OSGeo News

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) welcomes the initiatives of the CASCADOSS project. It is helping to build solid organisational foundations for those public sector bodies and SMEs which use the Free and Open Source GIS and Remote Sensing projects which OSGeo exists to support.

In carrying out analysis of appropriate software for use in GIS and RS projects relating to the Environment and management of Environmental Information, CASCADOSS is offering a invaluable service to both users and developers of FOSS4G projects.

Documentation and evaluation of software and standards for specific user communities is not a always focus of our software development communities. However, such efforts are necessary to reach our goal of spreading the use of Open Source software and its positive economic/organizational application in to new and broader constituencies. A third-party effort to offer clarity on licensing and future maintenance options to public sectors and SMEs will serve to provide mutual benefit for everyone in the broader FOSS4G community.

An effort like CASCADOSS serves as valuable bridge-building between the free software development community and GIS tools user communities. This is especially helpful for bridging between networks of specialists, scientists and scientific units such as those involved in Europena Union GMES Programme. CASCADOSS also aims to spread information on use of FOSS4G among EU countries with special focus on New Member States. This effort will encourage potential users in the broaden application of FOSS4G solutions.

OSGeo is glad to offer support to CASCADOSS where it can, including promotion of associated events, and re-dissemination of output reports and other documentation.

http://www.cascadoss.eu/en/index.php

It is our great pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Quantum GIS (QGIS) Version 0.10 'Io'. This release includes over 140 bug fixes and stability improvements and introduces several new features including Python support, see below for previews!

Binary and source code packages are available at http://download.qgis.org.

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS), licensed under the GNU General Public License, that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS is Open Source software and its free of cost (download here). It supports vector, raster, and database formats (including the most common ESRI ShapeFile and geotiff). QGIS supports a wide variety of plugins to do things like display tracks from your GPS, and much more. They can be easily managed through the Plugin Manager.

Learn more about the QGIS 0.10 release in Gary Shermans release announcement:

http://blog.qgis.org/changelog_0.10

Learn more about QGIS at:

http://www.qgis.org/

GRASS GIS releases version 6.3.0
23 April 2008
http://grass.osgeo.org

GRASS 6.3.0 is a "technology preview" release, the first beta on the path to GRASS 6.4-stable, and also marks the start of work on GRASS 7. As such GRASS 6.3.0 is not intended to be a stable release with ongoing support, but after five months of quality-assurance review users can be confident to use this version for their day to day work, indeed due to the open development model many already do.

This release brings hundreds of new module features, supported data formats, and language translations, as well as a number of exciting enhancements to the GIS. A prototype of the new wxPython user interface is debuted, and for the the first since its inception with a port from the VAX 11/780 in 1983, GRASS will run on a non-UNIX based platform: MS-Windows. This is currently still in an experimental state and we hope that widespread testing of 6.3.0 will mean the 6.4 release of WinGRASS will be fully functional and robust. Existing users will be happy to know that these new features do not disrupt the base GIS which remains as solid as ever and fully backwards compatible with earlier GRASS 6.0 and GRASS 6.2 releases.

Several infrastructure changes accompany this release with the project becoming a founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). This includes a new home for the website, the Wiki help system, source code repository, community add-on module repository, integrated bug tracking system, and formal membership for the project in a non-profit legal entity. We hope that these changes will guarantee that the GRASS community will be well supported and vibrant well into the future.

The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for spatial modeling, visualization of both raster and vector data, geospatial data management and analysis,
processing of satellite and aerial imagery, and production of sophisticated presentation graphics and hardcopy maps. GRASS combines powerful raster, vector, and geospatial processing engines into a single integrated software package.

The GRASS GIS project is developed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (the GPL) by volunteers the world over. GRASS differs from many other GIS software packages used in the professional world in that it is developed and distributed by users for users, mostly on a volunteer basis, in the open, and is given away for free. Emphasis is placed on interoperability and unlimited access to data as well as on software flexibility and evolution rate. The source code is freely available allowing for immediate customization, examination of the underlying algorithms, addition of new features, and fast bug fixing.

GRASS is currently used around the world in academic and commercial settings as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies.

Software download at http://grass.osgeo.org/download/ and numerous mirror sites.

Full story at http://grass.osgeo.org/announces/announce_grass630.html

OSGeo has selected twenty students to participate in development efforts spread across GRASS, GeoServer, GeoTools, uDig, Mapbender, GDAL, OpenLayers, OpenJUMP and Quantum GIS projects as part of the Google Summer of Code for 2008. Google is providing funding for the selected students, while the project communities are providing mentors to assist the students. A full list of students, mentors and planned developments is available at:

http://code.google.com/soc/osgeo/about.html

OSGeo thanks Google for its support of this great program, and looks forward to the participation of these students in our community.

The OpenLayers Development Team is proud to announce release of OpenLayers 2.6. As of this final release, the OpenLayers 2.6 release closes 294 outstanding tickets, 75% more than any OpenLayers release to date.

This release includes dozens of new features: client side reprojection support, improved styling support, new layers, new controls, and a number of major contributions by users outside the core development community. With the improvements brought by this release of OpenLayers, a variety of new paths for open source mapping on the web are becoming available.

For more on the OpenLayers 2.6 Release, see the Release announcement at
http://trac.openlayers.org/wiki/Release/2.6/Announce/Final .

A friendly reminder of osbootcamp/geocamp2008 on June 2nd and 3rd in Ottawa, Canada. Attendance is free, and there are cool prizes to be won! Accommodation options have been added to the site for those coming from out of town.

http://www.osbootcamp.org/index.php?page=osbc6

Don't forget to join the mailing list to ensure you get information about the event, and so we can estimate likely attendance.

http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/bootcamp08/

At this time we would like to issue a call for presentations and workshops.

Suggested topics:

• Software & Projects (Mapserver, Mapguide, OpenLayers, GDAL/OGR, GEOS, Mapbender, Mapbuilder, GRASS, FDO, OSSIM, gvSVIG) any other open source Geospatial projects I haven't suggested.

• Teaching using open source geospatial software

• Making money using open source geospatial software

• Saving lives, money, or the environment using open source geospatial software

• Issues with open source geospatial software today

• The future of open source geospatial software

If you are interested in doing a talk, please send a brief (<=250 words) abstract to osbootcamp@gmail.com by no later than May 9th, 2008.

Thank you,

osbootcamp/geocamp2008 organizing committee