Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G LiveCD
2008/9/10 Cameron Shorter [EMAIL PROTECTED]: We have been planning to create a simple live CD (based upon Debian or Ubuntu) for the Java stack - something that we think we could achieve. just a ping: Knoppix had a quite nice compaction, fitting one dvd worth of data into one CD. slow boot, but a awesome amount of software. I don't know how things are going in the live-cd/dvd arena, but this could be well worth a look. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] How to install MapGuide Opensource in web hosting company
2008/9/4 Zia Haider [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi, I have domain (for example www.test.net). Is that possible to install MapGuide Opensource (http://mapguide.osgeo.org/) to that domain. The domain I bought it from a web hosting company. Please let me know what I have to do. As long as that server is a virtual or co-located host and provided that you root access to the server, you are fine. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Shapefile lacking SRS information
2008/9/1 Kjell Are Refsvik [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi, Trying to get hold of better maps, I have been trying to get some old shapefiles to work, but without success. They appear to have lost their Spacial Reference System: would GDAL's -a_srs option do the trick? as in ogr2ogr -a_srs whatever destination source -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo Brazilian Local Chapter Meeting
2008/8/25 Rafael Medeiros Sperb [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi Everybody, A group of active but quiet developers in Brasil have called for an OSGeo Brazilian Local Chapter meeting during the Latinoware Rafael, I would suggest that you direct people to use the OSGeo-Brasil list to further organi[s,z]e and publici[s,z]e the meeting. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Manage translation in OSGeo project
2008/8/25 Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On 25-Aug-08, at 12:32 PM, Markus Neteler wrote: And it's rather easy to set up with gettext() macros in C land (to not pollute the source code). Likewise there will be solutions for other programming languages. In a couple (non-OSGeo) projects I've helped on the translation side but editing XML files for each locale. Each local.xml file entry has a keyword that points back to the PHP page that includes the keyword pointer. These were PHP apps, so maybe only common on web platforms? Do any OSGeo projects use a similar approach? Tyler, GRASS for instance uses xgettext, we have files for each language, but it all starts with a template file, that contains all original strings. Translators then ..err... translate those messages in the language files. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] GFOSS apps in Poseidon Linux
2008/7/1 Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Lots of GFOSS (and other FOSS) packages included in this linux distribution. I'm not sure how new it is. It is branded as Poseidon Linux - The Scientific GNU/Linux and looks good. Any users/developers of the distribution on this list? It has about 3 years, IIRC. http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=poseidon It is (was) developed by some oceaographers at the Rio Grande do Sul University (southern Brazil) Site: http://poseidon.furg.br/ I thought some of the devel read the list. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Chickens, Boards and Export Restrictions
2008/6/12 Paul Ramsey [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Interesting Aside. Could the CRO perhaps ensure there's a way to QA 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. This is getting close to what Debian does (no prejudice) I guess it is just the best way to run such a diverse community (both Debian and US) FYI: The Debian Constitution has procedures for election that are quite sane: http://www.us.debian.org/devel/constitution#5 -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] The Germans and The Brazilians...
2008/6/12 Landon Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED]: take. Why couldn't a group in Brazil or Germany form a local chapter of the OSGeo that is incorporated in their nation to pursue not only a common OSGeo As for Brazil, incorporating was ruled out early on, IIRC, mainly because of the high cost of running any sort of NGO or company here. At least 5k USD/year, just to exist. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] South African safety situation
2008/5/30 Lucena, Ivan [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Gavin, My South Africans friends here in the US and I are deeply concern about that situation too. I just wanted to add that thanks to economic growth and social reforms, Brazil is now a moving target on what concern wealth concentration index. Brazilian business, factories and agriculture are investing now in Africa. I hope that Word Cup, tourism, conferences and other business could bring more opportunities to South African of all ethnicity and that will result in peace and prosperity. Gavin and Ivan, The last 14 years have been extremely profitable for banks and financial investors. So, I an quite pessimist regarding wealth distribution. Also, there are some concerns regarding the political climate here. Many seem it as getting more and more unfriendly to private property and civil liberties. For instance, what you call realID is a reality here since unremembered times, and that is also a police issued document. No one seems to give a rat's ass about that. talk about police state... we are far more down that road than the US, or even the UK, AFAIK. The only thing we don't have so far is a no-fly list. the cup is half empty, -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Sign the Hague declaration
2008/5/15 Frank Warmerdam [EMAIL PROTECTED]: I think there is a great danger to the open source, open data, and open standards efforts in the attempts to legislate them. Done carelessly, legislation will inevitably lead to situations that are rediculous and this will discredit the whole effort. I have seen this done here in the sunny land of Brazil. Some free software activists have promoted free software to such heights that the whole idea was hijacked by one political party and shoved down the throat of many public orgs. So, in that regard, there were many migration efforts, done with little to no planning, that obviuosly went awry. In hindsight, that is what happens when one takes free/open to the level of pure ideology and tries to put it to work without consideration to the practical and technical aspects. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] RE: OS and proprietary
2008/4/27 Mark Lucas [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Interestingly enough, in our efforts with Open Technology Development and the Department of Defense (US), the Navy made that determination that OSS was COTS - and therefore needed to be considered on an equal footing with proprietary solutions for Navy acquisitions. IIRC, the Navy has always been very cautious, maybe conservative with regards to software. Also, their tendency to look at the security side of stuff is a nice plus to their understanding that FLOSS is indeed COTS. Nice. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Proposal: OSGeo Cartographic Library
2008/4/7, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) [EMAIL PROTECTED]: GUI-based map design tools are the bane of productivity in many offices I've been in Spot on! -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Spam filter on OSGeo lists
2008/3/27, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Thanks Shawn Barnes and Markus Neteler for helping me get this working! thanks a lot! -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: Article: A GIS application for assessing landslide hazard over a large area
One more paper appeared on the Journal of Engineering Geology regarding GIS as landslide predictors: An assessment on the use of logistic regression and artificial neural networks with different sampling strategies for the preparation of landslide susceptibility maps http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2008.01.004 -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] Article: A GIS application for assessing landslide hazard over a large area
May be of interest: the article is featured on the current Computers and Geotechnics issue, through the following URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2007.03.007 enjoy -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] GIS applications to off-shore EP (oil gas)
2008/2/21, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]: By EP, I'm assuming that you're referring to Exploration and Petroleum? Exploration and Production, as is usual in the industry, sometimes also referred as upstream I don't claim to be an expert, but I personally think that this is just another application of spatial data, albeit with its own unique challenges, e.g.: What I am more concerned is how to build a bussiness case to sell the idea of using GIS in the reservoir management role, in part as a decision support system. Asides may be well the storage and management of spatial and non-spatial data. - As I see it the problem space is essentially 4D in nature, where true 3D non-uniform data needs to be modelled, while taking into account changes Also, the time dimension is usually non-continuous, although that may not be a problem if you treat time as a continuum. I dislike the term 4D, at least when applied to to time-lapse seismic data. - The amount of data to be managed is challenging. We're looking at in the vicinity of 60TB and increasing rapidly. I don't even have a ballpark as to the size of information managed by the company. - There are a number of 'true 3D' modelling tools (NB: for others, I'm not talking DEMs here) that allow you to model sub-surface data at a mine scale (e.g. Datamine, Vulcan etc), I happen to know them (at least by name), because I have also worked in the mining biz. and several others for regional scale work (we're using GoCad and GeoModeller). I also happened to have used GoCAD here, and have a mixed feeling regarding it. Too many important features are lacking, uninportant features galore, the fact that it is unstable with large amounts of data. I don't know of any serious 3D data management in a database yet, though I understand that Oracle has announced something with v.11. As always, a good Spatial Metadata solution is essential. We had a discussion sometime ago regarding methods and processes to store all these products and subproducts. One key point that was brought repeatedly was about the importance of the metadata and softdata associated with those [geo,fluid,flow,etc] models. However I got out that loop, so I don't know how it progressed. - 2D spatial data and tools such as GIS and Remote Sensing are very useful in getting an understanding of your area of interest. This includes traditional data That is quite well known, but not widely used outside expert areas. What I feel is that some gains are in spreading the use of these tools around the EP bussiness. Cross Sections through the earth surface may also be considered as 2D data, though they also have considerable value in the 3D modelling process. Well, I would consider them do be 3D, mostly because they represent the Z axis. Ah, then talking about the Z axis, we have a big issue. Geologists talk about Z in an altimetry sense. Sealevel is 0, above sealevel is positive. Engineers usually talk about Z in a depth sense. Land surface or seabottom is zero, below is positive. Geophysicists further confuse things, because they talk use travel time in the vertical direction and sometimes Z also represents depth. So, we have two different domains for the vertical axis and two different sets of views for one of them. - Sonar, sesimic etc data is also 'spatial' data. That was easy =] Seismic is also 4D (non-continuous time). Sonar and other seabottom surveys can also be time-lapse. - There are dedicated Petroleum systems that you may be interested in e.g Petrosys, dbmap etc. I am not aware of any of these two, let alone the et cetera part of it. - When it comes to modelling Geoscientific data, the variety and depth of inter-relationships of aspatial requirements is probably beyond the ability of most (if not all) GIS to manage effectively. What you mean with aspatial? What kinds of data? You may want to have a look at the work happening with GeoSciML and the 'One Geology' project for more background on this. See: Interesting on a quick glance. Will delve into it. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Propietary vs. FOSS4GIS round-table in Spain
2007/12/26, Miguel Montesinos [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi to everybody, - Alfonso Rubio (Top Manager at ESRI Spain): [2] from an intellectual point of view, I wonder that if free software is a software with freedom to be modified at any time, that is just the opposite of guaranteeing that we are able to work with standards, because any user, or even any implementation, can modify it - A. Rubio (ESRI) in a 2nd talk: [3] it seems that standard support is less guaranteed with free software from an intellectual point of view and finally: a standard -in the end- is a boring thing - Rubén Andreani (Top Manager at Intergraph Spain): [4] How much does it cost to make a software and to maintain it? There's a gossip which says that a version of a GIS software costs around 100-200 million $ ... so, obviously the software cannot be free (for *gratis*) because money has to come from anywhere. wow, Those guys are really into FUD. However, that is an _old_ FUD that has been dispelled in the las 5 years due to the enormous success achieved by free operating systems, and database engines. Also, ESRI Spain is shooting its own foot, as GDAL/OGR (and PROJ) is free software and built inside Arc*. cheers! -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] Here comes the RAT (Radar Tools)
SlashGeo is carrying a worthwile piece of news: More G/FOSS (I hate that acronym), a SAR processing package! http://technology.slashgeo.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/19/1742251 http://www.cv.tu-berlin.de/rat/ -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Proposal Software Translation Portal
2007/9/21, Dave Patton [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Markus Neteler wrote: Hi, Making use of the Translation Project might open the door to the existing pool of translators who are already used to working with .po files because they are already working on translations in many languages for many projects. Yeah. Probably you are right, Dave. But some people maight have issues with the disclaimer: http://translationproject.org/html/whydisclaim.html I still don't have an opinion on that. Just stating that some people _might_ have issues. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] arcGIS and Grass compatibility
2007/9/14, RAVI KUMAR [EMAIL PROTECTED]: for the 'Indian scene', moving to FOSS GIS is the only way GIS can help at all levels. Hi Ravi, I feel the same applies here in Brazil. But I feel MS is way too entwined in peoples mind, so a move to FOSS generally is a hard way. With GIS I would say that big Corps (like the one I work to) are not going to FOSS, mainly because money is not an issue. Govs on the other side, have to be persuaded, and we are seeing a slow, but seemingly steady movement in that direction. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] arcGIS and Grass compatibility
2007/9/13, k4mik4ze [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hello, I would like to know everything about migration proyects from arcGIS to Grass, can i create a web interface so users in a department can access all GIS data? Can i migrate arcGIS data to grass? Thanks First, you have to know : why would you want to do such a move? are the users willing or wanting to do that move? do they have experience (or even training) in GRASS do they have with linux/unix? do you have experience with linux/unix? Reading all those migration strategies from windows to linux might help too. As for the second question: yes you can _access_ your GIS data over the web, see, e.g. MapServer. With some PyWPS magic is possible to even process some data with GRASS over the web. For the third, with a little help from GDAL/OGR, it may be possible to migrate your data, but that I'll leave to more seasoned people here. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] SlashGeo
2007/7/10, Cory Horner [EMAIL PROTECTED]: ...is going down Any attempts to rescue/salvage it? Perhaps OSGeo could help bail it out financially, and some volunteers might take up the administration side? Cory, Satri, the site owner, has clearly stated that the issue is that publishing the site is taking time from his famuly. He would like to have some other editors to work with him. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo Brasil List created
Hi All, follows the first post and announcement message sent to various lists regarding the creation of the list. As I know there are some portuguese speakers here that aren't on other lists. So Here it goes (in portuguese) Also, non brazilians, but otherwise portuguese speakers are invited. BTW, feel free to spread the word. == Convido os interessados a participar da Open Source Geospatial Foundation - Capítulo Brasileiro, a ingressar na lista de discussão oficial. A inscrição pode ser feita no endereço: http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/brasil Ainda, comunico que há um Wiki, todas as contribuições são bem-vindas. http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Brasil Para começar, gostaria de provocar os participantes do III ENUM a colocarem aqui o resumo do que foi discutido e a divisão de tarefas proposta. O Site da OSGeo também permite inscrições: http://www.osgeo.org Por fim, comunico que os moderadores da lista somos eu, o Rafael Sperb e o Tyler Mitchel. Talvez isso mude no futuro =] []s -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: reply-to - was Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] THIRD BRAZILIAN MAPSERVER USER'S MEETING
2007/5/17, Dave Patton [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Allan Doyle wrote: I would suggest to avoid the dangerous reply-to modification of this list. If it is more likely that a person initiating a reply to a mailing list posting will want the reply to go to the list, This is one of the eternally recurring topic on mail lists. I suggest it to be left the way it is, maybe with a warning in the footer of the message. From my experience, either way you would have messages going the wrong way once in a while. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo Journal Now Available
2007/5/16, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On 15-May-07, at 1:06 PM, Helton Uchoa wrote: Is there any information about permission for publish in another language? Good question. Before I tackle the republishing rights question, I'd like to know if there are any others out there who are hoping to translate some/all of the Journal? I think I can work together with Helton in the Portuguese translation. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: open geospatial data access
Rather than choose among these, I am actually going to talk about all of the above in Atibaia two weeks from now. These activities, however, concentrate on the data side, although Paulo's suggestions are only possible if, along with the technology, the legal and cultural hurdles are also tackled. To that end, encouraging the open geospatial players in Latin America to take the lead in licensing/contractual issues would be very important. OSGeo's geodata licensing group offers a space for them to get involved and take the debate/discussion beyond Canado-Euro-American framework. Atibaia is a nice, quiet town. Look for the Bragança sausages, they are awesome! The weather should be very good right now. Anyway, thanks for your ideas. Helps me rightfully spread the OSGeo ideas. If you have more, please do send them my way, as collectively you know way more than any one person does. During may there will be the Mapserver user conference in Brasilia, I hope to be there. We shall see the formation of the Brazilian OSGeo Chapter, maybe you could post a short report of your findings in Atibaia, so we can tie things together. I assume there are going to be lots of people from leading universities and gov. agencies. -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] open geospatial data access
2007/4/18, P Kishor [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Dear all, I particularly welcome ideas from OSGeo/list members who are from Latin America. So, thinking solely of advancing the cause of open access to digital geospatial information -- First of all, there is no such thing as a latin american culture. There are big differences among all countries in the region, with different mindsets and legal systems. Take the Mercosur for instance. Despite being discussed since long ago, very little has been achieved. The FLOSS cause is spreading in the region, but the data access thing is only starting to surface. One thing I see with great discomfort is the way some brazilians like to do things. Being brazilian myself, and living in Brazil, I feel free to comment on such things. Some of my countrymen like to do this sort of stuff through government agencies, or via political parties. IMHO, this has been counterproductive to the goal of spreading FLOSS. In some states where the approach has been more technical than ideological, things are moving fast and it seems to be no turning back. One thing I notice about the government workers is that they really value technical expertise, and the technical merits of a solution. Not so with appointed officers - they usualy like what gives them good press, or any press at all. So, if I can say anything, focus on technical aspects and advantages of open [geo]data policies are paramount to get thing moving. I already see some initiatives from inside gov. agencies, maybe they need a bit more of impulse =] Trying to answer you questions: What would such an activity be? I think the best way to accomplish any task this big is by doing it in small pieces. Maybe we could get some interest moving in the universities, maybe each country could host its own geodata, or geodata data was generatd for it's use. This is one of the most important points: where to store/where to search for this information? Who could be involved in it? National Mapping Agencies are obvious candidates, but as we saw recently with the UK Ordnance, changes may not happen for the best :( Utility companies may have vary accurate data on their area, so we should look for them and have they release data that may serve us, like topographic maps and aerial photos. Producers of imagery, either satellite or photogrametric, may be willing to release some older stuff they might have. Also, should be wise to win some backing from funding agencies, like FAPESP, they have enough funds to run the infra-structure (network bandwitdth, storage space and the like) What would be the main steps to initiating and running it? First challenge would be to get people interested, let them do the evangelizing inside their agencies. 2. get the agencies to release their data 3. create a single repository - so there would be one shop to rule them all =] 4. This is the main challenge: keep the structure running How long could this take? forever =] Now, serioulsy it would be best done if the project could mature during one president's mandate. Knowing how tides change here. The project stand a better chance if started and matured within the 4 years of presidency. I say this because it may not be the NMA that will run the repo, we may have to resource to them to release some data. What would be the recognizable milestones? I would put milestones per state (estado or departamento), 1. all catalog imagery online 2. all basic cartography online on scales 1:25 (or more detailed) 3. all major cities with census data 4. all map data in SHP (it seems to me to be the least common denominator) , with all meta-data provided (e.g.: geoid, datum, date, agency responsible...) 5. relevant OCG web services openly available. 6. data available for downloading, geotorrent, etc. 7. gov. information available: gov. buildings, police and fire stations, political boundaries just 2 cents of Real... not really very much =] I think i covered the most obvious points -- Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX -22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc Debian GNU/Linux = http://rj.debianbrasil.org = http://www.debian.org http://www.kombato.org - Seja seu próprio guarda-costas ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
