OSGeo News

The fourth annual North American codesprint is only 3 months away!

*** Space is limited, so you need to register in advance ***

The sprint will be February 5-9, 2012, at IslandWood -- a small retreat center in the Pacific Northwest. This sprint has always attracted a great mix of people from a number of different OSGeo-related projects, and it serves as a great opportunity for some dedicated face time for project collaboration, from bug stomping to future release planning.

If you're a developer on an open source geospatial project, please consider coming to the codesprint. You'll have some dedicated development time for yourself, you'll be abel to work with others on your projects, and you'll have a chance to interact with key developers from other projects. All in the woods on a small island in the Puget Sound.

Wiki page: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/IslandWood_Code_Sprint_2012
Contact: email mpg@flaxen.com for more info or to register.

The newly revived OSGeo Dutch Chapter, a.k.a. OSGeo.nl (see http://osgeo.nl) together with the Dutch OpenStreetMap community is organizing an informal new years gathering in a cosy cafe downtown Utrecht, The Netherlands. This is for OSGeo.nl and OSM NL members plus folks interested in joining these communities. For details see http://www.meetup.com/OSGeoNL/events/46060652 and http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Nederlands

OSGeo Community,

I am ready to announce the results of the 2011 Charter Member Election.

Note that we had a tie for the 20th slot, so I decided to welcome 21 new charter members for this year instead of 20 since that still fits within the limits of 20% new charter members set by the board at the 2011-09-17 board meeting (i.e. 20% of 104 = 20.8)

The new charter members for 2011 are (in alphabetical order):
• Bob Basques
• Brian Case
• Eric Lemoine
• Even Rouault
• G.Hanumantha Rao
• Gabriel Roldán
• Jachym Cepicky
• Lluís Vicens
• Luca Delucchi
• Maning Sambale
• Margherita Di Leo
• Martin Daly
• Martin Landa
• Massimo Di Stefano
• Nicolas Bozon
• Sanghee Shin
• Stephen Woodbridge
• Suchith Anand
• Tim Sutton
• Xianfeng Song
• Yoicihi Kayama

Those results are published on the wiki.

The official list on the website should also be updated soon at http://www.osgeo.org/charter_members

A warm welcome to our new charter members, and thank you to all candidates who didn't make it… it was a matter of only a few votes, so maybe next year?

Daniel Morissette (OSGeo CRO, 2011)

OSGeo Community,

It is time to once again nominate new OSGeo charter members. We need you to pick out the folks you think would bring energy and interest to the OSGeo mission and bring their names forward!

Only OSGeo members can vote for OSGeo directors, and only OSGeo members can be OSGeo directors, so membership is a necessary gateway to more official involvement in the organization.

The process for Member selection is outlined here:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Election_2011#Charter_Member_Election

This year we are adding 20 new charter members and the deadline for nominations is November 17, 2010.

Please confirm with the nominated person first and send your nominations to cro at osgeo.org, outlining the name and contact e-mail of your nominee(s) and and paragraph describing why you are recommending this person as a Charter Member.

Please also feel free to cc: the nomination to the OSGeo discussion list - discuss at lists.osgeo.org - so the community can be nudged along and have a sense of what is going on.

The new Member election will be held in the succeeding week and close on November 27. The results will be announced two days after that.

Thanks,

Daniel Morissette
OSGeo Chief Returning Officer, 2011

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) signs Memorandum of Understanding

Nuremberg, Germany
September 27, 2011

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of developing on a global basis collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organizations in open source GIS software and data. The MoU aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centres across the world for supporting development of open-source geospatial software technologies, training and expertise. In the first phase five laboratories will be established, one each in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Australasia which will act as nodes for future expansion. It also aims to provide support for building-up and supporting development of open source GIS teaching and training materials, joint organization of open source GIS events, workshops through the ICA network for wider participation globally etc.

Professor Georg Gartner, President of the ICA, said "The International Cartographic Association (ICA) is committed to supporting society and governments by collaboratively facilitating initiatives and programmes that establish and grow the capacity to deliver timely, comprehensive and useful geospatial information. This MoU responds to the challenges and issues related to the use of open source cartographic and GI software and data. In considering this response, it is pertinent to note that ICA is interested in contributing to this initiative, and will champion the advancement of the initiative through their various individual and collaborative efforts.”

Arnulf Christl, President of OSGeo, said "The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is committed to support and build the highest level Open Source geospatial technology. It is our pleasure to be able to serve as a platform and multiplier for the cartographic domain, an area which needs creativity beyond pure technology. This MoU intends to bridge the gap between technology and cartographic requirements and we very much look forward to work with members of the International Cartographic Association to improve this. A very much hands-on objective of this MoU is to jointly organize walk-in events where cartographic professionals can access and use a set of software unencumbered by proprietary restrictions and vendor lock-in.Both organizations are also interested in supporting young academics by lowering the barrier to good cartography through collaborative efforts on both sides."

Dr Suchith Anand, Chair of ICA Commission on Open Source Geospatial Technologies welcomed this excellent initiative and said "this will be landmark opportunity for both OSGeo and ICA in building up synergies and bringing opportunities for lots of people worldwide to learn and benefit from geospatial technologies especially in developing countries. This will build upon the Open Source Geospatial Lab UK initiative started at the University of Nottingham. We are also pleased to announce that Open Source Geospatial Lab Malaysia is now being established by Dr. Tuong Thuy Vu. We are pleased to see many Universities are rapidly following this example (such as University of Girona in Spain). Over the next few months we will be building collaborations with key Universities and research organisations worldwide for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Research Laboratories and Research Centres for development of open-source geospatial software technologies, training, expertise and building up momentum in Open Source GIS education and research worldwide."

OSGeo is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies and data.

ICA is the world authoritative body for cartography, the discipline dealing with the conception, production, dissemination and study of maps.

Version 5.0 of the OSGeo-Live GIS software collection has been released. 

OSGeo-Live is a self-contained bootable DVD, USB flash drive and Virtual Machine based upon Ubuntu Linux that is pre-configured with a wide variety of robust open source geospatial software. 

The applications can be trialled without installing anything on your computer, simply by booting the computer from the DVD or USB drive. 

A DVD or USB of OSGeo-Live is being distributed to every delegate at the upcoming international conference for Free and Open Source Software, http://2011.foss4g.org.

Homepage: http://live.osgeo.org

Highlights

• 47 Quality GeoSpatial Open Source applications installed and pre-configured
• Quality free world maps
• One page overviews and quick starts for all applications
• Overviews of key OGC standards
• Translations for Greek, German, Polish, Spanish and Japanese

Contents

Browser Clients

• OpenLayers 2.10 - Browser GIS Client
• Geomajas - 1.8 Browser GIS Client
• Mapbender 2.7.2 - Geoportal Framework
• MapFish 2.2 - Web Mapping Framework
• GeoMoose 2.4 - Web GIS Portal

Crisis Management

• Sahana Eden 0.5.5 - Disaster management
• Ushahidi 2.1 - Mapping and Timeline for events

Databases

• PostGIS 1.5 - Spatial Database
• SpatiaLite 2.3.1 / 2.4 beta - Lightweight Database
• Rasdaman 8.2 - Multi-Dimensional Raster Database
• pgRouting 1.05 - Routing for PostGIS

Desktop GIS

• Quantum GIS (QGIS) 1.7.0
• GRASS GIS 6.4.1
• gvSIG Desktop 1.11
• User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig) 1.2.2
• Kosmo Desktop 2.0.1
• OpenJUMP GIS 1.4.0.1
• SAGA 2.0.7
• OSSIM 1.8.6 - Image Processing
• Geopublisher 1.7 - Catalogue
• AtlasStyler 1.7 - Style Editor
• osgEarth 2.0 - 3D Terrain Rendering

Navigation and Maps

• GpsDrive 2.11 - GPS Navigation
• Marble 1.0.2 - Spinning Globe
• OpenCPN 2.5.0 - Marine GPS Chartplotter
• OpenStreetMap Tools - JOSM, Merkaartor, Gosmore, Osmarender
• Prune 12 - View, Edit and Convert GPS Tracks
• Viking 9.9.94 - GPS Data Analysis and Viewer
• zyGrib 5.0 - Weather Forecast Maps

Spatial Tools

• GeoKettle 2.0-RC1 - ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) Tool
• GDAL/OGR 1.8.0 - GeoSpatial Data Translation Tools
• GMT 4.5.2 - Cartographic Rendering
• Mapnik 0.7.1 - Cartographic Rendering
• MapTiler 1.0beta2 - Create Map Tiles
• OTB 3.10 - Image Processing
• R Spatial Task View 2.12.1 - Statistical Programming

Web Services

• GeoServer 2.1.1
• MapServer 6.0.1
• deegree 3.0
• GeoNetwork 2.6.4 - Metadata Catalog and Catalog Services for Web
• MapProxy 1.1.1 - Proxy WMS & tile services
• QGIS Server 1.7.0 - Web Map Service
• 52°North WSS 2.2.0 - Web Security Service
• 52°North WPS - 2.0 RC6 - Web Processing Service
• 52°North SOS - 3.2.0 Sensor Observation Service
• TinyOWS 1.0 - WFS-T Service
• ZOO Project 1.0.0 - Web Processing Service

Data

• Natural Earth 1.3.1 - Geographic Data Sets
• OSGeo's North Carolina, USA Educational dataset
• OpenStreetMap - Sample extract from OpenStreetMap

Geospatial Libraries

• GeoTools - Java GIS Toolkit
• MetaCRS - Coordinate Reference System Transformations
• libLAS - LiDAR Data Access

Credits

Over 80 people have directly helped with OSGeo-Live packaging, documenting and translating, and thousands have been involved in building the packaged software.

Packagers, documenters and translators include: Activity Workshop, Agustín Díez, Aikaterini Kapsampeli, Alan Boudreault, Alexandre Dube, Alex Mandel, Andrea Antonello, Andrea Yanza, Angelos Tzotsos, Anne Ghisla, Anton Patrushev, Argyros Argyridis, Astrid Emde, Brian Hamlin, Bruno Binet, Cameron Shorter, Christos Iossifidis, Dane Springmeyer, Daniel Kastl, David Terrativa, Diego González, Dominik Helle, Eike Hinderk Jürrens, Eric Lemoine, Etienne Dube, Fran Boon, François Prunayre, Frank Gasdorf, Gavin Treadgold, Gérald Fenoy, Hamish Bowman, Haruyuki Seki, Henry Addo, Hernan Olivera, Howard Butler, Ian Turton, Jackie Ng, Jan Drewnak, Javier Sanchez, Jesús Gómez, Jim Klassen, Jody Garnett, Johan Van de Wauw, Jorge Sanz, José Antonio Canalejo, Judit Mays, Klokan Petr Pridal, Kristof Lange, Lance McKee, Lars Lingner, Lucía Sanjaime, Mage Whopper, Manuel Grizonnet, Marco Puppin, Mark Leslie, Massimo Di Stefano, Mauricio Miranda, Mauricio Pazos, Michael Owonibi, Mike Adair, Milena Nowotarska, Nathaniel V. Kelso, Ned Horning, Nobusuke Iwasaki, Oliver Tonnhofer, Òscar Fonts, Otto Dassau, Pedro-Juan Ferrer, Pirmin Kalberer, Ricardo Pinho, Ruth Schoenbuchner, Samuel Mesa, Sergio Baños, Simon Cropper, Simon Pigot, Stefan A. Tzeggai, Stefan Hansen, Steve Lime, Thierry Badard, Thomas Baschetti, Trevor Wekel, Valenty Gonzalez, and Yoichi Kayama.

Sponsoring organisations:

• LISAsoft provides sustaining resources and staff toward the management and packaging of software onto the Live DVD. http://www.lisasoft.com
• Information Center for the Environment at the University of California, Davis provides hardware resources and development support to the OSGeo Live project. http://ice.ucdavis.edu
• The DebianGIS and UbuntuGIS teams provide and quality-assure many of the core packages. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianGis and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGIS