Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo Code Sprint 2020 in Athens: Pick the dates

[Nikos Alexandris]

Note, on May 3 to 8 there is the EGU https://egu2020.eu/.

Cheers, Nikos


* Angelos Tzotsos  [2019-11-25 14:10:35 +0200]:


Hi all,

I am going to keep the poll open for one more day, then book the venue.

Cheers,
Angelos

On 11/20/19 12:17 AM, Angelos Tzotsos wrote:


Hi all,

We finally got available dates for the venue:
27/4 - 1/5
4/5 - 7/5
25/5 - 29/5

Here is a poll to figure out the dates:

https://doodle.com/poll/zrkp3ztzs764uifq

Cheers,
Angelos





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Charter Member
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http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] okay foss4g time to move off of Flickr

[Nikos Alexandris]

* Nicolas Roelandt  [2018-11-02 22:42:23 +0100]:


Maybe an instance of pixelfed?

https://pixelfed.social/


This is really a good one! Just registered and tried it.
It seems pixelfed is Instagram done right (although I have no
Instagram account to know what it really is).

Thanks for sharing this link.

Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [OSGeoLive] Suggestions for a background image for next OSGeoLive - with an African theme

[Nikos Alexandris]

* Maelle Vercauteren  [2018-07-29 17:01:25 +0200]:


Hello,

I take this occasion to share this map of Africa that I like. It was Africa
if colonialism had not occurred as imagined by Nikolaj Cyon :

https://www.cyon.se/#/alkebulan-1260-ah/


Apologies for the off-topic.

This map is an interesting one. The text reads:

   "When it comes to other specifics of the map here are some details: The
   map is 'upside down' compared to the common practice today where North
   is considered up, but in old Islamic cartography South was often on top,
   and the context of Sankoré Madrasah – a medieval Islamic university with
   25 000 students in the city of Timbuktu in the 14th century Mali Empire
   is the normative setting of the map."

In the following link, an upside-down world map, where Africa is more or
less in the center:

http://sc.isprs.org/files/sc/newsletter/isprs_sc_vol3_no1.pdf (last
frame, "Turn the World Upside - Down or Why Should the North be on Top
and the South on Bottom?")

This comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes' time,
reportedly the first one to create a "world" map of his time.

Unfortunately, I have currently no access to the (complete, raw) file(s)
of the article anymore.

Kindest regards, Nikos


If the Africa Local Chapter and the Dar es Salaam LOC likes it too, we
could try to contact the artist and see if we can use it...

Kind Regards,
Maë//e




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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] withdrawal from Board election

[Nikos Alexandris]

* seven  [2017-10-22 18:33:57 +0200]:


After reading latest posts I agree that canceling the elections might
open Pandora's box (which is not going to happen because we are all
grown up and work towards the same goal, right?)


Gruess Dich Arnulf,

But of course it's not going to happen. Yet, surprised we are with
so many things, so many times.

Nikos

[rest deleted]


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[OSGeo-Discuss] Supporting nominations

[Nikos Alexandris]

Dear community,

it is great to see so many nominations (currently 65 [0])


Dear CRO, I support the nominations of

Paulo van Breugel (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Ecodiv),
Manuel Grizonnet (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Grizonnetm),
Daniele Strigaro (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Daniele_Strigaro),
Vinayaraj Poliyapram (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Vinay),
Nikos Lambrinos (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Labrinos)

for which I missed to respond to the initial nomination announcement.

Thank you, Nikos

[0] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/New_Member_Nominations_2017


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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: Nomination of Markus Metz for charter membership

[Nikos Alexandris]

I support Markus' candidacy.

Besides the invaluable core code work, which drives many of GRASS-GIS' engines,
Markus is very active in supporting the community with answers and questions
that concern technicalities and beyond.

Kind regards, Nikos



* Vasile Craciunescu <vas...@geo-spatial.org> [2017-09-04 10:53:47 +0300]:

Forwarding Markus Metz nomination by Moritz Lennert. The 2017 member 
nominations listwas updated [1].


Best regards,
Vasile & Jeff
2017 OSGeo Elections CROs

[1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/New_Member_Nominations_2017


 Forwarded Message 
Subject: Nomination of Markus Metz for charter membership
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2017 09:23:46 +0200
From: Moritz Lennert <mlenn...@club.worldonline.be>
To: OSGeo Chief Returning Officer <c...@osgeo.org>

Dear CRO's,

I would like to nominate Markus Metz for charter membership. Markus is 
very deeply involved in the core development of GRASS GIS and has done 
invaluable work for our code base. Citing everything he's done would 
be too long, but besides introducing many new modules and also 
significantly improving the internal libraries, he has done wonders in 
allowing GRASS GIS to work with very, very large amounts of data.


Best wishes,
Moritz

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: nomination of Veronica Andreo as charter member

[Nikos Alexandris]

+1

* Martin Landa <landa.mar...@gmail.com> [2017-08-29 23:42:42 +0200]:


2017-08-29 23:34 GMT+02:00 Marco Minghini <marco.minghin...@gmail.com>:

one big +1. Ma
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Rules about nominations and elections

[Nikos Alexandris]

Dear OSGeo community,

can someone send a (reminder) e-mail/link-to-wiki with formalities that apply to
how nominations, and later on the elections, work?

Thank you, Nikos


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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Where to hire a FOSS4G freelane developer?

[Nikos Alexandris]

* Luí­s Moreira de Sousa  [2017-05-11 08:35:31 
-0400]:


Hi everyone,

Is there any resource within the OSGeo cosmos to help hiring freelance 
developers from our community? For instance, an index of folk certified by 
Arnulf?

A quick web search only comes up with general freelance websites.

Thank you.


Dear Luís,

related: http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile?SET=1

Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Election 2016] Nominations reminder and campaign proposal

[Nikos Alexandris]

Jorge Sanz:


Dear OSGeo community and charter members

This is a reminder that there's still some days for nominations to the
Board of Directors elections. We have already nine great candidates,
including all the present Board members running for re-election. Take
a look at [1] for an overview of the nominations and support
expressions. Maybe there's a candidate that is worth your support or
someone special that you think should run to join our Board?

The other point of this email is to follow up with Gert-Jan
proposal[2] to put a week between the nominations period and the
actual voting to let candidates to express their intentions for their
term.

I'm inclined to accept it because I think is a good idea and no one
has opposed but also because next week I'll be out of the office for
the GEOSTAT course first here in Spain (20/21) and SoTM in Brussels
(22/26) later and I'll be pretty busy.

What do you think? Looking forward for your opinions.


In my humble view, both as an OSGeo charter member and GRASS-GIS' CRO (recently 
experienced the
role for the new PSC election), I can only recommend to allow or even ask, in
some way, all candidates to support their candidacy publicly.

For the next GRASS-GIS' PSC election, I support what came out of a related
thread, in a post by Micha Silver (see
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/PSC/Election2016#Aftertheelection):

request (which, I know, is rather a bit strict) candidates to feedback the 
community by answering to
the very question (slightly altered)

"What should the community expect from my membership?"

Kindest regards, Nikos



All the best
Jorge
CRO 2016

[1] https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Member_Nominations_2016
[2] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2016-September/016606.html

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Please add GRASS GIS Addons to OSGeo on OpenHub

[Nikos Alexandris]

* Vaclav Petras <wenzesl...@gmail.com> [2015-09-18 17:22:29 -0400]:

> Hi,
> 
> some time ago I've created GRASS GIS Addons project [1] on OpenHub. I would
> like this project to be added to OSGeo OpenHub organization but only admis
> can do it. If this is not the right place to ask, please let me know.


That would be nice.  Was searching for it yesterday :-)

Nikos


> Thanks,
> Vaclav
> 
> [1] https://www.openhub.net/p/grass_gis_addons

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Themidos 3, 42100, Trikala, Greece
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] forestry at OSGeo

[Nikos Alexandris]

Burned area mapping here. Pure forestry background in the beginning.

Cheers, Nikos

ps- Awesome stuff has been going on in Portland from what I can read in 
the ML. Too much workload here, so apologies for not contributing yet, 
in any direction as a (new) charter member.




On 23.09.2014 16:58, Jachym Cepicky wrote:

Hi,

just wondering, how many members of your community do have their
origin in forestry? Seems relatively many, wondering why.

I start with myself - I studied forestry at university of life
science, Prague,  after that I moved to (OS)GIS

Jachym


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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Himanshu Singh wrote:

 Hi Nikolas,

Hi Himanshu :-)

 Last year, I implemented ISODATA clustering plugin for
 Optickshttp://opticks.org.
 It is available for download as an Opticks extension here: Machine Learning
 Tools for
 Optickshttp://opticks.org/confluence/display/opticksExt/Machine+Learning+T
 ools+for+Opticks. You may take a look at it and see if it suits your need.

I will.

 More information about the extension is available here:
 http://himanshusingh.github.com/Machine-Learning-Tools-for-Opticks/
 
Only Windows support for this extension (right?).

 Source code of my ISODATA implementation is here:
 ISODATA.cpphttps://github.com/himanshusingh/Machine-Learning-Tools-for-Opti
 cks/blob/master/Code/ISODATA/ISODATA.cpp. It is based on:
 N. Memarsadeghi, D. M. Mount, N. S. Netanyahu, and J. Le Moigne,
 A Fast Implementation of the ISODATA Clustering
 Algorithmhttp://www.cs.umd.edu/%7Emount/Projects/ISODATA/ijcga07-isodata.pd
 f *International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications*, 17
 (2007), 71-103.


 Is it really easy to get it compiled under (Ubuntu-)Linux?
 Some modifications are required to make it work. I created a patch today
 for www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Projects/ISODATA/Std_Hyb.tar.gz, now it compiles
 and runs fine on my Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit machine. It is in the attachments.
 I hope if it works for you too.

Yes -- it compiles without errors!!  Great -- now after trying to use it.  
Does anyone has any examples (from the past)?  Does it work with GeoTIFFs? 
Supports other formats?

Thank you very much for your support.
Kindest regards, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Monday 25 of February 2013 14:19:49 Nikos Alexandris wrote:
.. 
 Yes -- it compiles without errors!!  Great -- now after trying to use it.
 Does anyone has any examples (from the past)?  Does it work with GeoTIFFs?
 Supports other formats?

Just fyi -- I've found something from the past:

http://web.archive.org/web/20101129024900/http://www.pcigeomatics.com/cgi-
bin/pcihlp/ISOCLUS|PARAMETERS

Best, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Himanshu Singh wrote:
 Hi Nikos,

Hi :-)
 
Nikos:
 Only Windows support for this extension (right?).

 The extension will compile and work in Linux 64-bit too. I can send you the
 build instructions if you have a 64-bit Linux machine.

I hesitated to try since I have limited time ahead (deadlines pushing).  I 
will try and let you know.

 
 Does anyone has any examples (from the past)?

 A sample input file used to run the program:
 http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Projects/ISODATA/input.txt.

Yes, I got it.  I use the following for my quick-test on an PCIDSK image 
(gdal_translate was handy here) -- not clear to me, however, whether other 
formats are supported (Byte only).

[ Note:  a test on a large image froze linux -- I don't remember when I saw a 
linuxbox frozen, well,  almost... I managed to get out with Ctrl + Shift + Alt 
+ PrntScrn + R - E - I - S - U - B ]

--%---
NUMCLUS 10  # initial number of clusters

NUMBANDS 1  # number of bands, note that it is
# necessary to have this appear before
# 'input_images' directive

SAMPRM 200  # minimum number of samples in a cluster 

LUMP 0.001  # lumping parameter
# (clusters which are closer than this
# distance to each other are merged)

MAXPAIR 5   # maximum number of pairs to lump

MAXITER 20  # maximum number of iterations


rows 495  # number of image rows
cols 743  # number of image columns
# (size of image should be (rows x cols)
# and the image is expected to be in
# byte format (1 char per pixel))

input_images ndvi_difference_utm_z34_smallarea.pci  # name of the 
files each containing
# one band/channel of the image.  There
# should be NUMBANDS filenames after
# `input_images' directive. Specified
# files need to be resided in the same
# directory as the executable being run.

output  ndvi_difference_utm_z34_smallarea_clustered# name of the output 
file to write the
# clustered image to. Pixels are assigned
# values 1, 2, ..., (no. of clusters),
# where points having the same number
# are in the same cluster

seed 10 # seed for the `rand' function for 
# selecting initial centers randomly

#gen_data_pts# if this directive is given it means
# that the user is asking for
# synthetically generated data, and thus
# there won't be any need to specify
# `input_images' and `output' directives.

sample_seed 51  # seed used for `rand' function to sample
# subset of data to work with

SQUARED 1   # This is specified if/when you want to
# run the Hyb version of the algorithm.
# This metric is built in for Filtering
# and Approximate Filtering version and
# is used to Distinguish between Standard
# and Hybrid version since they share the
# same executable. 

#epsilon 0.5 # This directive is defined for approximate
# filtering version only and specifies the
# epsilon value to be used.
---%--

 
 Thanks,
 Himanshu

Thank you for your time.
Nikos
--

 PS: I just noticed that I misspelled your name in the last email. Sorry
 about that. :-)

It was very close actually -- Nikolaos, it is formally in Greek :-)
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

G. Allegri wrote:

 I imagine you're aware of this page:
 http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Projects/ISODATA/

Thanks.  Yes I do -- but I can't compile it.  The code is C++ and a) I am not
a C++ expert, and b) I don't the time currently to study it.

Some quick attempts failed.  It requires tweaking since Ubuntu-Linux
complaines first about

Point.cc:49:22: fatal error: iostream.h: No such file or directory [1]


then about

Point.cc:90:13: error: ‘exit’ was not declared in this scope


Is it really easy to get it compiled?
Thanks, Nikos

--
[1] 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13103108/why-cant-g-find-iostream-h
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3956636/c-on-linux-not-recognizing-
commands-like-exit-and-printf

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Nikos Alexandris:
..
  I am searching for an OSGeo implementation (at the very least simply FOSS
  will do) of the ISODATA clustering algorithm [*].  I want to avoid using
  a commercial tool.

Nikos Ves:

 I've seen the R package biOps has also implemented the clustering
 method  of ISODATA

 I have never used it but from the manual [1] it seems quite straightforward.

I am working on it.  Try to figure out how to convert an SpatialGridDataFrame 
(readRAST6) to an imgdata object suitable for imgIsoData (biOps).

Thanks Nik, Nik

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

(Again, correcting typos -- when rushing only mistakes come across!)

 G. Allegri wrote:
  I imagine you're aware of this page:
  http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Projects/ISODATA/

Thanks.  Yes I do -- but I can't compile it.  The code is C++ and a) I am
not a C++ expert, and b) I don't have the time currently to study it.

Some quick attempts failed.  It requires tweaking since Ubuntu-Linux
complains first about

Point.cc:49:22: fatal error: iostream.h: No such file or directory [1]


then about

Point.cc:90:13: error: ‘exit’ was not declared in this scope [2]


Is it really easy to get it compiled under (Ubuntu-)Linux?
Thanks, Nikos

--
[1] 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13103108/why-cant-g-find-iostream-h
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3956636/c-on-linux-not-recognizing-
commands-like-exit-and-printf

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[OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Hi list!

I am searching for an OSGeo implementation (at the very least simply FOSS will 
do) of the ISODATA clustering algorithm [*].  I want to avoid using a 
commercial tool.  Currently I have reviewed the following options:


GRASS-GIS

GRASS has a modified k-means implementation in its  i.cluster module [1].  
However, it requires at least two raster maps to run.  The ISODATA algorithm 
is known to run even on a single raster map.


OpenEV

The old (but very good) OpenEV (is convenient since it reads directly grass 
raster maps and) has an integrated ISODATA-based classification tool [2].  
While testing with single Landsat bands ranging  [0,255] and and NDVI image 
[-0.1,1.0], it get stuck somehow after some iterations complaining bout 
ZeroDivisionError: float division.  Don't know if there any restrictions 
concerning the input data format.


OrfeoToolBox

OrfeoToolBox has also a clustering algorithm [3] but I am unsure that it is an 
implementation of the ISODATA.  Can't trace a clean documentation about it.  
It seems as yet another k-means based algorithm.


Fast ISODATA implementation (by David Mount)

(Not tested yet!)


Any other candidates?
Warmest regards, Nikos

--
[*] ISODATA:

a) http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-
bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2doc=GetTRDoc.pdfAD=AD0699616
b) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multispectral_pattern_recognition#ISODATA_method

[1] http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/manuals/i.cluster.html

[2] http://openev.sourceforge.net/

[  Sometimes it fails giving following message:
--%---
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File /geo/osgeo/binaries/FWTools-2.0.6/lib/python2.2/site-packages/gtk.py, 
line 125, in __call__
ret = apply(self.func, a)
  File ./../tools/isodata.py, line 529, in classify_cb
d /= d_tresh
ZeroDivisionError: float division
---%--  ]

[3] Mean-shift clustering: http://orfeo-
toolbox.org/CookBook/CookBooksu17.html#x31-430002.4.4 and 
 
http://gracilis.carleton.ca/CUOSGwiki/index.php/Image_Classification_Tutorial_using_Orfeo_Toolbox#Clustering

[4] http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/Projects/ISODATA/

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo ISODATA implementation?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Saturday 23 of February 2013 19:23:32 Angelos Tzotsos wrote:
 Hi Nikos,

Hi Angele!

 
 This is a GPL3 implementation of ISODATA:
 
 http://users.ntua.gr/chiossif/Free_As_Freedom_Software/isodata.c

I remember this from the last discussion on the grass-user ML.  Sorry that I 
forgot to mention it.

Best, N

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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] GFOSS related tutorials on handling File Formats in GLCF's web-page

[Nikos Alexandris]

Nikos Alexandris wrote:

[..]

 I miss to see GFOSS-related tutorials (like GDAL, GRASS-GIS and, of course,
 much more).  I've mailed them directly and asked if they will accept user-
 submitted material. Will post here their reply.

[..]


2nd request (and 2nd reply below)

--%---
From: n...@nikosalexandris.net [mailto:n...@nikosalexandris.net] 
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 6:15 PM
To: glcfreq
Subject: Re: Adding tutorials on handling various File Formats with Geospatial 
Free and Open Source Software (GFOSS) (GLCF #128136)

Kathrine Maria Collins wrote:

 Hello,

Hello Mrs. Collins,

 Thank you for your offer, but we are not allowed or equipped to 
 distribute user-supplied material.

Thanks for your feedback.

Would you mind feeding-me-back with even more (concrete) answers?  My 
curiosity is not satisfied on whether there is any intention/interest, from 
GLCF's side, to demonstrate data handling using Free  Open Source Geospatial 
Applications?

Currently, only proprietary tools are supported.  This is, admittedly, strange 
to me, as there are so many fine piece of software packages out there that'll 
do the job, even better in various occasions.

In addition, the GLCF general tendency and policy

( quoting from http://www.landcover.org/data/policy.shtml, Mission Policies:

The distribution policy of the GLCF is to provide imagery and products for 
free whenever possible. The purpose of this policy is to enable as much use of 
quality Earth science datasets as possible. The only request in return is that 
the user acknowledge the GLCF as source of the dataset in any publication or 
presentation. )

is more compatible to the licensing spirit of OSGeo stuff[1][2], rather than to 
proprietary products.

For Data and Tools, or, for Tools and Data, there many reasons to be 
distributed freely, as much as possible. 

Is there any way to change the current status and have some Tutorials on using 
OSGeo tools?

I would like to share my questions and your feedback, if and whenever you have 
the time to reply, with the OSGeo-Discuss public mailing list [3].

 Don't forget to show your support for us on Facebook by clicking
 herehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Global-Land-Cover-Facility/1859862
 11412
 421.

Apologies, I can't support that since I have no Facebook account.

Please, I am asking from GLCF to show its support to the OSGeo community, 
which uses its products and creates Great works 

Many thanks for your attention, Nikos
---

[1] http://www.osgeo.org/
[2] http://www.osgeo.org/content/foundation/about.html
[3] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss,
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/
---%--



2nd reply

--%---
From:   Saurabh Channan schan...@umd.edu
To: glcf g...@reflectors.mail.umd.edu, n...@nikosalexandris.net 
n...@nikosalexandris.net, glcfreq glcf...@reflectors.mail.umd.edu
Date:   Yesterday 23:29:56

Dear Nikos,

We are very much for the open geospatial and or source community, I 
hope this satisfies your curiosity on GLCF stand on OSGEO in general.  When we 
started off back in the late 90's, the whole idea for providing unrestricted 
access to remotely sensed data and products was in hopes to build a more open 
GIS/RS community so that we could all build tool, applications, better 
algorithms, higher level products, visualization tools, etc.; essentially help 
develop an industry that uses remotely sensed data and GIS.  

The FAQ's and most of the content that you see on our website is a 
function of questions/queries we get about our website and the data that we 
distribute from our users.   Most of the questions we got early on (early 
2000) was from the commercial community as to how to use the data in the 
software packages that they were aware off, and we did so by writing up the 
FAQ.  Currently, we get little or more like no queries from the open source 
community, and our guess is because there is already a plethora of information 
online  on how to use remotely sensed data, for example gdal with a geotiff 
file 
format.The awareness about the data and the software products that go 
along with it is improved tremendously over the years,  and now it almost 
feels redundant to have yet another document/write up on our website about it.  
Here is an example which I just found by googling 
http://toroid.org/ams/landsat-and-grass.   There are tons of sites like the 
one I just listed on how to use data in general and more specifically how to 
use data downloaded from our site. 

We get a lot of requests from developers commercial and non-commercial 
sector about hosting or linking to their website, and that is why Katie used 
our standard response.   However, if you still strongly feel that we should 
host a tutorial on how to use gdal, etc., in the sincere spirit of GLCF 
supporting OSGEO goals [2], I will be happy to either link or host a document 
written by OSGEO.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Best,

Saurabh

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] GFOSS related tutorials on handling File Formats in GLCF's web-page -- 1st reply from GLCF

[Nikos Alexandris]

Nikos Alexandris wrote:

[..]

I've mailed them directly and asked if they will accept user-
 submitted material. Will post here their reply.

[..]


1st request (and 1st reply below)

--%---
From: n...@nikosalexandris.net [mailto:n...@nikosalexandris.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 10:03 AM
To: glcfreq
Subject: Adding tutorials on handling various File Formats with Geospatial 
Free and Open Source Software (GFOSS) (GLCF #128136)

Hi!

I miss to see some tutorials on handling various file formats with well known 
free  open source software (geospatial) libraries/applications, like GDAL, 
GRASS-GIS and more.

Would you accept user-submitted material?

Thank you for your concern in advance,
Nikos

Nikos Alexandris, Dr | Remote Sensing Analyst Themidos 3, 42100, Trikala, 
Greece | cell +30 6972 013 027
---%--



1st reply

--%---
From:   Kathrine Maria Collins kcoll...@umd.edu
To: n...@nikosalexandris.net n...@nikosalexandris.net, glcf 
g...@reflectors.mail.umd.edu
Date:   Friday 23:26:26

Hello,

Thank you for your offer, but we are not allowed or equipped to distribute 
user-supplied material.

Don't forget to show your support for us on Facebook by clicking 
herehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Global-Land-Cover-
Facility/185986211412421.

Thanks,
Katie Collins
Global Land Cover Facility
(http://www.landcover.orghttp://www.landcover.org/)
Or visit our Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Global-Land-Cover-
Facility/185986211412421
---%--

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[OSGeo-Discuss] GRASS community sprint in Genova, Feb 2nd to Feb 9th, 2013

[Nikos Alexandris]

Dear OSGeo community,

the GRASS GIS community sprint starts next weekend.  For those who don't know 
the details yet, please have a look at the GRASS-Wiki:

http://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_Community_Sprint_Genova_2013.


Herewith, I share some personal thoughts.  Please, consider to join the sprint 
if you have the option to do so.  If you live in a neighbouring country, try 
to squeeze your time and pay a visit in Genoa.  Such gatherings, even more for 
end users, as myself, are unique, invaluable in reality.

Don't you ever hesitate if you would like to join -- embrace the event!

From my very user point of view, given the current participation plan, I 'll 
have the opportunity to:

- meet freeriders Markus Neteler, Massimiliano Canata, Paolo Cavalini

- meet very important hackers like Martin Landa, Luca Delucchi, Margherita Di 
Leo, Anna Kratochvilova, Anne Ghisla and Vaclav Petras

- get to know more on GRASS-GIS in action with Luca Casagrande

- get excited and boost-up python skills by drinking some of  Pietro's 
(Zambelli) pythonian-magic filter! -- Oh yes, if you ever have a feeling like 
hmm, I want to do it with python but don't know where to begin joining 
Pietro's sessions is the ticket ;-)

- chat with power user Nikos Ves (yes, while traveling together :-p)

- meet other people that do quite interesting stuff

- sneak into mesmerising tricks performed by Markus Metz, Yann Chemin -- those 
are magicians, not hackers - period.

I wish I could see and talk to more of these epic giants who contribute in one 
way or another into the GRASS GIS project.

There is still time. Spread the word around, join the meeting.

Best, Nikos :D

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[OSGeo-Discuss] Spectal librairies integrated in any GFOSS?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Dear OSGeo community,

I have seen several times, as you have probably done many more than myself, 
that there are projects-to-apply for, which, simply put, are profiling specific 
Geospatial and Remote Sensing capable applications.

An example _was_ an open international call for a project concerning (Early) 
Warning and Mitigating of (Forest) Fires in Greece [1].

For example, among the obligatory points to be fulfilled by a geospatial 
toolbox, as asked in this specific tender, there is one about integrated 
spectral librairies.

This is clearly profiling, if I am not wrong, the ERDAS Imagine commercial and 
proprietary software.  From ERDAS' manual Spectral Analysis, section 
Spectrum Libraries:

...efforts have been
made over the past decade to compile databases, termed Spectral
Libraries, of the spectra of known materials (Clark et al. 1993b).

and

sub-section Archive Libraries:

Several such Spectrum Libraries are included in the IMAGINE
Spectral Analysis software package. 

and

...The USGS and JPL mineral libraries (Grove et al. 1992)..., ...Johns 
Hopkins spectrum libraries
(dominantly mid-infrared wavelengths)..., ...the SPECMIN Spectrum Library 
series of minerals and geologic materials...

and more.


(
let aside the fact that I question myself who exactly in the Fire Fighting 
Service will use such a feature (except of advanced analysts in rare 
occasions?) and for what reason exactly -- active fire detection, burned area 
mapping etc., will not suffer from the absence of such a feature!
)

the question is:

is there any GFOSS that integrates or can access easily such libraries -- 
thinking from an end-user perspective?

Thank you, Nikos

---
[1] (in Greek) 
http://www.ktpae.gr/index.php?option=com_ktpconsultationstask=Detailsid=177
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Spectal librairies integrated in any GFOSS?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Dear OSGeo community,

I have seen several times, as you have probably done many more than myself, 
that there are projects-to-apply for, which, simply put, are profiling specific 
Geospatial and Remote Sensing capable applications.

An example _was_ an open international call for a project concerning (Early) 
Warning and Mitigating of (Forest) Fires in Greece [1].

For example, among the obligatory points to be fulfilled by a geospatial 
toolbox, as asked in this specific tender, there is one about integrated 
spectral librairies.

This is clearly profiling, if I am not wrong, the ERDAS Imagine commercial and 
proprietary software.  From ERDAS' manual Spectral Analysis [1], section 
Spectrum Libraries:

...efforts have been
made over the past decade to compile databases, termed Spectral
Libraries, of the spectra of known materials (Clark et al. 1993b).

and

sub-section Archive Libraries:

Several such Spectrum Libraries are included in the IMAGINE
Spectral Analysis software package. 

and

...The USGS and JPL mineral libraries (Grove et al. 1992)..., ...Johns 
Hopkins spectrum libraries
(dominantly mid-infrared wavelengths)..., ...the SPECMIN Spectrum Library 
series of minerals and geologic materials...

and more.


(
let aside the fact that I question myself who exactly in the Fire Fighting 
Service will use such a feature (except of advanced analysts in rare 
occasions?) and for what reason exactly -- active fire detection, burned area 
mapping etc., will not suffer from the absence of such a feature!
)

the question is:

is there any GFOSS that integrates or can access easily such libraries -- 
thinking from an end-user perspective?

Thank you, Nikos

---
[1] search for spectral libraries erdas or access the manual here: 
http://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=spectral%20libraries%20erdassource=webcd=1cad=rjaved=0CDMQFjAAurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uwf.edu%2Fgis%2Fmanuals%2FSpectralAnalysis.pdfei=BRL5UPbRAZKa1AWjmIDYCgusg=AFQjCNFEPQi0pJRUkCxZU9kJ1Qy0_6ymTg

[2] (in Greek) 
http://www.ktpae.gr/index.php?option=com_ktpconsultationstask=Detailsid=177
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[OSGeo-Discuss] GFOSS related tutorials on handling File Formats in GLCF's web-page

[Nikos Alexandris]

Dear all,

in GLCF's web-page about File Formats [1], there are several tutorials 
provided (see table on the bottom of the page) on handling these file formats 
with various (mostly, if not all) proprietary tools.

I miss to see GFOSS-related tutorials (like GDAL, GRASS-GIS and, of course, 
much more).  I've mailed them directly and asked if they will accept user-
submitted material. Will post here their reply.

Should you have some ready-to-use material, please be so kind and share it 
(maybe at the ELOGeo platform [2]) or contact g...@umd.edu directly.

Thank you, Nikos

---
[1] http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/library/guide/fileformat.shtml
[2] http://elogeo.nottingham.ac.uk/
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Translating the page Open Source Geospatial Foundation Officers and Board of Directors in Greek

[Nikos Alexandris]

Folks, I can't find my way through to aGreek entry in:
http://www.osgeo.org/node/73/localizernode?

Any help appreciated, Nikos
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Translating the page Open Source Geospatial Foundation Officers and Board of Directors in Greek

[Nikos Alexandris]

Folks, I can't find my way through to aGreek entry in:
http://www.osgeo.org/node/73/localizernode?

Any help appreciated, Nikos
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Charter Member nominations: supporting Angelos Tzotsos, nominating Dimitris Kotzinos

[Nikos Alexandris]

Greetings OSGeo - list(en)ers :D

Herewith I'd like to express my support for Angelos Tzotsos' nomination.

I met Angelos in November 2010, during the 1st GeoDataCamp organised by a core 
team behind geodata.gov.gr.  No second thoughts, his profile fits into the 
OSGeo frame.  His knowledge upon (F)OS(S) + Geo is well founded and his 
argumentation clean.  He contributes to the community by developing software 
(http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos/free_software.html),  presenting the OSGeo 
live project in _every_ relevant event (I've been at least), and he plays an 
important role in the Greek OSGeo chapter (for example, on the ongoing 
translation of the OSGeo website).


Along with expressing the support for Angelos nomination, I'd like to nominate 
Dimitris Kotzinos (http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/User:Kotzino).

Dimitris is not unknown to the OSGeo community.  I only knew about him from 
osgeo-wikipages -- for example, he took the responsibility to found the Greek 
OSGeo Chapter (end of 2007) -- and contacted him indirectly through the 
gr...@lists.osgeo.org list.  I had the chance to meet and discuss with him 
during last year's 1st GRASS and GFOSS Users Camp (in which he was a co-
organizer).  I discovered that his contributions to the Greek OS community, 
and especially to the geospatial OS community, are extensive.  Searching the 
web should be enough to convince so.  Not too long ago, during the 5th 
FOSSCOMM (the main Greek OS-communities conference), and the 7th HellasGI 
conference, we had more intensive  extensive discussions touching various 
subjects.  It is great that he shares his rich experiences with the community.  
There are many more points in his osgeo-related cv, but I feel that this 
message would become too lengthy.

All in all, I consider as very significant having some Greek(s) participating 
actively in OSGeo's governance activities.  It sure will enrich OSGeo's 
diverse and multi-cultural profile as well as it will boost our growing Greek 
OSGeo community.

Kindest regards, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] regional conferences

[Nikos Alexandris]

Hopefully I'll be sooner or later in place to support this in practice.

+1 for a Greek GFOSS, we can do it! The FOSS session(s) in the latest HellasGI 
conference gave me the impression that GFOSS is slowly, yet steadily, growing 
in Greece.

Kind regards, Nikos

On Friday 15 of June 2012 20:15:27 Dimitris Kotzinos wrote:
 Dear all,
 
 I saw with great pleasure the call for organizing the 1st Latin America
 FOSS4G conference.
 Congrats to the friends there and let me add my offer to help in any
 possible way to those who preceded me.
 
 The purpose of my e-mail though is a bit different. Taking into account
 the fact the this year we had the North America regional conference, the
 central European regional conference and now the Latin America Regional
 Conference I feel that it is due time to move to a mixed scheme of an
 international and regional conferences.
 
 Thus I propose that we have the odd years (starting from 2013) ONLY the
 international event (our very successful FOSS4G conference) and the even
 years (starting from 2014) ONLY the regional conferences.
 Being in a world in crisis where funding for travel becomes more
 difficult and where people cannot participate in too many conferences in
 a year I feel that this is an acceptable compromise.
 So I call upon the board to decide on this proposal and, of course, all
 of you to argue in favor :) or against!
 
 One final note for the European participation on this list: I suggest
 that we start organizing a regional European level FOSS4G (if there is
 agreement also integrating in it the Central-Eastern Europe event)
 starting from 2014. I volunteer Greece to host the first such event (OK,
 given that things in Greece will not turn out too bad :)).
 If there is an initial agreement we can organize things a bit more.
 
 Thanks for the consideration of both proposals,
 
 Dimitris Kotzinos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Any high performance (linux-)OSGeo workstation to rent?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Monday 24 of January 2011 01:41:10 Sylvain Maillard wrote:
 Hello,

Hi!

 I'm glad to see that you get some results ! how much time did it take
 to compute your data?

Please have a look at this post:
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-stats/2011-January/001315.html

 
 i would be very interrested to test my computer against that big
 cluster you were able to use ... is it possible to have an access to
 your ftp ?

Absolutely. Sending access info off-line.

Cheers, Nikos :-)
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Any high performance (linux-)OSGeo workstation to rent?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Tuesday 11 of January 2011 09:31:33 Dheeraj Chand wrote:
 Nikos,
 
 Did you get this taken care of?
 
 Dheeraj

Hi!

My apologies for not seeing this post earlier. Too much stress and lots of 
stuff to read and write here.

I finally have some results based on 3000 observations for each of my datasets 
instead of the 18865 observations. I think it is enough. I have, however, no 
confirmation from someone who really speaks statistics -- nor the time to 
engage in a lengthy process currently. Sooner or later I will know if my 
analysis is wrong.

Thank you very-very much for your concern Dheeraj and once again, sorry that I 
did not see this post.

Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Any high performance (linux-)OSGeo workstation to rent?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Friday 07 of January 2011 05:40:18 Dheeraj Chand wrote:
 Nikos,
 
 I'll help. Find me on chat?
 
 AIM = dheerajchandwork
 
 Dheeraj

Hi! Thank you.

I'll wait first a bit to have some feedback from a very kind person working on 
a big cluster. If it doesn't work out, I will bother you. I have no problem to 
pay for any help but I would prefer to offer something back in time, if I can 
:-)

Thank you very much, Nikos
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Any high performance (linux-)OSGeo workstation to rent?

[Nikos Alexandris]

Greetings to the list.

I need to process a few data.frames() in R [1] (18.000 observations, 6 
variables and some grouping factors) using the mrpp() function [2] implemented 
in the R-package vegan [3]. I just posted something short about it on grass-
stats [4].

It is a heavy process for my home machine and I need to get it done ASAP. The 
question related to the list is:

does out there exist an on-line service providing access to high performance 
OSGeo, preferably linux-based, workstation(s)/cluster(s)? Something to rent 
and use for a short period of time?

I imagine for example to get an ssh account, establish a connection, upload 
the data of interest, do the process, save and download the results and, 
finally, pay for the time?

Thank you for your attention and apologies if the post does not fit in to the 
list's topics.

Nikos

---
[1] http://www.r-project.org/
[2] http://cc.oulu.fi/~jarioksa/softhelp/vegan/html/mrpp.html
[3] http://vegan.r-forge.r-project.org/
[4] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-stats/2011-January/001309.html
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Any high performance (linux-)OSGeo workstation to rent?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Thursday 06 of January 2011 17:17:51 Dheeraj Chand wrote:
 Nikos,
 
 Amazon is giving away a year of free EC2 services. You should be able to
 spin up an Ubuntu box, install R, geo stuff, etc., and go to town on it.
 
 Enjoy!
 
 -dx

Dheeraj,

thank you very much for your speedy (as I see now) reply.

For various reasons I want to avoid Amazon or other Big companies. Although 
it's something I need to get done ASAP, I still would prefer (to pay) a small 
company or receive non-commercial friendly support.

Cheers, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Any high performance (linux-)OSGeo workstation to rent?

[Nikos Alexandris]

On Thursday 06 of January 2011 18:59:19 Duarte Carreira wrote:
 This may interest you:
 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/a-525-2048-core-cluster-in-45-minutes/121
 9?tag=nl.e539
 
 They built and used a 2048 cluster for only $525. The trick is to use it as
 quickly as possible so it will be cheap.
 
 Duarte

Thanks for the info!

As I replied to Dheeraj, I would prefer to support (and be supported by) 
something else, like a small OSGeo company.

Cheers, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Greek Inspire Metadata Editor (gimed)

[Nikos Alexandris]

Cameron: 

  Why was gimed developed rather than extending GeoNetwork?

Angelos:
 
 - When developing for HEMCO project, the time frame was very limited and
 I estimated that a clean implementation would be faster.
 - The project's specifications were also requiring C# because other non
 FOSS API's were involved.

I (too) was curious about that Angele (talming about C# and Mono). It is not 
clear to me, as an end-user, if and what dangerous license implications could 
rise in the future (reading: http://www.fsf.org/news/dont-depend-on-mono).

I hope we will find the time to discuss about this and other issues in the 
upcoming GeoDataCamp in Athens.

Cheers, Nikos
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[OSGeo-Discuss] geodata.gov.gr (beta) is up and running on foss

[Nikos Alexandris]

Might be of your interest that,

http://www.geodata.gov.gr/ is (beta) up and running. Public data, Open 
data is the motto.

For non-Greek speakers a sub-link perhaps worth looking at: Χάρτες(=maps) 
[1]. Services might be a bit slow since it partially runs on virtual machines 
(keeping the budget low and use existing infrastracture).

--%---
Background info:

- exclusively using open source tools:
Joomla, PostGIS, MapServer, OpenLayers, MapFish, GeoNetwork

- maps from:
Google Maps (sat. imagery), Το OpenStreetMap (maps), Κτηματολόγιο Α.Ε. 
(aerial imagery) [2]

- coded in:
PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java


Licen$e stuff:

- Google Maps [4]
- OpenStreetMap [5]
- Κτηματολόγιο Α.Ε. (=Hellenic cadastre). Currently commercial use strictly 
prohibited [6]
---%--

As far as my personal view counts, I really like that this has become a 
reality. One tiny annoyance: I don't have any special attachement to Google 
(=trying to politely express my thoughts) but is there any better alternative? 
None that I know of.

OpenAerialMap [3] was shut down and wasn't realy comparable with the spatial 
resolution of Google's service.

Dear reader, I kindly ask you to forward the link to greek speaking users.
Kindest regards, Nikos
---

[1] http://www.geodata.gov.gr/maps/
[2] http://www.ktimatologio.gr/ktima/EN/index.php
[3] http://www.openaerialmap.org/Main_Page

[4] http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/help/terms_maps.html
[5] Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License
[6] http://tinyurl.com/26ow8ku
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling - Springer Advances in GIS series

[Nikos Alexandris]

Nikos:
...
  How about examining the potential to adapt Open Source Bussiness
  models in
  (e-)books bussinesses? I do not mean necessarily cost-free, but
  accessible e-
  books (=reader-friendly pricing policy).

Helena M:
 you can always publish with  lulu.com (I bought the MapWindows
 hardcopy book there)
 and you preserve your copyright and set your price and people can get
 your book as e-book and hardcopy.
 You just need to do your own marketing. Thousands of books have been
 published
 through them - lot of textbooks,

Thank you Helena. Looks like a good alternative.
Kind regards, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling - Springer Advances in GIS series

[Nikos Alexandris]

Ian:

  don't sell many copies because they are expensive. :-( This is
  especially annoying as the authors give them the text for free.

The problem is more or less known (I have experiences about (local) bookstores 
and their struggle with book in general and technical/specialised books 
specifically). But things change rapidly.

G. Allegri:
 
  So why should we continue to fill this vicious circle? I hope one day
  a more ethical and fair circuit will be set up by the scientific
  community

Ian:
 
 When my boss scores my performance based on open texts instead of books :-)
 
:-)

How about examining the potential to adapt Open Source Bussiness models in 
(e-)books bussinesses? I do not mean necessarily cost-free, but accessible e-
books (=reader-friendly pricing policy).

Cheers, Nikos
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling - Springer Advances in GIS series

[Nikos Alexandris]

G. Allegri wrote:
 Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling - Springer Advances in
 GIS series
 http://www.springer.com/series/7712?cm_mmc=other-_-Enews-_-PSE12813_V1-_-77
 12

Hi!

I have bought last year the (me thinks it is) 1st book of the series [1]. I 
liked the book and I would recommend it. Yet, one thing I want to note: in my 
humble opinion, it was/is very expensive [for my (still-)student pocket!]: 
100.-EU for 300 pages.

It seems (to me) the book is targeting (only) open source advocates, people 
who don't have problem spending such amounts and/or libraries.

Regards, Nikos
---

[1] Hall, B and Leahy, MJ, Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling 
(Advances in Geographic Information Science), Springer, 2008. 
[ISBN:978-3-540-74830-4]
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Greece follows INSPIRE (and attempts to go OpenGeo?)

[Nikos Alexandris]

Greetings to the list.

(Apologies to the BCC-ed recipients since this might or might not be of your 
interest)

The Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change [1] (yes, you 
read correctly) has decided to (finally) put on a public discussion the law 
that concerns a national infrastructure for (geo)spatial data [2].

It appears to be just a normalisation of the current Greek law-framework to 
match (or catch up) the European directive INSPIRE. And indeed, it may be the 
driving force behind it within the current Greek mess (no matter how far this 
mess is real or virtual for the sake of let's make money).

There are, however, chances to broaden the spectrum of this new law to clarify 
important issues. For example, the license of geospatial data will be provided 
cost-free but with the limitation for non-commercial use. My understanding is 
that this limitation is not only needless but anti-productive in many ways 
[3].

Another example is the focus of the law to be passed more on the 
organisational aspect of the infrastructure (with lots of limitations) and in 
a lesser extent to the social aspect(s) and effects which are of paramount 
importance [4].

Noteworthy to mention is the difficulty when translating special technical 
terms from English in Greek which leads often to non-clear definitions. There 
are various comments on the Definitions section [5].

This is just a glimpse of course of the total 31 articles which compose the 
law. All in all, the law is on the right track. Yet, it needs fine tuning to 
prohibit misuse.

One thing that is not positive, at least from my perspective, is(=was) the 
narrow time-window (only 10 days) for which the law is open for public 
comments. Unfortunately, I did not notice this until yesterday. Today 
30.06.2010 at 23:59 (local time) the comments section will be locked :-(

Nevertheless, this move is a ground-breaker considering how Greek governments 
(re-)acted in the past. It is a clear sign of several people willing to go 
Open(Geo).

Please, readers that (understand Greek and) are interested in this, or readers 
that know people that (understand Greek and) work in this field, comment... 
comment... comment... (...typical Greek, just climb to the top or touch down - 
no in between solutions).

Thank you for your attention,
Nikos

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[1] http://www.ypeka.gr/
[2] National Infrastructure for Geospatial Data 
http://www.opengov.gr/minenv/?p=757

[3] http://www.opengov.gr/minenv/?p=737
[4] http://www.opengov.gr/minenv/?p=756
[5] http://www.opengov.gr/minenv/?p=754
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[OSGeo-Discuss] Richards Stallman was in Greece

[Nikos Alexandris]

(I know this is half-way on-topic but might be of your interest)

Richard Stallman was in Thessaloniki [1] and in Athens [2] a few weeks ago. 
You can just skip the (boring) intro's (which are in Greek anyway) and jump to 
Richard's talk(s).

Nikos

---
[1] 
http://www.greeklug.gr/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=111%3Armsvideoscatid=1%3AannouncementsnewsItemid=65lang=el
[2] http://dln.gr/p/184
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