geomantic

I’m just coming round to nice general interest interview with Tyler Mitchell in Linux Journal. Tyler is the Executive Director (and chief evangelist) of the Open Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). For those of you who have been attending FOSS4G for the last few years, you won’t find much (besides a concise summary) that you weren’t already aware of. But for those of you new to, or just getting in to the world of free and open source geospatial software (FOSS4G), you’ll find a nice, general interest introduction to FOSS4G and OSGeo.

A good portion of the interview focuses on what constitutes open source GIS and how it differs from proprietary software. Tyler points out the flexibility inherent in the open source software ’stack’, which is a big shift in thinking for most of us paleo-geographers who cut started our careers with proprietary software. The shift being that the user must tailor the software stack to make it work together. Tyler quite rightly points out that the desktop model is the one that new open source users struggle with the most. This is in large measure because many GIS users have grown their skills in a desktop (client-server) model and many GIS shops have evolved from self-contained, turn-key systems where staff have little experience in cobbling together bits and pieces of the open source stack in order to get a fully-functional desktop.

The topics I wish had recieved more attention are in the last half of the interview and discuss the rapidly maturing open source geospatial initiatives. Since its establishment, OSGEO has served as a focal point for moving open source geospatial software from the realm of hobbyist and tinkerers to robust and rapidly maturing products. Tyler cites OSGeo educational initiatives and some of the evolving market for services surrounding open source geospatial software. But to get a sense of what he hints at in the article you can get with a quick glance at the OSGeo pages. These you’ll see a new, but rapidly growing community with many projects, a well-structured governance mechanism, and a project incubator.

As an enthusiastic user of open source geospatial software, one of the next steps we need to take in the maturing process is to begin to embed workflow in to the software. This is still an area where proprietary software vendors have open source beat. On the other hand, those vendors have spent many years and untold millions in many vertical markets to come up with industry-specific solutions.

Link to the interview here

Link to OSGeo here