Title: Partnerships between Industry and Communities through Open Source
1Partnerships between Industry and Communities
through Open Source
- OSGIS 2004 MUM2
- David McIlhagga, President
- DM Solutions Group
2Open Source The Ingredient for Partnership
- Communities are guaranteed to be free of barriers
for propagation of technology to associated
groups - Industry is ensured growth and success through
the development of quality technology - Result Partnership based on trust and shared
end goals - Restrictive LICENSING is the barrier to mutual
success
3Open Source for Communities of all Types and Sizes
- Government
- Academia
- Industry
- Non-Government Organizations
4Government Community - Enabling a Distributed
Infrastructure for the National Forest
Information System (NFIS)
- Requirement for assisting provinces and
territories in Canada to publish data to OGC
specifications - Cost of paying for software licenses of existing
software supporting OGC and deploying to all
provinces -- prohibitive - The cost-effective solution - fund implementation
of Web Map Service support in MapServer and
deploy with no license restriction - The added bonus - somebody else later funded
support for other specifications that NFIS then
reaped the benefits from.
5Government Community - Publishing point data to
OGC specifications within Environment Canada
- Problem - Vast majority of spatial data in
Environment Canada is NOT in spatial formats. It
is held in standard databases or flat files. - Data Providers have a requirement to publish to
OGC specifications, but do not want to convert to
a spatial format. The capabilities and cost of
commercial products are overkill for this
requirement. - Solution - Enhance MapServer to support direct
read of point data in non-spatial data formats
and deploy throughout the organization. - Bonus - Additional support for the Time variable
in MapServer currently being funded by another
community will in the future be required by
Environment Canada.
6University Community - Incorporating Open Source
into Carleton Universitys GIS Curriculum
- Problem - Within universities, there is a lack of
curriculum for Internet Mapping available and
dominance of teaching based on single vendor
solutions. - Problem - Students enter the workforce without
the skills or more importantly, knowledge that
open source exists or is an option. - Solution - DM Solutions and Carleton University
develop a short intro to Internet Mapping based
on MapServer and Chameleon and make it available
as open source curriculum.
7Industry as Vehicle to Community - MapsOnline -
an affordable solution for small communities
- Problem - PeopleGIS recognized that commercial
licensing of industry software is prohibitive for
small communities to afford publishing data
within web mapping applications - Solution - PeopleGIS and DM Solutions partner to
develop an affordable solution for numerous small
communities in New England.
8NGO Community Centre for Sustainable Watersheds
requires technology for a Watersheds InfoXchange
- Problem - Technology solution is required to
better support community collection of sensitive
watershed information - Problem - Community groups do not have the funds
to purchase commercial solutions to achieve this. - Solution - DM Solutions and CSW jointly solicited
funding to support the development of WIX with
the full solution to be made freely available. - The Future Result - Affordable solution for
similar communities across Canada and around the
world and potential for rapid growth in adoption
of open source technologies.
9NGO Community - Trailpaq Partnership in Action
10NGO Community - Developing a map-based Health
Planning tool for CIET Group
- Problem - Spatial health planning tool required
by community groups to make better policy
decisions in health planning around the world. - Problem - Most of the people who need this, dont
have the money for software licensing. - Solution - DM Solutions and CIET partner to
develop CIETmap based on OpenEV for free
distribution around the world.
11Oceanographic Community - Bridging the gap
between Land and Water
- Problem - GIS has not traditionally met the needs
of the oceanographic community - Problem - Software licensing fees for GIS are
prohibitive for any single individual group in
the community - Solution - Through community funding from the
Office of Naval Research and SURA SCOOP Program,
MapServer is enhanced to support key components
required by the community for the benefit of all
community stakeholders.
12What do all of these examples have in common?
- Licensing fees can be a significant barrier to
finding creative partnering solutions between all
forms of communities and industry. - Value can be measured in many forms other then
license costs. - Collective Value for community identifies the
opportunity for collaboration between industry
and communities and focuses them as partners on
finding a mutually beneficial solution.
13Thank you!
- Contact Information
- Dave McIlhagga
- Email mcilhagga_at_dmsolutions.ca
- Phone 613-565-5056 x15
- http//www.dmsolutions.ca