Activities of the FOSS4G

Jan. 22nd 2008Toru Mori

Orkney, Inc.

Geo Grid IT Special Session

My profile● Toru Mori– President of Orkney, Inc.– FOSS4G advocate!– Representative of OSGeo Foundation Japan– Translator of “Web Mapping Illustrated” authored by

Tyler Mitchell (O'reilly Media, 2006)– A wife and 2 children– Enjoy the amateur radio communication– Love eating fish and sushi

Orkney, Inc.● About Orkney, Inc.– an open source business solution provider located

in Yokohama, Japan, specializing in GIS and LBS technologies.

– Established in 2002– 19 employees– International team

● German, Russian, French, Thai and Japanese– Supporting FOSS4G tools and OSGeo foundation

● First internationalized MapServer and GRASS● Hosting OSGeo Foundation Japan office● Sponsor of the FOSS4G conference

What Orkney does...

Web mapping application development

Geographical information systems development

&

Based on FOSS4G technologies

What's going on in the geospatial fields?

No.1Integration with

the “Web Main Streem”

Geospatial goes to Web● Geospatial field has been integrated into the Web– Geospatial is now a part of the Internet– Geospatial is not “isolated island” any more

Geo

Internet InternetGeo

What does this mean?● Geospatial follows the rules of the internet– Even ESRI, giant in the GIS industry, cannot control

it● Internet– Unified rule– Open standard and open Architecture– Therefore...

● Everybody can enjoy, join and even provide services as his/her wishes

Maps go to Web● Free mapping services– GoogleMaps

● Opened Pandora's box– Map scrolls without plug-in– Map + Satellite photo– Free to use API

– Mash Up boom● Made mapping services commodity in the overall web

search services and web itself– Any web developer can easily add mapping features

Many Followers● Potal sites– Yahoo!, MSN Live...

● Local mapping service providers– MapQuest and others

● Common trend– Free services– Free contents– Mash-up and blog parts are available

● No more hurdles in adopting mapping services● More options for users

However,It is just the tip of the

iceberg...

Actually,There is a movement that

changes the current geospatial world thoroughly

That isPenetration of FOSS4G

No.2Penetration of FOSS4G

FOSS4G● Free Open Source Software for Geospatial– Free open sourced software in the geospatial field

– Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) supports the community

http://www.osgeo.org/

OSGeo● Open Source Geospatial Foundation– Global organization– Local chapters

● China, French, India, Japan, Australia, Brazilian, German, Greek, Taiwan....

– Established in Feb. 2006– Community of community

● 5 web mapping, 4 desktop applications, 4 geospatial libraries, 2 metadata catalog and 2 others

– Supports and promotes FOSS4G tools– Holds annual conference called “FOSS4G”

Now FOSS4G means more● Open Source Software– Program Source codes which are opened to everybody

for free to use● Open Standard– Standardized protocols or formats opened to everybody

for free to use● Open Data Contents– Data contents which are opened to everybody for free

to use

For all about Geospatial!

Open Source Software● Grew up with the Internet penetration– Many of geospatial tools have been developed

since around 2001– Got widely used after around 2004

● Rich features, stable and internationalization● Fast international development scheme by

taking advantages of the Internet– World wide contributors from company, university

and labs● Active discussions in the mailing lists● Development for 24×7×365

24x7...

Open Source Software Examples● MapServer– Web mapping engine– Many features, high performance and stable– Most used in the world over 10,000 live sites

● PostGIS– Powerful spatial data extension to PostgreSQL– Similar to Spatial extension to Oracle

● PostLBS– Routing and Geocoding library runs on

PostGIS/PostgreSQL

Open Source Software Examples● GRASS– Powerful geographic analysis desktop tool– Varieties of image analysis features even more than

commercial tools● QGIS– Easy to use geographic data management desktop

tool

Open Source Software Examples● GDAL/OGR– Geographic data access library supports several

dozens of data formats– No need to develop data conversion tool

● Google Earth and ArcGIS use this tool● OpenLayers– Web AJAX client– provides rich features more than Google Maps

● Supports OGC web service specifications● Add your web service onto Google Maps

Open Source community● Small core team, but large community support

FOSS４G

Contributing developer, tester

Contributing supporter, promoter

Commercial vendor (non-open source)

● Large commercial organization, spend huge marketing budget to attract customers

CommercialVendor

In-house developer, tester

In-house sales and marketing resources

Open Standard● Standardized protocols or formats defined by

non-profit organizations and released to everybody for free to use– As long as following open standards, you can

integrate your systems consists of different software vendors

● OGC（Open Geospatial Consortium) defines Geospatial standards– i.e.

● GeoWeb service (WMS,WFS,WCS,WPS etc)● Geo data format (GML,KML)

Open standards network FOSS4G tools

FOSS4GTool

MapServer

MapGuideOpensource

GDAL/OGROpenLayers

GeoServer

QGIS

GRASS GISPostGIS

You can integrate your system without caring about software vendor

Commercial vendor...

Vendor X

Vendor XProduct C

Vendor YProduct

FOSS4G toolFOSS4G tool

Vendor WProduct

Vendor ZProduct

Vendor XProduct B

Vendor XProduct A

A commercial vendor recommends its products, might supports some other tools, but may not support other useful software tools

GeoWeb services can be developed by FOSS4G tools and Open standards

PostgreSQL

PC

MapServerJUMP/QGIS

PostGIS

Cellphone

Visualize

PDA

Content management

POIMap Other contents

Client

Server

GeocoderGeocoding

PostLBSRoutingSpatial Database

Open Standards

FOSS4G Tools

Open data contents● Geospatial data contents which everybody can

use it for (almost) free

● Two Types– (almost) free data released by government

● TIGER( U.S.), GeoBase(Canada), Suchi-Chizu(Japan)– OpenStreetMap

● Free data made by people● http://www.openstreetmap.org/

– “Make map” project in collaborative way by people– Started from London U.K.

OpenStreetMap (London, U.K.)

OpenStreetMap(New York, U.S.)

OpenStreetMap(Cape Town, South Africa)

OpenStreetMap(Beijing, China)

OpenStreetMap(Bangkok, Thai)

OpenStreetMap(Tokyo, Japan)

FOSS4G is an Eco-system● People make, share, use and update– Not only locally but globally via the Internet– Without any restrictions to use– Save marketing costs like commercial vendors

spend– Enjoy rich features, stable systems, fast

development, rich technological knowledge– Available local support groups and companies,

trainers● FOSS4G makes everybody happy, except for

Bill Gates...

Sample sites using

FOSS4G tools

City information service (Souka-city, Japan)

Information service for citizens and tourists

FOSS4G tools MapServer PHP/MapScript Ka-map PostGIS/PostgreSQL

http://orkney.jp/soukacity/

Petroleum and Natural Gas Exploration and Production Web-Database-GIS system by ICEP

● For professional

● FOSS4G tools– MapServer– PHP/MapScript– p-mapper– PostGIS/PostgreS

QL

https://icep11.icep.or.jp/pgdb/#

MapMobiliry (Canada)

● Largest map publisher in Canada– Mapping service– Geocoding service– Routing service

● FOSS4G tools– MapServer– PostGIS/PostgreSQL– OpenLayers– PostLBS

http://maps.mapmobility.com/

http://wrs.postlbs.org/geobase.html

Thank you very much!

moritoru@orkney.co.jp