Slashgeo

I'd like your opinion on the different open source GIS projects. I'm looking for a GIS for our 50+ non-GIS-savvy scientists here. We use mainly use Debian. I quickly looked at GRASS, Quantum GIS, uDig, OSSIM and others. Some look great, but I can't decide which one to adopt! Here are our requirements: (a) easy enough to use for non-geospatial scientists, (b) able to read, convert and save most GIS/RS file formats, (c) allow basic data processing (e.g. reprojections, interpolations, data cropping, merging, cookie cutter, etc). For my personnal needs, I'd like the chosen GIS powerful and have a bright future. So far, I believe QGIS is my front runner. Am I doing a good choice?

Over the Quantum GIS blog, the easy-to-use open source desktop GIS in active development, we learn about Quantum Navigator, a new open source routing / navigation system in the works. From the announcement: "The aim of the project is to enable basic routing and navigation capabilities on a roadmap. Given a shapefile of roadmap with correct format, you'll be able to select start and end point of your route. The application will calculate you a route that will meet your needs (shortest, fastest or economic path). This route should follow all restrictions like one-way streets or turning restrictions from one road to another one." I wonder if they're aware of the open source GMap, Roadster, and RoadNav efforts? Related to QGIS, there's a QGIS MapServer project in development, described as: "QGIS mapserver is a server module for geographic maps. The content of vector and raster datasources (e.g. shapefiles, gml, postgis, wfs, geotiff ) is visualized according to the request parameters. The generated map image is sent back to the client over the internet.".

Lots of talk about Jo Cook's FOSS4G talk about portable GIS. Spatially Adjusted had a post a few days ago that links to a dedicated page on portable GIS on archaeogeek.. This has lots of implications for projects in developing countries, where computing infrastructure is an issue. Dr Barry Rowlingson's talk at FOSS4G, on Arlat (QGIS for visualzation and mapping integrated with R for spatial stats, using python) is the type of project that could benefit from being portable.

timlinux writes "It is our great pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Quantum GIS (QGIS) Version 0.9.0. Quantum GIS is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports vector, raster, and database formats. QGIS is licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS lets you browse and create map data on your computer. It supports many common spatial data formats (e.g. ESRI ShapeFile, geotiff). QGIS supports plugins to do things like display tracks from your GPS. QGIS is Open Source software and its free of cost (download here). We welcome contributions from our user community in the form of code contributions, bug fixes, bug reports, contributed documentation, advocacy and supporting other users on our mailing lists and forums. Financial contributions are also welcome. This release introduces several new features including python bindings and many additional GRASS modules. The release also includes bug fixes and stability improvements. QGIS is available is source form, and as binary executables for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux. All versions can be obtained from our download page. As an open source project, we provide support for using QGIS via our mailing lists and bug tracker:

• For general enquiries subscribe to our users mailing list.
• For developer related enquiries subscribe to our separate developers list.
• If you think you have found a bug, please report it using our bug tracker. When reporting bugs, please include some contact information in case we need help with replicating your issue.

" This is really great news. Here's a few links from the official Quantum GIS blog that I kept waiting for this day: a link to the workbook named "Shuffling Quantum GIS into the Open Source Software Stack", the slides from the FOSS4G 2007 presentation named "Quantum GIS - Five Years and Counting" and here's a screencast for loading data into GRASS with QGIS. See also related stories below.

The GRASS GIS team announced the release of GRASS GIS 6.3.0. From the announcement: "Officially this is a "technology preview" release, the first beta on the path to GRASS 6.4-stable, and it 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 we are very pleased with the results. Users can be confident to use this version for their day to day work, indeed due to the open development model many already do.

Besides the hundreds of new module features, supported data formats, and language translations, GRASS 6.3 brings a number of exciting enhancements to the GIS. A prototype of the new wxPython user interface is debuted, and for the first time 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 UNIX and Mac 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." See also related stories below.

Stefano Costa writes "A List Apart has an interesting article by Paul Smith of EveryBlock about open source software for creating webmapping applications. From the article snapshot: "Rolling your own maps need not be an intimidating affair, provided you understand the problem and the tools to fix it."" I included below several related previous stories. Thanks Stefano for your submission.

The OSGeo has announced the graduation of the open source Quantum GIS to a full OSGeo project. From the announcement: "Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports many vector, raster, and database formats and lets you browse and create map data on your computer. Graduating incubation includes requirements for open community operation, a responsible project governance model, code provenance and license verification and general good project operation. Graduating incubation is the OSGeo seal of approval for a project and gives potential users of the project added confidence in the viability and safety of the project." QGIS has been mentioned here several times, see also related stories below.

The Import Cartography blog announced several geospatial data tools for Python users and developers. First there's Shapely 1.0: "Shapely is a Python package for programming with 2D geospatial geometries. It is based on GEOS. Shapely 1.0 is ignorant about coordinate and reference systems. Projection responsibility is left to specific applications", then there's Rtree 0.4: "Whether for in-memory feature stores, Plone content, or whatever -- we need an index to speed up the search for objects that intersect with a spatial bounding box.", SpatialIndex 1.3.0 and WorldMill 0.1. See also the numerous related stories below.

st_0x0ef writes "Not everyone wants a full blown GIS desktop application. Sometimes you want to just have a widget inside your application that displays a map while the main goal of the application lies elsewhere. In these tutorials Tim Sutton show how to embed QGIS widget in your C++ applications to quickly develop geospatial applications." A few previous stories on Quantum GIS copied below.