Open Source in Photogrammetry

1
Open Source in Photogrammetry

• An Overview By
• Zack Stauber, CMS
• zachary_at_stauber.org

2
What is open source software?

• Software whose source code can be viewed by the
  public
• For more detailed list of requirements, see Open
  Source on http//www.wikipedia.org/)?
• Often there is a compiled executable available
  for free download
• Often the licensing allows the source to be
  modified or even sold by third parties
• For all the possible licenses, see
  http//www.opensource.org/
• The most liberal is the MIT License
• Open source is based on Open Standards (i.e. file
  formats, modalities, practices)?
• Open standards must be free
• Not patented
• Not derived from or dependent on another
  commercial product

3
What is so great about it? Theory

• Free, no risk in trying it out (take note, small
  businesses)?
• Downloadable, available without red tape (take
  note, government)?
• Flexible you can tear it apart and change it to
  suit your needs
• Open You can verify that the source code
  correctly implements industry standard practices.
• No black boxes, essential under Daubert
  guidelines
• Often several ways to implement things in
  evolving fields
• Third parties can correct software and submit
  patches

4
What is so great about it? Practice

• Better technical support
• Very few layers between you and the programmers
• Releases are as-fixed rather than on an annual or
  semiannual schedule as with commercial software
• You can fix it yourself if you have to
• Better operating systems support
• Often written on open source compilers so the
  code is already cross platform
• Better international support
• Programming groups for larger software
  applications often extend to many nations so they
  have built in support for other languages,
  currencies, time-zones, etc.
• Examples PostgreSQL

5
What is so great about it? Practice

• Stable
• Programmers are often the first and most
  demanding users, so it has to work, or else the
  programmer wouldn't bother making it
• Spreads by web searches or word-of-mouth, so
  overwhelming advertising money cannot spread
  useless products by brute force
• Examples Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, GDAL
• Generic
• Decentralized international programming groups
  and a wider variety of users often incorporates
  more and more varied user requests
• Examples Linux, GDAL, PostgreSQL

6
What kind of idiots would give away all that
effort for free?

• Originally universities and other government
  agencies
• Many commercial software applications originated
  as university projects (e.g. GRASS). More than a
  few became commercial businesses in the early
  days (e.g. Khoros). Boo!
• Also, software was ruled patentable (may be about
  to overturn) and universities could hold and make
  money on patents (thank you Strom Thurmond) so it
  decreased

7
What kind of idiots would give away all that
effort for free?

• Later innovative businesses
• Only cheap software with many users can be sold
  as a product (e.g. ArcGIS, TatukGIS, IDRISI)?
• Mashups vs. GIS analysis vs. data production
  exponential
• Market model shows hyper expensive software
  cannot be sold as a product at a net gain (e.g.
  Autodesk's MapGuide)?
• Rather than selling 200 copies worldwide and
  providing terrible support and no improvements,
  software was given away for free and services
  such as customizations were sold (e.g. OSSIM)?
• Finally the commercial trend is reversing
  everyone
• Some companies go under and release their
  software for free (e.g. Ingres, Dynamix,
  Netscape) or change their profit making model and
  release their software for free or parts of it
  for free (ILWIS, OpenOffice). Yay!

8
What about OS mapping software?

• http//www.osgeo.org/ Open Source Geospatial
  Foundation (software)?
• http//www.opengeospatial.org/ Open Geospatial
  Consortium (standards)
• Web
• MapServer
• WorldWind
• MapGuide
• MapBender
• MapBuilder

• Desktop
• GRASS
• QGis
• uDig
• gvSIG
• Industrial strength
• PostgreSQL/PostGIS
• FWTools
• Programming Tools
• GDAL
• GEOS
• FDO
• GeoTools

9
What about photogrammetry OS?

• T'aint None
• No seriously, there is only OSSIM
• GDAL is a great platform to build on
• http//www.nmosgeo.org/ wants you!
• Can you program?
• Are you a math nerd?
• Do you like beer?
• 2 of 3 required (not really)?