gary Watry wrote:
>>
>>> Would the U.S. EPA moving from ESRI to Open Source for their
>>>
>> Watershed model help
>>
>>> - Original Message -
>>> From: Cameron Shorter
>>> Date: Monday, January 28, 2008 21:39
>>> Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Case studies for migrating to
>>>
>> Geospatial FOSS?
>>
>>> To: OSGeo Discussions
>>>
>>>
 After giving a presentation recently about Geospatial Open

>> Source, we
>> were asked whether there have been any case
>> studies on migration to
>>
 Geospatial Open Source.

 The audience were very sympathetic to Open Source, but  
felt is


>> would> > be much easier to sell to upper management if they  
could

>> draw upon
>>
 experiences of other agencies who have done something  
similar.


 Can anyone point me to reports, or programs which have

>> migrated from
>>
 ESRI/Oracle applications (ArcGIS in particular) to Open  
Source

 equivalents?

 --
 Cameron Shorter
 Geospatial Systems Architect
 Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

 Think Globally, Fix Locally
 Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
 http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
 ___
 Discuss mailing list
 Discuss@lists.osgeo.org 
 http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss


>>> Gary Watry
>>> Applications Developer/Designer
>>>
>>> Florida State University
>>> Office of Telecommunications
>>> 644 West Call Street
>>> Tallahassee, Fl 32306
>>> Phone: 645-6904
>>> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>>>
>>> ___
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org 

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Case studies for migrating to Geospatial FOSS?

[Paul Ramsey]

Mapserver, of course, is probably rife with great case-study  
candidates... the ideal ones are large government organizations or  
corporations, because the point is to establish "brand credibility".  
I believe Apache is good because I know IBM uses is. I believe  
Mapserver is good because I know that  uses it.   
Academics and small companies need not apply.  The point, in  
approaching people with low risk tolerance, is to show them that  
other people with low risk tolerance have already taken the plunge.   
Nothing but nothing is as convincing as reference case.


Can PostGIS scale? Sure can, the largest national mapping database in  
the world, UK Ordnance Survey MasterMap (500M features!) has been  
loaded into it, by a very large UK data provision firm, and they are  
using it operationally: http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/ 
casestudies/infoterra


P.

On 31-Jan-08, at 11:36 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:

There are not very many extant descriptions of case studies of the  
kind I consider useful, namely the "traditional IT shop examines  
options and makes a change" sort.  gvSIG in Valencia makes a poor  
case study because it's so "big bang"... I mean, it's amazing a  
whole province decided to plunge off the OSS cliff, but it's not  
the stuff of most IT manager's dreams. They want small and  
incremental.  "We developed a new system from scratch" is the wrong  
message.  The right message is "we examined this wee module, and it  
looked OK, and we slotted it into our existing infrastructure".   
The North Dakota postgis study is a good one.  Another one that is  
non-PostGIS, but a nice one is the BC ILMB integration of Mapserver  
into their operations.  They didn't actually replace anything at  
all, they just used Mapserver to enhance what they already had.


http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=172

Now that gvSIG is mature, I bet it has some good studies around the  
edges. Not Valencia itself, but other Spanish organizations that  
have been able to independently look at it and fold it into the  
edges of what they are doing.


P.

On 31-Jan-08, at 11:22 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:

Daniel, here is some feedback from one of the Australian agencies,  
I'm hoping for more feedback in the next day or so:


 I'd like to see where an organisation has successfully  
implemented OS Spatial products, including:

  - what drove them to do this
 - what evaluation they did
 - what benefits they found
  - what problems they faced and how they overcame them
  - unresolved issues
  - integration with existing spatial products and IT infrastructure
  - future plans

Daniel Ames wrote:

Cameron,

What type of a document are you looking for? In other words how  
much detail and what focus?  We might be able to find something  
that exists with respect to this EPA effort, or we could perhaps  
put it together.

Dan

On Jan 29, 2008 1:10 PM, Cameron Shorter  
<[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>  
wrote:


Dr Dan Ames,

Gary suggested that you might be able to provide a case study or
similar
into the EPA's migration from ESRI to Open Source.
Specifically I have some Australian Government Agencies who  
would be

interested to use such work, and in general, such case studies
would be
very beneficial for the uptake of Open Source globally.

Gary Watry wrote:
> Contact Dr. Dan Ames at Idaho State University
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> - Original Message -
> From: Cameron Shorter
> Date: Monday, January 28, 2008 22:11
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Case studies for migrating to
Geospatial FOSS?
> To: OSGeo Discussions
>
>
>> Yes Gary, that would be great. Do you know where we can find
information about this?
>>
>> On Jan 29, 2008 2:07 PM, Gary Watry wrote:
>>
>>> Would the U.S. EPA moving from ESRI to Open Source for their
>>>
>> Watershed model help
>>
>>> - Original Message -
>>> From: Cameron Shorter
>>> Date: Monday, January 28, 2008 21:39
>>> Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Case studies for migrating to
>>>
>> Geospatial FOSS?
>>
>>> To: OSGeo Discussions
>>>
>>>
>>>> After giving a presentation recently about Geospatial Open
>>>>
>> Source, we
>> were asked whether there have been any case
>> studies on migration to
>>
>>>> Geospatial Open Source.
>>>>
>>>> The audience were very sympathetic to Open Source, but  
felt is

>>>>
>> would> > be much easier to s

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OS Spatial environment 'sizing'

[Paul Ramsey]

Bruce,

On 2/18/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
> - the applications of interest are GeoServer, Deegree, GeoNetwork,
> MapServer, MapGuide and Postgres/PostGIS.
>
> - the environment may need to scale relatively quickly.
>
> - it will be required to serve in the vicinty of 5 to 10 TB of data
> initially (WMS, WFS, WCS).
> - Of the above OS Spatial products, which ones could co-exist on the same
> server (excluding Postgres/PostGIS)?

Putting the Java applications into the same application server would
save a fair amount of memory. Running Java applications takes a
surprising amount of memory, so having them share a runtime would add
efficiency.

I think the best thing folks could do to make a "corporate open source
spatial" strategy work would be to give folks a means of easily
creating apps and moving them through the devel/test/production chain.
 Access to scripting languages with database access (PHP, Python,
whatever) and a standard application packaging standard that allows
folks to "deploy from a tag". Basically once an app is "done" in
development, tag it and push "deploy" and it's pulled into test
without human hands touching it. Once it's passed test, again, mash a
button and boom it's live on production.

Fun fun fun!

P
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Image Management in an RDBMS...(was OS Spatial environment 'sizing')

[Paul Ramsey]

All too often, the "benefits" touted for raster-in-database have  
nothing to do with the database, and everything to do with the data  
preparation tools that the vendor is including with their raster-in- 
database solution.


To store rasters in a database, you need a set of tools that will (a)  
chop the inputs into something small enough to fit on a database page  
(tiling), (b) pyramid the source data up so you don't have to run re- 
sampling operations on the fly, and (c) handle mosaicking operations  
at the edges of source input files.


Here's how to do all of this stuff without the database:

On Feb 20, 2008, at 4:29 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

- store a relatively large amount imagery and utilise it as a single  
entity (e.g. a layer).


Use a web service to expose the data, such as WMS. You can view your  
WMS in ArcMap, in Google Earth, in a web browser typing in a URL with  
your toes.


Far more interoperable than raster-in-database client code, because it  
is far simpler.


Using Mapserver, and a tile-indexed raster layer, you can publish a  
seamless view of as many source files as you like.  (Chris Hodgson did  
it for over 1000 source files, see http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/community/conferences/MUM3/present/session2/hodgson/view)


- only retrieve the records (tiles) required for the geographic area  
being viewed. That is
  we did not need to load the entire mosaic into memory, just stream  
the records required.


Exactly what the tile-indexed raster collection does.  When the  
rasters that are indexed are themselves internally tiled (using the  
TIFF internal tiling scheme) the effect is identical to the chunked  
database approach.


- only utilised an appropriate image sample for the viewing scale  
utilised via the pyramid

  layers (a common technique used by RS products).


For the large scale tile-indexed approach a combination of pyramiding  
the source files, and creating a pyramided master mosaic for super- 
overviews achieves this.



- if required, add additional data to the mosaic.


Add new file to directory, re-run master mosaic process.

- take advantage of corporate data management techniques as  
discussed previously.


Why people think backing up databases is easier than backing up  
directories is beyond me. Doesn't your IT department back up files?  I  
know personally I would rather back up a huge file system, than a huge  
database table space.  There are way more tool options and way less  
complexity.


Anyhow, the tools for loading and pyramiding that the raster-in- 
database vendors provide are indubitably helpful in preparing the  
data, but the database itself adds nothing, zip, bupkus, to the value  
equation.  And the same stuff the vendor tools do can be done with  
GDAL and Mapserver and little else.


And I hope someone wants to have a performance run-off.

Go ahead, punk. Make my day.

:)

P.



--
Paul Ramsey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+1 250 885 0632

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Image Management in an RDBMS...(was OS Spatial environment 'sizing')

[Paul Ramsey]

On Feb 21, 2008, at 4:19 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


What it comes down to is what is appropriate for your use case.


Indeed! However, there seem to be vanishingly few use cases for which  
raster-in-database is actually the more appropriate solution.


(BTW, point-in-time recovery, a nice example of a place where database  
semantics have an upper hand.  Although more modern file systems and  
enterprise backup systems are pretty competitive now... even a  
relatively simple hack like the OS/X Time Machine feature solves that  
problem for-all-practical-purposes.)


P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Image Management in an RDBMS...(was OS Spatial environment 'sizing')

[Paul Ramsey]

Bruce,

I am not taking issue with database management of vector data sets,  
but with the stuffing of raster data into databases. I still have not  
heard a compelling use case for raster in the database.


12 million records is teensy. Stuff it into PostGIS. It's the billion- 
point LIDAR sets that leave me queasy, but I can't begin to think of a  
reasonable architecture for that without learning more about how the  
points are actually USED, which I really am not clear on at the moment.


P.

On Feb 21, 2008, at 5:25 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:



IMO:

Paul,

>
> On Feb 21, 2008, at 4:19 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> > What it comes down to is what is appropriate for your use case.
>
> Indeed! However, there seem to be vanishingly few use cases for  
which

> raster-in-database is actually the more appropriate solution.
>

;-)  I beg to differ.


> (BTW, point-in-time recovery, a nice example of a place where  
database

> semantics have an upper hand.  Although more modern file systems and
> enterprise backup systems are pretty competitive now... even a
> relatively simple hack like the OS/X Time Machine feature solves  
that

> problem for-all-practical-purposes.)
>


Trying to manage very large regional datasets via a file based  
solution is problematic as described earlier with tile based  
approach to vector data in particular. Again for my use case the DB  
is better.



Just to throw in another related issue:

Lidar systems are throwing out an enormous amount of data. I had one  
dataset of only around 17 million odd records several years ago (of  
course stored in our corporate db ;-) ) that we could not handle  
with ArcGIS Desktop (v9.1). From memory it was a 32bit issue.


What approaches are people using with large Lidar datasets?


Bruce


Notice:
This email and any attachments may contain information that is  
personal, confidential,
legally privileged and/or copyright. No part of it should be  
reproduced, adapted or communicated without the prior written  
consent of the copyright owner.


It is the responsibility of the recipient to check for and remove  
viruses.


If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender  
by return email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies.  
You are not authorised to use, communicate or rely on the  
information contained in this email.


Please consider the environment before printing this email.




___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss



--
Paul Ramsey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+1 250 885 0632

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Image Handling in RDBMS

[Paul Ramsey]

On Feb 22, 2008, at 2:26 AM, Gilberto Camara wrote:
In corporate applications where vectors and raster live together,  
and data processing and editing operations are used, handling  
different types of data together in a database is convenient.  
Control is more important than performance.


Agreed, vector->raster, raster->vector operations and associated  
raster analysis operations in the database (GRASS-in-the-database, for  
lack of a better term) is something I find compelling, for the same  
reason that non-storage-oriented functions like ST_Buffer() and  
ST_Union() in the database are compelling. Database as fully  
functional analysis platform. All your base are belong to SQL.


Unfortunately, most people talking raster-in-database are focussed on  
stuffing their imagery in, and can articulate no real reason for doing  
so. It'll be faster? (no) It'll be safer? (no) It'll be easier to  
manage? (no)



On Feb 22, 2008, at 7:13 AM, P Kishor wrote:


If
the db can take care of indexing images for you so you can retrieve
only desired portions of the image,


Images are regular grids. I don't need an index to know that the  
center pixel of a 1000x1000 image is at byte 50. Indexes don't  
speed up image access, because images are already regularly  
organized.  The image *is* the index.



if the db can take care of
figuring out where and how to store the images on the hard disk,


No, it'll just write it into a data file, and the file system will end  
up locating it on disk. Cluster your table, and you still end up with  
physical data locality no better than simply using the TILED option of  
GDAL in writing out a TIFF.



if
the db can take care of the boring but essential admin tasks such as
backups and restores for you, definitely use a db.


Databases are no easier to backup than file systems. Harder, in my  
opinion, and that's from a guy who loves databases.



Can I ever let go of this topic? (no)
It's pathological. Stop me, please.

--
Paul Ramsey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+1 250 885 0632

___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with ESRI)?

[Paul Ramsey]

I'd buck up for a copy of ArcView (much cheaper than ArcGIS), and use
GRASS / PostGIS / etc tools for things like analysis. You can use
ArcView to generate the paper and do some quick low-end analytics and
the other tools for more involved stuff.

My general synopsis: for server-side, for scriptability, for
automation, for web-based, open source wins for most use cases, given
a technically savvy user; for ad hoc, for cartographic production, for
a user who is used to a point-n-click experience end to end,
proprietary still wins.

This equation hasn't changed much in the 10 years I've been running
it. The goal posts have moved, open source is better at adhoc now than
before, but still not at the level of ESRI, and ESRI is better at the
server stuff now, but still not at the level of open source.

P.

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 12:41 PM, Jennifer Horsman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The thread that was started today with the subject "Your open source career"
> got me thinking about asking a question that has been rolling around in my
> head. This is pointed at those people who have experience with ESRI products
> as well as OS GIS products.
>
>  I have been a long-time user of ESRI products, but I want to start my own
> contract business and will not be able to afford the license for
> ArcGIS/ArcInfo. So I recently set up a Linux box with GRASS installed, but
> it has been over 10 years since I have used GRASS (it has probably changed
> since then too!)
>
>  Does GRASS have the same analysis and display capabilities as ArcGIS? I
> know this is a very general question, so perhaps another question would be
> where does GRASS fall short and where does it excel in comparison to the
> ESRI products?
>
>  Thanks,
>  Jennifer
>
>
>
>  ___
>  Discuss mailing list
>  Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
>  http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with ESRI)?

[Paul Ramsey]

>  3) Storage and serving of very large (50+ GB) raster datasets.  PostGIS
> does not support rasters yet; Oracle Spatial does though.  I'm still not
> sure if storing rasters in a database is a good idea but ArcSDE sure makes
> it easy, and with good performance when used in conjunction with other ESRI
> products.

John,

What is it about ArcSDE and raster that makes it easy? I have no
experience with it, but there must be something about the process that
seems easier to you than other options do. Is it just the clarity of
the process? (you do a, b, c, and d, and then voila, it's all a
seamless mosaic?) Or is there something else?

P
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Can I do the same GIS tasks with OS (as with ESRI)?

[Paul Ramsey]

Paolo,

Among the things that QGIS (and other open source desktops) can't do
are a table join, a spatial join, high quality paper output, and
symbolized thematic mapping.  Particular drawbacks of QGIS include the
single-threaded user interface model (ui locks during render, making
work with large files very stop-n-go) and relatively simple editing
tools.

I think it's contingent on us as evangelizers to not over-sell. I
would not recommend QGIS or any other open source desktop to someone
whose prior experience was Arc* until I had a clear understanding of
the use case. In response to the query "can I replace ArcView with
open source", my answer is "in general, no, but maybe for a specific
use case".

P.

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:37 PM, Paolo Cavallini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Paul Ramsey ha scritto:
>
> > I'd buck up for a copy of ArcView (much cheaper than ArcGIS), and use
>  > GRASS / PostGIS / etc tools for things like analysis. You can use
>  > ArcView to generate the paper and do some quick low-end analytics and
>  > the other tools for more involved stuff.
>
>  A reasonably good replacement for ArcView is also QGIS (which integrates
>  nicely with GRASS, btw).
>  pc
>  --
>  Paolo Cavallini, see: http://www.faunalia.it/pc
>  Noi ci troviamo con parecchie difficoltà con NGI http://www.ngi.it/
>
>
> ___
>  Discuss mailing list
>  Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
>  http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] scale of FOSS projects

[Paul Ramsey]

On May 8, 2008, at 3:32 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
With rare exception (there are geniuses among us), it's pretty hard  
for one person to accomplish all that much, in a short amount of  
time, in odd hours outside their day job.  At least none of the  
interesting projects I've been involved with required at least 6  
months of full-time work show initial results - not a part-time  
endeavor.


From tiny acorns do mighty oak trees grow.  Mapserver started with a  
shape file -> image renderer and an HTML templating engine.  Working,  
useful, code.  From that, you can grow a community, who can grow the  
code.  It might seem impossible to iteratively turn a Piper Cub into a  
737, but in the software world it seems to happen all the time.


Linus didn't write all of Linux. But he wrote enough for it to be  
useful.


Too much philosophy, not enough code. :)

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2008 Call for Papers: Deadline Extension to May 23, 2008

[Paul Ramsey]

>From the trenches... P
--

We are pleased to announce an extension in the abstract submission
deadline for the 2008 Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial
(FOSS4G) conference, incorporating GISSA 2008, being held from 29
September to 3 October, in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. This is
due to the fact that there was a glitch with the online submission
process which appeared to be already closed for submissions yesterday,
the 12 of May on the last day of submissions. Thank you to those of
you who informed us, so that we could rectify the problem. I apologize
for the inconvenience caused. As a result we have extended the date
for the submissions of abstracts to Friday the 23rd of May 2008.
Please endeavor to submit your abstract as soon as possible. We
believe that we have ironed out the glitch in the system. In summary
the following still applies:

Academic Track
~~
This year we are thrilled to host the first academic track for peer
reviewed papers at FOSS4G.  The date for submission of abstracts to
the academic track is now 23 May 2008.  Abstracts have to be 500-600
words in length, please ensure that these are long enough as abstracts
which are too short will automatically be disregarded. These will be
reviewed by the Program Committee of the academic track of FOSS4G
2008. You will be notified of acceptance or otherwise on or before 17
June. If your abstract is accepted for the academic track, you have to
submit a full paper by 18 August 2008 for inclusion in the
proceedings.  The Programme Committee will compile a short list of
high quality papers addressing substantial research questions.
Authors of these papers will be invited to submit a revised paper in
response to reviewer comments and suggestions for inclusion in the
South African Computer Journal.

Presentation Track
~~
The date of submission for abstracts of 500-600 words to the
presentation track is now the 23 May 2008. Please ensure that your
abstract is the correct length as abstracts which are too short will
automatically be disregarded. The abstracts submitted to this track
will be chosen by an open community process. You will be notified of
acceptance or otherwise on or before 17 June. If your abstract is
accepted for the presentation track then you will be required to
submit your presentation by 18 August 2008 for inclusion in the CD
proceedings.

Poster Track

Due to the demand for posters we have included a poster track to the
conference. Should you wish to display a poster at the conference,
please submit a short abstract of no more than 150 - 300 words
detailing the topic and content of your proposed poster. Please also
indicate the poster size in the abstract (poster sizes are limited to
an A1 or AO size). The deadline for the poster abstract submission is
Monday the 30 of June 2008. Posters will be selected as space is
limited. You will be notified of acceptance or otherwise on or before
the 21 of July 2008.

Important Dates
~~~
Submission of abstracts 23 May 2008
Notification of acceptance  17 June 2008
Submission of Posters   30 June 2008
Notification of acceptance of Poster21 July 2008
FOSS4G2008 Conference   29 September – 3 October 2008

Submission Process
~~
In order to submit an abstract please visit the www.foss4g2008.org
website, and select Proposal Submission. This will take you to a login
page, where you can enter your existing account information, or if you
are new to the site, register for a user account before you can
proceed. You will then be taken through a step by step process to
submit your abstract. Please make sure that you select the correct
track option.

NOTE: To submit an abstract you will need to be logged in as an
Author: From the User Home page, under Roles, select Authors. If you
do not have a role of Author available then go to the "my profile"
link and check the Author checkbox. You will then have an Author role
under the User Home page.

General Information
~~~
All FOSS4G 2008 papers/presentations take the form of 25 minute talks,
with 5 minute question and answer sessions at the end. Anyone can
submit a presentation or paper and take part in the conference as a
presenter. Posters will be on display for the duration of the
conference. Designated poster sessions are scheduled to take place on
30 September and 1 October 2008 between 12:00 and 13:00

Author guidelines for the formatting of the paper or presentation are
available online on the conference website.

Please note that your paper or presentation will only be included in
the proceedings once your registration to the conference has been
received in full.

For more information, see the FOSS4G 2008 site: http://www.foss4g2008.org

Should you have any further queries that are not addressed on the
website then please contact the following:

Technical Programme & submissions: Inge Netterberg [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Academic Track: Serena Coe

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2007 Videos

[Paul Ramsey]

I've found it impossible to every view these, in particular the closing.
It would be nice if they were mixed together with the slides, that's for sure.

P

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I was recently reminded about videos for last years FOSS4G event.  The only
> videos we have are from the opening and closing plenary sessions and they've
> been posted online for a while:
>
> http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/57493
> http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/57938
>
> They are pretty good quality, though there is some sound clipping and you
> can't see the actual slides, only the speaker.
>
> Enjoy.
>
> p.s. If you like being a mix-master and want to try to take the raw video
> footage and mix it up with some cool way of injecting slide content, let me
> know and I'll mail you a DVD.
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Board Nomination

[Paul Ramsey]

I would like to nominate Howard Butler.

Howard is a long-time member of OSGeo, the chair of the system
administration committee, a committer for Mapserver and GDAL, and
respected member of the GIS blogging diaspora.

In short, he has it all, brains, charm, looks. Marry me, Howard.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions

[Paul Ramsey]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 8:56 AM, Arnulf Christl
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> But instead, she incarnated in the US, the
> most backwater place imaginable wrt Open Source.

So, this raises two actions items:

- Putting our policy online (presumably copied from Apache
shamelessly) in a findable location, to conform to the legal norms of
our host nation.

- Having a plan to take better advantage of our host nation status. We
pay a good deal in terms of administrative overhead to be a fully
tax-exempt charity in the USofA, what fund raising plans have we
linked to that status?  Is that status gaining us anything at all, at
this point?  The only connection I have *ever* heard was Michael
Tiemann saying he'd only contribute if he could get a US tax
write-off.

Both these actions items fall to you, Tyler, could you give us an update?

BTW, one of the things at Refractions that made tasking more visible
for "go do this" roles, like the sysadmin, was entering absolutely
every request and job into Trac before fulfilling it.  Does anyone
thing a OSGeo trac would help or hinder? It might get a little stuffed
up with irrelevancies, but it would at least raise the visibility of
"things that need to be done". I assume SAC is already running one of
their own?

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions

[Paul Ramsey]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 8:56 AM, Arnulf Christl
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> One critique is that the board of directors does not make decisions easily
> and quickly which could be seen as a weakness (chickens) [1].

A consensus decision making process necessarily limits the scope of an
organization to the minimal vision, the place where everyone's beliefs
intersect, which can be quite small indeed.

Tyler has been doing well at rolling in some sponsors over the last
months, I hope that as ED he feels he can bring some proposals forward
in the coming months to spend that money and some of the FOSS4G money
in effective ways.

That you see our inability to do things as a good thing only speaks to
your minimalist vision, what you want to do, and what OSGeo can do,
line up pretty OK, I guess.  I see OSGeo pissing away chances to
galvanize open source in the marketplace, to spur the kind of
credibility that will float all our boats.  You say potato, I say
potato.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions

[Paul Ramsey]

Interesting Aside. Could the CRO perhaps ensure there's a way to Q&A
with the board nominees during the process? Perhaps a list of
questions at the top of the wiki page, and nominees can answer as
few/many of them as they like in their own page sections.

P

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Michael P. Gerlek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> I interrupt here to point out that of late the Board has been faced with
> some significant questions about the aim and scope of our organization.
> This is a good thing: it is what the Board is there for.
>
> We the Charter Members are tasked with electing new board members
> shortly, and thus have a chance to directly influsence those
> discussions.  I look forward to seeing those nominated put forward their
> positions on these issues so we can all vote knowledgably.
> 
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions

[Paul Ramsey]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 8:56 AM, Arnulf Christl
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I for one get this feedback on a regular basis from parts
> of the German speaking community. This sentiment has lead to a lot of
> discussion within the GaV which is the existing German FOSSGIS community, a
> legal entity incorporated in 2001-01-18. It was felt that OSGeo (Main?,
> Int'l?) was too US (North American) centric in its mindset.

I think the Brazilian community probably has a stronger beef than the
Germans, but I don't see how anything short of a babelfish is going to
resolve the fairly intractable barrier of language to the growth of
communities of shared interest.

If most of the participants in a group are of a shared background,
that cultural and linguistic background will dominate the
conversation.  If there were more Germans involved, there would be a
more German perspective (heaven forfend).  Chicken, meet egg.

Are there concrete issues that can address this, because I'm not going
to get worked up over matters of perception that are out of my
control.  I cannot make more Germans join, and I cannot become German
myself through sheer force of will.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions

[Paul Ramsey]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 10:23 AM, Dave Patton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Are there practical
> matters (e.g. wording in the foundation's charter
> or letters of incorporation) that preclude OSGeo from
> being incorporated in multiple jurisdictions?

Yes, it's work to be an entity. We're having enough trouble with the
work involved in being an entity just one jurisdiction, adding more
just adds more rules to follow and forms to submit. If the work
involved and rules of the USA are too overwhelming, I could see
changing to a different jurisdiction, but there would have to be a
good reason to ditch all the effort invested thus far.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Software Language

[Paul Ramsey]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 10:32 AM, Landon Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> The reality is that the software world is dominated by the
> western world and the English language. (How many programming languages do
> you know of that are written in Russian?) :]

I hope a Russian answers, because given the split between the Soviet
and western worlds in the early years of computing, I am sure there
must be several. Of course, our lack of knowledge is merely proof
positive of our insularity.

One of the things I found interesting reading the gvSIG code base is
how the variable and class names are in Spanish, but (necessarily) the
language keywords (for, if, while, then, protected, static) are
English.  It makes for an interesting soup.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions

[Paul Ramsey]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On 12-Jun-08, at 9:20 AM, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>>
>> - Putting our policy online (presumably copied from Apache
>> shamelessly) in a findable location, to conform to the legal norms of
>> our host nation.
>
> I'll have to re-read Arnulf's note to understand more precisely what you are
> referring to here... we don't have the tax exemption in place yet, if that's
> what you mean.

Sorry, I over-clipped. The export policy.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] quick survey -

[Paul Ramsey]

Is anyone on this list cool enough? :) Not me...

P

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 6:58 AM, andrea giacomelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi all - I was about to pose my request on the IRC channel, but I
> figured I prefer e-mail.
>
> I'd like to run a quick survey: did anybody from this list attend the
> State of the Map event in Limerick, last week-end ?
>
> regards
>
> Andrea, aka pibinko
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] URL

[Paul Ramsey]

project.osgeo.org

During ColabNet days, we had this scheme, but it was dropped when we
moved. Was there a reason for it? I personally feel some love for it,
since it allows things like bringing the Mapserver site into osgeo.org
with a simple URL change.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] URL

[Paul Ramsey]

+1

It's a useful mnemonic, and with 304 redirection the search engines
will still provide link karma to links that use the *.osgeo.org
scheme.

P.

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 4:11 PM, Mateusz Loskot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Markus Neteler wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Jason Birch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't think that it was specifically dropped, it just wasn't made a
>>> requirement for new projects coming into OSGeo.
>>>
>>> There are project pages on the OSGeo site (like
>>> http://www.osgeo.org/grass - just product info "fliers") but from there
>>> the project URL can be anything from external host-based (like
>>> http://grass.osgeo.org/ - which is non-canonical, this seems to be the
>>> same as grass.itc.it)
>>
>> Jason,
>>
>> grass.itc.it and others are the mirror sites of http://grass.osgeo.org/
>> (which
>> is the master site).
>>
>> @All:
>> I would appreciate to see all projects using the "project.osgeo.org"
>> scheme, even only with a redirection. Just to apply a generic scheme
>> and provide transparency to our users...
>
>
> +1
>
> --
> Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net
> Charter Member of OSGeo, http://osgeo.org
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS WFS viewer

[Paul Ramsey]

http://udig.refractions.net

WFS clients that aren't of the "export and save" model are few and far
between, but uDig is one of them.

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 8:25 PM,
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hello list,
>
> Does there exist a FOSS GIS client that consumes a WFS feed, without the
> need to save the data locally.
>
> Similar to the way WMS works. The COTS GIS we use requires a local copy of
> the data (WFS).
>
> Ie, every time you zoom or pan, the client refreshes from the WFS source.
>
> This would allow us to ensure that the view of the WFS data is guaranteed
> to be current.
>
> Regards,
> nick
>
>
> ***
> WARNING: This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain legally
> privileged, confidential or private information and may be protected by
> copyright. You may only use it if you are the person(s) it was intended
> to be sent to and if you use it in an authorised way.  No one is
> allowed to use, review, alter, transmit, disclose, distribute, print
> or copy this e-mail without appropriate authority.
>
> If this e-mail was not intended for you and was sent to you by mistake,
> please telephone or e-mail me immediately, destroy any hardcopies of
> this e-mail and delete it and any copies of it from your computer
> system. Any right which the sender may have under copyright law, and
> any legal privilege and confidentiality attached to this e-mail is not
> waived or destroyed by that mistake.
>
> It is your responsibility to ensure that this e-mail does not contain
> and is not affected by computer viruses, defects or interference by
> third parties or replication problems (including incompatibility with
> your computer system).
>
> Opinions contained in this e-mail do not necessarily reflect the
> opinions of the Queensland Department of Main Roads, Queensland
> Transport or Maritime Safety Queensland, or endorsed organisations
> utilising the same infrastructure.
> ***
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [Proj] RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Brief history of GIS OSS (bit offtopic?)

[Paul Ramsey]

http://www.refractions.net/products/postgis/history/

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 5:38 AM, Rafal Wawer
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thank you Markus,
> I will teach FOSS4G upcoming days. The article appeared right on time  for
> me to include it in the references (-;
> Hopefully it will develop to cover most of the existing FOSS4G projects. A
> roadmap of FOSS4G projects?
>
> Best regards:
> Raf
>
> Dr. Rafal Wawer
> K.U.Leuven
> R&D Division SADL (Spatial Application Division)
> Celestijnenlaan 200e bus 2224
> BE-3001 Leuven-Heverlee
> Belgium
> tel. 0032 16 329731
>
>
> - Original Message - From: "Markus Neteler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "OSGeo Discussions" 
> Cc: "PROJ.4 and general Projections Discussions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Users and Developers mailing list"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "PostGIS Users Discussion"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [Proj] RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Brief history of GIS OSS (bit
> offtopic?)
>
>
> I have started a small article:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Open_Source_GIS_History
>
> Feel free to expand.
>
> Markus
>
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 9:42 AM, G. Allegri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> Some interesting details about the OpenGIS birth can be found also in
>> Gardel's OGC history:
>> http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/historylong
>>
>> Giovanni
>>
>> 2008/8/21 Mateusz Loskot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>>>
>>> Norman Vine wrote:

 Mateusz Loskot writes
>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 10:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Brief history of GIS OSS (bit off topic?)
> George Silva wrote:
>>
>> Hello lists,
>>
>> As you can i see im mailing this message to some lists around the web
>> (im sorry if thats a problem).
>>
>> At the moment i am writing my BSc thesis (Geography) focusing the
>> development of a open source software and database for logging and
>> analysing
>> traffic accidents in Uberlândia, MG - Brazil.
>>
>> I am dedicating a chapter in my thesis to explaining Open Source
>> Software, and OSS for GIS. i searched the web for some history of OSS
>> in
>>
>> general, but i found too many different sources. So i come to you,
>> developers of GIS OSS, to see if you can give me references of where
>> to
>> search for the history and process regarding this theme.
>
>
>
> --
> Open Source Geospatial Foundation
> http://www.osgeo.org/
> http://www.grassbook.org/
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
>
> Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [postgis-users] Brief History of OSSG

[Paul Ramsey]

Martin did address this last year:

http://lin-ear-th-inking.blogspot.com/2007/06/history-of-jts-and-geos.html

On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Michael Michaud
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Interesting article.
>
> I am surprised not to see JTS even mentioned in this brief history, as it is
> a founding library which has been used in some way by most of OSGEO
> projects.
> Martin Davis could say when it was released for the first time.
>
> Michael
>
> George Silva a écrit :
>>
>> I just would like to thank you all who helped me in this search.
>>
>> Thanks a lot everyone.
>>
>> George
>> ___
>> postgis-users mailing list
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
>>
>>
>
> ___
> postgis-users mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] This List

[Paul Ramsey]

Is, anywhere on the main web page, prominent mention made that
basically all important announcements end up on this list (but not
necessarily in the web site news feed, for example)? At
lists.osgeo.org, this (very important) list is one among many many.

Ah, I see there is: Main -> Getting Started -> Mailing List FAQ

I worry that we are a little, er, inbread on this here list.

P.
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] This List

[Paul Ramsey]

OK, I take it back, news_item appears to be working. More to the
point, discuss@ is referred to as sort of a tribune of the people on
occasion ("let's ask discuss!") when really it's sort of a private
club.

P.

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 8:24 AM, Frank Warmerdam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Paul Ramsey wrote:
>>
>> Is, anywhere on the main web page, prominent mention made that
>> basically all important announcements end up on this list (but not
>> necessarily in the web site news feed, for example)? At
>> lists.osgeo.org, this (very important) list is one among many many.
>>
>> Ah, I see there is: Main -> Getting Started -> Mailing List FAQ
>>
>> I worry that we are a little, er, inbread on this here list.
>
> Paul,
>
> Important announcements should be making it to the announce list.
> What is an example of important announcements made only here?
>
> Best regards,
> --
> ---+--
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush| Geospatial Programmer for Rent
>
> ___
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] Code Sprint: How Much?

[Paul Ramsey]

Everyone loves a good code sprint... or do they?

2007 brought you the one-day sprint (with the GeoToolsers and uDiggers
going for an extended weekend sprint).
2008 brings you another day.
2009 is still thinking about it.

How much sprinting would you do? 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 days?

I am wondering if the right way to handle the sprints is to turn them
from something the conference quietly subsidizes to something that
OSGeo pays for directly.  That way the conference organizers don't
feel like they are having it taken out of their hide, and it can be as
long as people like. Also, it fits directly into the OSGeo mission of
promoting the development of the software.

Book-keeping-wise it's a left-pocket-to-right-pocket transaction for
OSGeo, but from a authority and decision making PoV it removes the
issue from the plate of the conference team and puts it into the hands
of the software promoting team (whomever they may be).

Paul
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[OSGeo-Discuss] C++ Expert Wanted (GEOS)

[Paul Ramsey]

I have a client who desperately wants to clean some memory leaks out
of GEOS in a relatively short time frame. If you have enough C++ chops
to wrestle with the GEOS code base (warning, non-trivial and not
exactly a french garden) and some time over the next few weeks, let me
know.

Paul
___
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss