An interactive understanding of the free and open source geospatial ecosystem
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| Number of Parts | 57 | |
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| License | CC Attribution 3.0 Germany: You are free to use, adapt and copy, distribute and transmit the work or content in adapted or unchanged form for any legal purpose as long as the work is attributed to the author in the manner specified by the author or licensor. | |
| Identifiers | 10.5446/55243 (DOI) | |
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00:00
Open sourceWorld Wide Web ConsortiumUniqueness quantificationInteractive televisionOpen sourceSoftwareOpen setMereologySoftware developerGroup actionComputer animationLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
01:03
Raster graphicsDigital rights managementRemote Access ServicePlastikkarteRefractionState of matterOpen sourceJava appletOpen sourceState of matterCapability Maturity ModelTraffic reportingSoftware developerAssociative propertyTask (computing)Independence (probability theory)Open setGroup actionLevel (video gaming)Power (physics)MereologySheaf (mathematics)Endliche ModelltheorieService (economics)Amsterdam Ordnance DatumQuicksortProjective plane2 (number)SatelliteComputer animation
07:00
Computer animation
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WindowVacuumBookmark (World Wide Web)Direction (geometry)GoogolCodeOnline helpForm (programming)Menu (computing)Civil engineeringScalable Coherent InterfaceTrigonometric functionsConvex hullDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Address spaceDirection (geometry)Self-organizationComputer animation
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SoftwareNeuroinformatikOpen sourceFreewarePeg solitaireMountain passCodeEvent horizonOpen sourceBounded variationSelf-organizationGrass (card game)NumberCodeSoftware bugElectronic mailing list1 (number)CodeRow (database)Software developerMetropolitan area networkLie groupForcing (mathematics)AreaComputer animationDiagram
09:47
TouchscreenOpen sourceCodeMetropolitan area networkRing (mathematics)Multiplication signProgramming paradigmSampling (statistics)Computer animation
10:29
Open setSoftware developerLink (knot theory)Event horizonOpen sourceMilitary operationEvent horizonCuboidSpring (hydrology)ResultantMultiplication signHand fanComputer clusterComputer animation
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Mobile appVirtual realitySpacetimeLattice (order)ResultantEvent horizonCodeOpen sourceCodePoint (geometry)Capability Maturity ModelComputer animation
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IntranetOpen sourceGoodness of fit
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Task (computing)Open sourceArithmetic meanComputer animation
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Core dumpAbelian categoryProgramming languageMobile WebInternational Date LineJava appletSelf-organizationBoom (sailing)WindowView (database)Bookmark (World Wide Web)Thread (computing)Server (computing)Computer programmingRepresentation (politics)Category of beingSelf-organizationLibrary (computing)Core dumpWeb 2.0Mobile WebConnected spaceDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Graph (mathematics)Computer animation
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Bookmark (World Wide Web)Boom (sailing)WebsiteVisualization (computer graphics)InformationComputer animation
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Open sourceWeb 2.0Diagram
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Abelian categoryCore dumpInternational Date LineJava appletServer (computing)Self-organizationStandard deviationRevision controlSocial classSoftwareComputing platformMobile WebOpen sourceOperations support systemQuery languageDependent and independent variablesSoftware maintenanceWindowProgramming languageGraph (mathematics)Software developerOpen sourceStandard deviationComputing platformSelf-organizationOrder (biology)Direction (geometry)InformationGraph (mathematics)SoftwareCategory of beingProjective planeComponent-based software engineeringInteractive televisionConformal mapTraffic reportingDiagramComputer animation
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TelecommunicationProgramming paradigmOpen setSign (mathematics)WindowBoom (sailing)View (database)Slide ruleMultiplication signBitMultilaterationInformationContext awarenessOpen setComputer animation
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Maxima and minimaTelecommunicationImplementationBroadcast programmingPhysical systemTexture mappingMachine learningContext awarenessOpen setMereologyProjective planeComputer animation
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CollaborationismService (economics)Product (business)TelecommunicationOpen setContext awarenessEntire functionBlock (periodic table)BuildingProgramming paradigmProcess (computing)Sound effectContent (media)Open sourceLattice (order)Term (mathematics)Projective planeOpen setContext awarenessElement (mathematics)Statement (computer science)Standard deviationBuildingCASE <Informatik>BitProgramming paradigmBlock (periodic table)Computer animation
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Maxima and minimaBoom (sailing)Open setGrass (card game)MaizeMIDIAxiomGEDCOMLemma (mathematics)XMLComputer animation
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Boom (sailing)Computer wormComputer programBusiness modelElement (mathematics)Internet forumOpen source2 (number)
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:10
Today, I'm going to present an initiative that me and some of my colleagues and even outside of the company we've been part of, with a very, very fancy title. So, an interactive
00:26
understanding of the free and open source geospatial ecosystem. What? It's a really fancy title. It's true. And we are here. We are mostly users of open source. We are developers
00:41
of open source. We basically know open source, right? It's true that we have to read the license. Sometimes they don't mix. But the software itself, we do basically know it, right? So, that was my feeling when some years ago in 2016, as part of a working group,
01:03
and the idea of the working group was to identify that whether for the companies within this association, an open source initiative would make sense. And these were the partners within the working group. So, among other things, during that work, I had to show the
01:27
level of maturity or to try to explain how this free and open source solutions for geospatial world looks like. And I imagine that this task would not be that difficult,
01:43
you know? And another question would be, why would such a question even arise in a European association for companies? So, for private, for the private sector? Well, there's really no doubt anymore that our world in the last decade has been flooded with data that
02:02
we collect through different sensors, that we calculate, we extract through models, we find that this amount of data is incentivizing the development of various and many, many
02:20
open source, many projects, many solutions, if you'd like. And it's no secret that for the geospatial section, a critical part of them are open source. And I'm sure that now in your mind, GDAL appears. So, this was the reason why this question would pop
02:45
up in a European association. So, the questions open source, so we can use them modify change, and so on. Why is there any need of understanding how they function and together?
03:04
And do they even function together? So, why do we need to understand it? And why can't we just use it? The answer to that is that by understanding how they interrelate, because they, as you'll see later, they have a lot of deep intrinsic connections, we
03:23
can truly understand the solutions that we use, and we can truly harvest their their power. So, when started to work, starting to work to map this open source for geospatial, I have found out that this was not the first attempt. In 2005, six and seven, Paul
03:46
Ramsey did a similar a similar had a similar initiative, it was like a report, a reporting initiative, the state of open source GIS. And what he did was to separate the so called
04:04
independent development tribes, and he defined this, these tribes, the sea.
07:54
It's no problem. I think it's okay. Okay. So, as I was mentioning, the community is growing, and it's growing in
08:12
different directions. And one of them is represented by these memorandum of understandings that Osiyo is signing with different with different organizations. But Angelos will tell
08:23
you more about this. Another way that the community is growing is exactly things like the ones that we attend now, through all the events dedicated or related events to Phosphor G. Here we just have some, we have the just the global Phosphor G
08:41
conference, which is the flagship event of Osiyo. And we we invite you at Phosphor G in 2021. We're also going to be online and you've actually met one of the organizers for the for the people that have attended the grass, the grass workshops, Vera Andrea, Andrea is one of the
09:05
is one of the organizers. But moving forward, we can see that there is a growth in the number of people interested in these in these conferences, so user developers, and so on. Another another way in which the open source for geospatial community if you'd like develops is through more
09:26
active events like the code springs, the hackathons and with some variations mapathons. We do know that these events are events where coders get together to with you know, with a with a big list of bugs to solve and tickets to close and new releases to to prepare. And of course,
09:50
they're also known to enjoy pizza and juice while they're doing it. This is from 2016 from Phosphor G. But if you think that these code screens and this open source community is just
10:07
an activity that is, you know, on your own time, on your own time passion, passion project, well think again, because in the last, let's say, seven to eight years, bigger institutions
10:23
have started to take a closer and more attentive look to the open source paradigm and the way that it develops in one good example is ISA, which in 2015, organized its very first code sprint for the for the release of snap toolbox. So I imagine that you at least know about snap
10:44
or used it many times until now. So that was developed with through through these through these kind of events. And this hackathon in 2015 became a precedent because it continued
11:01
in 2016. Since 2017, they're also making posters and you can check these events online, the results online to see to see what what came out of them. And in 2020, they are already rebranding the hackathon the code sprint with the EO dashboard hackathon. So the idea
11:25
that I'm trying to highlight is that the open source model and the open source community for geospatial has a quite well defined maturity at this point. And it's not only
11:42
ISA. Another very good example is, of course, NASA. And you can see down that on their open source project, they have about 500 and they have 573 solutions listed. So the
12:03
2005 tribes doesn't really apply anymore because today, well, there are a lot of them. So going back to my task in 2016, somehow I had to give an overview to what the open source for
12:20
geospatial means. So it was not wasn't that easy task as I first imagined, but we had to start from somewhere in understanding this, this and understanding and also sharing with people that are outside of community what what this means. So we took some steps, we first decided
12:43
that maybe we should categorize these solutions. And we have decided on main four categories. One was related to the programming languages, the second to license your organization, meaning the maintaining organization of that solution. And of course, the category of it.
13:04
At that point, we defined five categories, the desktop core libraries, mobile server side, and the weirdo web tools. And this is what we got. I'd like to mention that although this started in 2016, we are still trying to update it. This is a very light representation.
13:31
A graph did with D3GS, trying to show the connection between each of these solutions. And if you go to different core libraries, you see how they're connected to other libraries.
13:46
And here, for example, you can also search for example, that Tom mentioned, you can go to you can go to the website. But anyway, this is just a nice, hopefully
14:03
visualization of what we did, the information behind is much more, I think it's much more useful. And going back, these are just like very basic statistics, trying to show what what
14:23
we've collected, we can see that the web tools are becoming more and more prevalent. And another thing that I'd like to draw your attention is the fact that most of the open source solutions are community based. And going further, the most common the most
14:49
popular programming languages are listed in these in these graphs that I will not insist on. But the thing is that, but the thing is that looking at the information that we've
15:02
gathered in order for it to be truly useful, and not only pretty to look at, we understood that we needed another category, a fifth category, and that is standard compliance or conformity or which standards are implemented by which solutions in order to understand
15:21
in a more deep way than the way that these components function together and can be put to work together. So in that respect, we started a collaborative started a work collaboration, let's say with OTC, trying to understand and try to draft this guideline on how to
15:47
take the information related to standard compliancy and added to our graph. And the discussion with OTC was very interesting because once you start talking about standards,
16:02
you understand how complicated it can truly it can truly be. So you have a solution that can read GMEL data. Okay, but what kind of GMEL? What version? Is it two? Is it three? What is it just simple features maybe or what profile? And what about interoperability
16:26
between standards? Because OTC indeed is a very important organization, but it's not the only one. So how does it interact with, for example, Inspire or with other standards from ISO? So the discussion became very, very intense, and we are working into developing this
16:48
this fifth category. So important to mention, though, is that everything you know, the ecosystem and the way that they're connected goes beyond, at least for the open source,
17:01
goes beyond the software itself. And that brought me to the questions that Paul Ramsey asked himself in 2005 in his first report on the open source GIS status. So there are some questions showing the health of the, if you like, the health of the project itself,
17:22
the solution itself. So is it well documented? Is the development team transparent? Is that how wide is the development community and how wide is the user community? So these questions are we are still thinking about a way to harvest the information for the solutions in this
17:47
in this direction. However, we do have a dream because, as I mentioned, this initiative, we want to develop it more and more than just a pretty graph that we can look at.
18:01
And the idea is for someone that is completely outside of the open source community, let's say, that can have a tool in which to interrogate and to find out if the work that he or she does can be done with an open source solution and how that solution integrates with other
18:23
solutions that they have. Is it interoperable? Do they read the same data? What is the license? What is the main organization that is taking care of maintaining the solution and so on? So this is the aim towards which we are going. And of course, we are also working and trying
18:48
to draft an open platform in which the community can insert their own solutions. So that was it. Thank you very much. And sorry for all the technical issues.
19:18
We have time for a question. No, then we can go to the next talk and we will be a bit later.
19:35
I will go super fast with this one because it's not a talk in itself, but it's an invitation
19:40
that we're making to you. Tom mentioned it at the beginning of the conference. On Friday, we are going to have a discussion panel, and this is just a small incentive of what we want to do. So the title, it was meant to be motivated, and you've heard a lot about open data in the first two discussions and the geo-harmonizer information is an open data. So
20:08
the idea is how we make that sustainable. This is the context. This is the context of our project, and I'm sure that many of you have been part of the project that had to provide open data,
20:22
but there was no subsequent way of updating that data. I will keep this really fast. For example, in the case of geo-harmonizer, through the consortium agreement, open geo-hub
20:41
made the statement that they would keep the portal viable for another five years and they would update the data set, so on and so forth. However, this is not a standard and however, we don't know if other companies and other projects would do the same and if this is truly sustainable. And the bigger context in which our discussion takes place
21:08
is that the open data is just one small building block out of a lot of other elements that define the open paradigm. We've heard about open source, we've heard about open standards,
21:22
open context, open access, open methods, open research, and so on and so forth. So this is just to give you a very short and hopefully motivating incentive to participate with us on Friday, where we will have a little bit more detail on the topic and also share some
21:44
questions with you and to see what do you think of this sustainability of open data with respect of the private sector. So thank you. Thank you. So today's announcement for the Friday, so Friday announcement for the discussion panel.
22:06
So please if you have idea or some document that you would like to add to the discussion, please forward to Katrina. Otherwise, we are now close. We are
22:20
finished with this session. Are there any questions for Katrina about this or previous talk? It was very clear. Maybe one question, like who are the best examples for you of success in, let's say, in open source? So in what sense do you feel like,
22:44
you know, in an open-source system, so open source means and the business means? That's a very interesting question. The first element that usually indicates to me that the
23:00
solution is successful is when I post a question on a forum or on IRC or whatever and I get an answer to my problem. Usually that shows the strong viability of the solution. Related to a win-win situation of open source from a private perspective, in the end, and there
23:29
are a lot of papers on the topic and a lot of presentation, open source is a business model as just a different one from the classical one, let's say. And instead of paying for a license,
23:42
you pay for the programmers that can solve your solution based on a commodity that exists, which is the open-source solution itself. So like one of the biggest open-source, maybe the biggest open-source at Android, right? But maybe people actually don't think it's
24:04
open source. They don't think it's a business. So at some stage, it's not natural that people just second something professional, reliable, and people chose Android versus Microsoft phone and
24:24
Apple, etc. So that's, for example, for me, an example where open source became so professional and accepted by people that they don't even consider it's a problem of the source. It's a commodity.