Slashgeo

Schuyler writes "We're pleased to announce the version 1.0 release of OpenLayers, a BSD-licensed, pure JavaScript API for building map applications on the Web. OpenLayers offers the ability to display a number of different types of data (e.g. WMS, WFS, point data) in a dynamic, AJAX-driven, "slippy" mapping interface. Additionally, the development version already includes support for ka-Map, World Wind, GeoRSS, Google Maps, MSN Virtual Earth, and Yahoo Maps layers, among others, all of which will appear in upcoming releases. You can get OpenLayers from the project website, and you can see it in action on our gallery page. We look forward to your suggestions and feedback!"

Tim Schaub writes "Ok, you're putting together a new web mapping app and you want good looking data without all the work of hosting it. You might decide to rely on a publicly accessible web mapping service (WMS), but how can you find what's out there? A number of sites have links to these resources, but they come up short if you want to know the extent of the data, or what it looks like. The recently launched http://wms-sites.com/ is an effort to ease your pain. The site houses a growing catalog of useful WMS resources. Each layer (just under 3,000 at this writing) can be browsed in a slippy map interface – kudos to the OpenLayers team. The most useful way to find data is to enter a keyword or two in the search box. Hover over listed results to see the layer extent on a map, or consume the RSS if you prefer GeoRSS in the Resource Description Framework." Read what's left of the announcement with search examples below. See also related stories.

Dave Bouwman not only discuss MapServer, but the installation process of OpenLayers and a WMS server. From the blog: "Again, this is not the least bit earth shattering, and it's a loooong way from a production application or an in-depth understanding, but the total time investment thus far (including this write up) has been a little over one hour. Thus, I think it's safe to say that the basic learning curve here is now in the realm of reasonable. Will your manager set this up? No. But this is no more complex (and may be simpler) than setting up ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server."

From the OSGeo announcement mailing list: "The OSGeo Board has approved the application by the GeoNetwork project, and the OpenLayers project to enter the incubation process, a stepping stone to becoming full fledged OSGeo projects. The OpenLayers project is a pure JavaScript library for displaying map data in a web browser. The GeoNetwork project is a Java catalog application for standards compliant management of data and service metadata. GeoNetwork: http://www.geonetwork-opensource.org, OpenLayers: http://www.openlayers.org, OSGeo Incubation: http://incubator.osgeo.org " What is GeoNetwork? From the website: "GeoNetwork opensource is a Free and Open Source catalog application to manage spatially referenced resources. It provides powerful metadata editing and search functions as well as an embedded interactive web map viewer."

belg4mit writes "Is anyone aware of an existing (FLOSS) software package for community development? I know of various pieces I could cobble together (MapServer, OpenLayers, phpMyAdmin), but am looking for something that'll work seamlessly and be more user friendly. This is for a Community Development Corporation, and they'd like to track and map a variety of attributes for parcels in a neighborhood." I take the occasion to share my best wishes for 2007. Slashgeo.org will be back at full speed in a few days.

The OpenLayers mailing list announced the release of OpenLayers 2.3. Here are the release notes. OpenLayers is in the OSGeo incubation process. From their about: "OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. MetaCarta developed the initial version of OpenLayers and gave it to the public to further the use of geographic information of all kinds. OpenLayers is completely free, Open Source JavaScript, released under the BSD License." To be honest, I'm enthusiastic about OpenLayers since it makes it very easy to generate mashups, and allows you to keep using Google Maps tiles, and to map GeoRSS feeds (this is still under construction).

To complete the previous announcement of ArcGIS Explorer and ArcGIS Online, here's recent stories about them. Spatially Adjusted discuss the rasterized labels decision in ArcGIS Explorer, along with a Google Earth vs ArcGIS Explorer debate. From that last entry: "ESRI has given GIS Professionals the tools to create their own 3D globes and serve them up to clients. We’ve been asking for these for years so now it is time to put up or shut up. ArcGIS Explorer is only as good as the datasets inside and ESRI has some starter services for us to use, but they are just starting points. Lets not lose perspective here that AGX has been out in the public for 2 or 3 days, while Google Earth has been out for years now." Read Dave Bouwman's entry on an OpenLayers connector for ArcGIS Server. Matt Priour first impressions are also informative.