Introduction to Geospatial

The Open Source Method

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Alex Mandel. University of California, Davis. Nov 2011

You

You and your computer

buy software

$

That's not what I expected

“It's not broken, must be you”

“We might fix that in next 'years' version”

“That's not a bug, that's a feature”

“Our Engineers can't repeat the error”

If it was open source...

1 2

1 & 2 Chat @ Conference

1 2

1 & 2 Chat @ Conference

I need xY

I need Yz

If we collaborate, then we both have

xYz

I wonder who else might find this useful

and add to it?

Y

x z

Q

3

Thanks for xYz, Mind if I add Q?and give it to all my friends?

1

Wherever you work in the future,you'll have access to tools.

Open Licenses, Open Standards

● Open Geospatial Consortium

● kml, gml, wfs (vector)● wms, wcs (raster)● csw (metadata)

● ISO● FGDC

● OpenSourceInitiative ● Creative Commons● Scientific Commons● Free Software

Foundation (FSF)● Electronic Frontier

Foundation (EFF)

Keep it Simple - Copyright● Do whatever you want, the part I give you stays

open.● Same, give me attribution for my part.● Do whatever you want, if you change the part I

give you, you have to share that too.● If you change anything, the license applies to

your code too. (“CopyLeft”)

● Firefox

● LibreOffice/OpenOffice

● Thunderbird

● Filezilla

● Inkscape

● GIMP

● Audacity

● Python

● R

● Linux

Sound Familiar?● Google● Amazon● Facebook● IBM● Hulu

● 499 of the top 500 supercomputers run Linux/Unix/BSD – Nov 2011

It's about choice● “Our clients like open source because it keeps

costs down. We like open source because it gives us the freedom to innovate and build the best possible solutions.” - http://www.refractions.net/

Spend $ onOR

Competition is good for innovation

● 40+ mpg cars● Tabbed Browsing● Smartphones for $0

It's never been a one man band.

● ERDAS● ENVI● MapInfo● Bentley Map/MicroStation● Autodesk various...● SmallWorld● Manifold● IDRISI

Is it one or many?

ArcMap QGIS, OpenJump, Udig, GvSIG

Geoprocessing Ftools Plugin, GRASS, SAGA

Spatial Analyst GRASS, SAGA

3D Analyst GRASS, OSSIM

Geodatabase Spatialite

ArcSDE PostGIS

ArcGIS Server QGIS Server, Geoserver, Mapserver, Deegree, 52N

Flex,JS or Java API OpenLayers, Geomoose, Modest Maps

GPS Analyst Time Manager Plugin, EVIS Plugin

Imagery Analyst (ERDAS) Orfeo, Opticks, ILWIS

Geoportal1, Metadata Catalog Geonetwork, Geonode

Geostatisticl Analyst R

.Net, Python scripting Python, Java, Php, C, C++, .Net, JS

1. ESRI Geoportal was release under an open source license.2. Many packages in R address spatial statistics

OSGeo Live – http://live.osgeo.org

Tough Choices● It's not an either/or question, you can mix proprietary

and open source solutions.● You do need to pay a little attention to file formats.

– Example: ArcGIS project mxd is not openable by any other software, but shapefiles are.

● Flexibility to choose the right tool for each job● No one piece of software is ever going to do everything

you need.● For Scientists open data and repeatability is important.● Enable development of local skills & knowledge.

Use Case

Links you should have

● http://www.osgeo.org - Community● http://www.openstreetmap.org/ - Wiki Map of World● http://publiclaboratory.org - DIY Remote Sensing

● Map Knitter, online georegistration http://mapknitter.org/

● http://qgiscloud.com/ - Push maps to web● http://qgis.org - Desktop GIS● http://slashgeo.org - News● http://gis.stackexchange.com/ - Forums● http://naturalearthdata.com - Free data for pretty maps

Interesting “Companies”

● Development Seed ( http://developmentseed.org/ )● FortiusOne ( www.geocommons.com )● OpenGeo ( www.opengeo.org aka Open Planning Project)● Stamen Designs ( http://stamen.com/ )● Refractions Research ( http://www.refractions.net/ )● Cloudmade ( http://cloudmade.com/ )● Geofabrik ( http://www.geofabrik.de/ )● Sourcepole ( http://www.sourcepole.com )● etc...

Quantum GIS

Part II

Quantum GIS (QGIS)

Tim Sutton http://linfiniti.com/2011/10/qgis-1-7-0-download-stats/

Sometimes GIS feels like home.

Projection on the Fly

Off On

Projections don't always Fly

Off On

Demo Madness

Lots of cool plugins, written by users

OpenStreetMap in Crisis Response

Before After (2 days later)

Haiti, Jan 12 Earthquake

Source: Jonathan Gray, Jan 15, 2010 “Open Street Map community responds to Haiti crisis”Open Knowledge Foundation Blog

Data set in useImage from http://haiti.openstreetmap.nl/

Thanks

● Michele Tobias – airphotos● Tim Sutton – QGIS data● Bill Kendrick – processing tips● LDA 150 students who did the Extra Credit right