In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

All Points Blog offers an entry named Ten Things You Need to Know about Open Source Geospatial Software.

Here's the list, and head to the entry to read further explanations:

1. Open source geospatial software refers to GIS, GPS, spatial data management and related developer tools and end user applications delivered with an open source license.
2. An open source license must meet the definition developed by the Open Source Initiative.
3. Open source software is written by a community rather than a development team associated with a single software company. [...] Some do this as part of their “day jobs,” while others volunteer.
4. The Opposite of Open Source is Closed Source or Proprietary Software, not Commercial Software
5. Open Source Software is “Just” Software
6. OSGeo is the Body for Open Source Geospatial Software
7. Open Source and Open Standards-based Software are not the Same Thing
8. Implementing Open Source Software May Cost Money
9. Software developers and software users mix and match open source and proprietary software all the time. Esri’s ArcGIS, for example, includes the open source GDAL (raster handling) library. 
10. Open source licenses are designed for software, not data. There are other licenses appropriate for data.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the open source / open data front:

• This interesting entry by Paul Ramsey on the challenges of polygon intersections when the polygons are huge and involve multiple cartographic projections, a case study in PostGIS
• Via Geonames, I found out that SRTM-DEM CGIAR-CSI is now at version 4.1, but I failed to find what's changed since version 4
• Geopaparazzi 2.6.0 has been released
• APB shares a few interesting OpenStreetMap news, including raising $800k to build maps for pedestrians

From the Google front:

• Here's an entry on the jQuery UI module for the Google Maps API
• In Google Maps, links to directions have been added to the saved locations in My Places
• There's the first Map your University competition with Google Map Maker
• Here's realistic SketchUp renderings using Maxwell
• And there was new Google Earth imagery released last Friday

In the everything-else category:

• Here's a pertinent O'Reilly article on the NoSQL movement
• mattwynn shared an entry named Why ESRI (as is) can’t be part of the open government movement
• The OGC mentions the Geospatial World Forum 2012 to be held in Amsterdam in April
• Here's a link to an article on the need of location standards for business intelligence, there's an OGC GeoBI DWG too
• Directions Mag offers an article named Safe Software Execs Address the State of GIS and FME 2012 and another one named Business models for LBS shift to freemium and advertising
• Slashdot reports that LightSquared will try using lawyers to save their plan to mess with the GPS spectrum
• Via O'Reilly Where, I found this infographic on the local and location-based advertisement ecosystem
• Are you ready? China’s Geographic Information Industry Takes the Lead Globally
• Here's a 5-minutes video on Microsoft Layerscape, I wasn't impressed - should I be? Spatial Sustain has an entry about it
• APB shared an entry named Pitney Bowes Software CEO O’Hara Discusses Autodesk Relationship and Software Strategy
• Slashdot shared a story named Scientists Print Cheap RFID Tags On Paper
• And another one from the same source named Australian Police Spying On Web, Phone Usage [including location data] With No Warrants

In the maps category:

• SS mentions the NASA release of a New Global Forest Height Map
• Slashdot ran a story named FCC Maps the 3G Wasteland Of the Western US
• APB shares a crowdsourced map of Iranian nuclear sites

Via Daniel I learned about the 1.0 release TinyOWS, an open source high performance WFS-T server.

From their website: "WFS service and therefore GML output streams are becoming widely available in quite common SDI architectures. The transactional WFS profile (WFS-T) provides ability to give a writable access on each feature stored on a given WFS server, through a standardized Web interface, in an OGC compliant way. Exchanged data volumes can easily become huge when data is retrieved, thus a high performance WFS-T service is now a real need to provide a good Quality of Service in web-based GIS applications."

Via James I learned about Microsoft's launch of OpenGeocoder, a geocoding tool using bounding boxes for places. What's nice it that Microsoft gives back all resulting data to the public domain. There's a JSON API too.  

From the about: "What is this? OpenGeocoder is an experiment in creating and serving geocodable results. Places are turned in to bounding boxes. Large datasets, processing and geocoding software is skipped. Instead a simple mapping between strings and boxes is used. All data submitted is placed in the public domain for anyone to use.

How do I use OpenGeocoder? Search using the text box. If your result is not found you are given the ability to add it. Drag the rectangle corners around until the rectangle covers the place you searched for and then click 'Save'. Your data is placed in to the public domain for anyone to use."

The past week OpenJUMP team has released OpenJUMP 1.5.1. As usual we added functionality and fixed bugs - since our last release. However, we made a hopefully user friendly decision: we will distribute a CORE and a PLUS version.

The CORE version is the usual OpenJUMP version. The PLUS version will contain OpenJUMP plus a number of useful plugins. For instance Sextante for raster analysis (still Version 0.6), CadPlans PrintingPlugin for… well.. printing,  DXF driver, PostGIS connector (for writing to PostGIS), Graph Analysis and Topology tools - that can be used for Quality Assurance, the Chart Plugin for creating charts, Beanshell editor etc.

Both versions come as handy zip (all platforms), install exe (Win) or jar-based installer (for Mac and Linux).

For the MacOSX users, we finally fixed a long pending bug, and saving layers is now possible again, without cumbersome procedures.

to download directly check here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jump-pilot/files/OpenJUMP/1.5.1/
if you just want to know more: www.openjump.org
(and don't forget our wiki… for documentation etc.)

Please note that some of the additional plugins are not yet translated and that we renamed some menu functions and moved some into other menus. Save as SVG is   now only available in PLUS as it required some special other functions. Currently we are working on documentation so you can more easily find them again.

some more highlights since OpenJUMP 1.4.1:
- new Fill-Polygon-Tool, an editing tool to create a polygon from a closed area
- new Noder Plugin : nodes/splits lines and polygons
- lots of new icons
- new Buffer Plugin including all options of JTS API
- more Attribute Calculator buttons/functions
- new Geometry Conversion tool
- added new options to the BlendLineStrings tool
- new AdvancedMeasurePlugin with more capabilities
- when closing OpenJUMP and non-saved in-memory layers exist a dialog pops up and data can be saved in shapefile or jml format
- SQL queries: saving, refreshing, editing, and max features
- a new Union/Dissolve/Merge plugin unifying old Union and Dissolve
- reworked and improved Auto-Assign PlugIn (takes now negative numbers and decimals)
- … more can be found in the changes.txt file

The demo version of a potential 3D Viewer for geo.admin.ch - the geo-portal of the Swiss Confederation - is online at http://swiss3d.openwebglobe.org until July 31, 2012.

The 3D Viewer is based on the open source globe “OpenWebGlobe” using WebGL.

The scene convers entire Switzerland and is based on high resolution data from swisstopo: SWISSIMAGE, DHM25 and swissBOUNDARIES3D as well as extracts from swissBUILDINGS3D.

In addition, textured 3D objects from FHNW Muttenz and EPFL Lausanne are available. Outside the area with high-resolution data, Blue Marble from “NASA’s Earth Observatory” is used.

The total amount of texture and geometry data exceeds 2 TB and is being handled using the cloud from Amazon Web Services.

This demo has been developed by FHNW - University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, camptocamp SA, the Federal Office of Topography, Switzerland, and geo.admin.ch.

screenshot from http://swiss3d.openwebglobe.org

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the open source and open data front:

• BrainOff shares a few examples of capabilities offered only by OpenStreetMap because of its open nature
• V1 mentions ReadyMap, using OpenLayers to render 3D models directly in the browser
• Here's a way to enhance raster contrast with gdal_lightner, with may makes its way as a QGIS Plugin
• Sean made me aware of pygp, a python geoprocessing package
• Here's a short but interesting article named  The GeoWeb, Citizen Science and Open Data
• Harvard's WorldMap reached version 1.0 and they're looking for participants, we mentioned WorldMap in the past

In the everything-else category:

• MapQuest Releases Native Mobile Mapping APIs for Android and Apple iOS, and yes, you can use OpenStreetMap data with it

• And there's now live traffic cameras in MapQuest too

• SS shares a nicely done 2-minutes video of the OGC on the value of geospatial and standards

• DM shares more information on Pitney Bowes's Geosk geodata platform, we mentioned Geosk last december. From the article: "Geosk is a platform for finding and using geospatial data. It combines a data as a service (DaaS) offering with a data management product. At its heart, Geosk is a completely scalable data management system that allows our customers to share their data with any user they choose, including their customers. Around this data management system we wrap an e-commerce engine to help our customers buy and sell premium geospatial data."

• Slashdot discussed Canada's Massive Public Traffic Surveillance System, which involves license plate reading, a topic covered a few times already
• DM offers an article on socio-demographic structures in Germany
• SS informs us a 3D model of Bangkok is now publicly available
• SS also informs us of Ericsson's Geo Location Messaging API, I wonder how it relates to GeoSMS
• In two entries, V1 explore to potential synergies between music interfaces and controllers and geospatial

In the maps category:

• O'Reilly shares a map of Mexico's drug war
• WunderMap now has historical weather maps for you
• Here's a map of the U.S. showing terrain by using only the roads
• SS shares an entry named Energy Use Data for all of New York City Released in Map Form

We first mentioned it two years ago, and now the open source GeoNode 1.1 has been released.

What GeoNode is? "GeoNode is an open source platform that facilitates the creation, sharing, and collaborative use of geospatial data. The project aims to surpass existing spatial data infrastructure solutions by integrating robust social and cartographic tools. At its core, the GeoNode has a stack based on GeoServer, Django, and GeoExt that provides a platform for sophisticated web browser spatial visualization and analysis. Atop this stack, the project has built a map composer and viewer, tools for analysis, and reporting tools."

And what version 1.1 has for us: "

• Improved documentation
• Support for GeoServer 2.1, including:
  • GeoWebCache integration
  • direct Shapefile-to-PostGIS import from the GeoNode upload form (thanks to Matt Bertrand)
  • speed improvements to the way GeoNode manages GeoServer configuration
• Support for GeoNetwork 2.6
• Various UI improvements, including:
  • a new user profile page listing the user’s layers and maps
  • a “Get feature info” tool to identify feature attributes when viewing maps
  • improved map transitions and performance
• Increased coverage in GeoNode’s automated test suite
• Better feedback from admin tools (thanks to Ariel Núñez)
• Installer for Ubuntu (thanks to Ariel Núñez)
• Numerous bug fixes thanks to support from partners at last year’s roadmapping summit
• Translations in…"

We are very proud to announce the release of the 4th edition of FOSSGIS Brasil Magazine.

In this 2012 1st issue, the cover section addresses Medatada theme, which deserves special attention of any professional who works with geospatial data.

This 4th edition of FOSSGIS Brasil was built with the effort of the GIS community, including international contributions. Consering this, be sure to check the interview with Jeroen Ticheler, founder and CEO at Geonetwork project, and also the text written for three of the most important contributors of the gvSIG association, talking about the new development model for the project of the robust gvSIG GIS suite.

This year, greatest desire for us at FOSSGIS Brasil team is to continue doing what we have been doing in 2011: To georreference knownledgment

Link to download: http://bit.ly/zFKS3b

Sincerely,
The FOSSGIS Brasil team
http://www.fossgisbrasil.com.br

I failed to find much information about it, but SpatiaLite, the geospatial version of SQLite, reached version 3.0 about a month ago. Anyone knows where to find release notes? I find also funny that on SpatiaLite homepage, it is clearly stated that spatial is not special! :-) Yes, I'll share a followup to my previous entry on the topic (thanks for your feedback!).

On the SpatiaLite topic, here's a blog entry named Spatialite and Excel on talking terms: "The recent stable version of Spatialite, 3.0, supports linking to and importing Excel spreadsheet tables. Read on to see how it’s done. The developers of spatialite have added a driver for *.xls files (thru the FreeXL library ). You can either link to, or import a single sheet from an Excel file [...]"