3OCT2006
ADAGUC
Webservices, aka Geoservices
The realisation of an SDI at the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (VenW)
Wim de Haas, projectmanager
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 2
Outline
• Aim of this presentation• Brief introduction of the Ministry• Geoservices• OSS• Historical perspective and user view• Pittfalls beyond the usual suspects• Conclusions
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 3
Deliverables ADAGUC
• Open Source conversion tools• Selected atmospheric datasets in GIS
format• Web service to demonstrate the
usability of the above to the geospatial and atmospheric community.
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 4
Aim of this presentation
• To share experiences on the development and use of OS Geotools
• To give inside information on the practical use of OSS in a central government, showcasing Geoservices
• To give some points of view on the mechanisms in the OSS field
3OCT2006
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Putt’s Law
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
3OCT2006
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The Ministry of Transport, etc.
The core tasks of V&W are:• to offer protection against floods • to guarantee safe and reliable
connections over land, water and through the air
• to ensure clean and sufficient water
• Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is the executive branche of the Ministry of Transport
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ADAGUC 7
Water-based infrastructure
Water-based infrastructure under Rijkswaterstaat management :
State-managed waters: approx. 850 km of major rivers, approx. 300 km of major canals; North Sea; Delta region; Wadden Sea; IJsselmeer region
• Flood defences: 300 km out of a total of 3565 km of primary flood defences
• Water management structures: 10 dams, 9 discharge sluices, 2 guard locks, 50 navigation locks
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 8
Land-based infrastructure
Land-based infrastructure under Rijkswaterstaat management :
• 3250 km of main roads (of which > 2100 km of motorway), approx. 1000 km with traffic control systems
• 14 tunnels, 7 road traffic control centres, 91 DRIPs, 51 Entry Point devices, 11 rush hour lanes, 5 wildlife overpasses
Total economic value: approx. EUR 25 billion
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 9
Geoservices (1)
Geoservices solutions facilitate communication between departments:
• By standardizing on open interfaces• Using OGC standards• Design principle: All applications will be
designed as a network of services • The motto: Build whatever you want to
build guided by Geoservices, unless you have solid reasons to go without
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 10
Geoservices (2)
• Geoservices = Open Standards• Geoservices = Architecture built on OGC
interfaces (WMS,WFS,WCS,SLD,GML)• Geoservices =
– Data visualisation– Data access– Data discovery– Metadata
• Current focus on technical interoperability, not semantic interoperability
• BTW: VenW, so KNMI too, is member of OGC
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 11
Geoservices (3)
Bind
Publish
Registry
Requestor Provider
Find
2. Requestor localizes data/service
1. Provider publices data and services at Registry
3. Requestor start service
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 12
Geoservices (4)
OSS :
• Mapserver v4.8
• GDAL
• OGR
• Chameleon v2.4
• GeoServer v1.0
• Deegree v1.0
• Mapbuilder v1.0
Proprietary software :
• IONIC RedSpiderWeb, Catalog, Enterprise
• ESRI ArcGIS, ArcIMS, ArcSDE
• Oracle Spatial 10g r1
• LizardTech
Still: GIS friendlyness is our focus
netCDFWCS support funded by
NASA
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 13
OSS (Thanks to Paul Ramsey)
• By definition: software in which the code is available for distribution and modification
• A lot to choose from: BSD, MIT, GPL, LGPL
• What makes some OSS projects successful and others not?
• Can we measure the success of OSS projects?
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ADAGUC 14
Successful OSS projects and how to measure them
A community of shared interest is what drives a successful project
• The software itself is designed in a modular manner
• The software is extremely well documented
• The software core design and development process is transparent
• The core team itself is modular and transparent
• IP rights: provenance tracking
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 15
Outline
• Aim of this presentation• Brief introduction of the Ministry• Geoservices• OSS• Historical perspective and user
view• Pittfalls beyond the usual suspects• Conclusions
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 16
Historical perspective: Gartner (2003) on Open Source Applications
2000-2004: Under the radar
Me-too extensions
User is developer
Basics in place
Innovation
Start Geoservices
Technical maturity
Skills availability
Service and support
Change management
Risk management
Total costs
Relevant standards
Geoservices considered a stable
product
2006-
Trusting?
Stack alignment
ISV support
Acquisition costs
Product ‘repurposing’
Niche roles
Awareness Geoservices
2004-2006:
Experimenting
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 17
Historical perspective:OSS: Real Benefits, Hidden Costs
Open-Source SoftwareOpen-Source Software
Selection/Audit Fees
Disposal and
Replacement
Costs
Internal Support
Skill Transfer
andTraining
Internal Maintenance
andDevelopment
PoliticalHype
SocialMovement
Mktg. Hype
MutualDev. Model
LicensingModel
Benefits
No Licenses(Upfront or Upgrade)
No Over-
commitment
No Supplieror License
ManagementNo OngoingMaintenance
PeerSupport Groups
Quality Assurance
After Gartner 2003
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 18
Political hype
• Motie Vendrik 20NOV2002: government shall stimulate the use of OSS and open standards, pursuing that in 2006 all government bodies shall adopt open standards
• Succeeded by a statement of the minister of Economic Affairs on 2FEB2004: new legislation to lower the barriers for smaller and younger companies to do business with the government
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ADAGUC 19
Costs: Internal maintenance and development
• DIY: you’re at the steering wheel• Fun if you like it: change management,
release cycles is more of an issue compared to traditional software development opportunities for OSS companies (packaging)
• It’s all about creating trust both internally and externally
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 20
Benefits: Quality guarantee
• OSS provides an excellent tool for keeping ALL vendors on edge: true interoperability is not something written down in a white paper, but proofs itself only in real production environments
• OSS fits the equation
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ADAGUC 21
Remember Putt’s Law?
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 22
The not so obvious pittfalls (1)
First comment on Putt’s Law: • A third type of people can be identified
who neither manage nor understand the technology, whether it be OSS or Open Standards: the end-users
• And after all, why should they?– Why rebuild everything we already have– Open standards may be working, but what about
my functionality?
• A technology driven programme contrasts with functionality driven users
3OCT2006
ADAGUC 23
The not so obvious pittfalls (2)
Users, management and IT have different perspectives:
• Users are data centered, IT is services centered, and management has a strong budget focus and they all have different timescales
• In R&D environments end-users are developers too
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Concluding remarks
• Everybody can exchange geo-information via the geoservices framework
• OSS is not for the faint at heart• OSS is not longer developer centric, but
instead, users are becoming more into play
• After burner: the only successful SDI’s are backed up by legislation: European Water Directive, INSPIRE
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Some application screenshots
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Implementatie 2
3OCT2006
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Implementatie 3
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Implementatie 4
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URL’s
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/apps/geoservices/portaal/
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/services/geoservices/basispakket/dtb?
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/services/geoservices/basispakket/grenzen?
