This is major news. The popular open source desktop GIS formerly known as Quantum GIS, now simply QGIS, has released its version 2.0 at FOSS4G. This release reduces the gap with some of the mature commercial desktop GIS available. There's also QGIS 2.0 for Android in the works.

Here's the full list of what's new and changed - it's just too long to copy it all, so here's some of it:

User interface:

• Feature: Side tabs, collapsable groups
• Feature: Soft notifications
• Feature: Drag and drop form builder

Data providers:

• Feature: Oracle Spatial support
• Feature: Web Coverage Service (WCS) provider added
• Feature: Raster 2% cumulative cut by default
• Feature: WMTS Support

Symbology:

• Feature: Data defined properties
• Feature: Support for transparency in colour definitions
• Feature: Color Control for Raster Layers

Map composer:

• Feature: Multipage support
• Feature: Layer blending
• Feature: Multicolumn composer legend

Labeling:

• Feature: Expression based label properties

There's a lot more to it. Head to the full list to learn more and see numerous screenshots.

OpenGeo is one of the few major open source geospatial companies out there and we mention them frequently. Today OpenGeo announced that their future is not just open, it's boundless, OpenGeo is rebranding and will now be known as Boundless.

From the announcement: "With the momentum behind our company and shifts happening within the industry, we realized that we needed a new identity to better reflect where we’re headed. We also recognized that there are potential conflicts with other companies using the OpenGeo name, driving a desire for us to build a larger, more encompassing brand for our vision and products. [...] While we’ll be developing new solutions and taking on new challenges, we’re not leaving our current products behind. In fact, we’re expanding them. Our new name marks our push into new technologies, including geospatial web services monitoring with Mapmeter, desktop software with QGIS, our growing capabilities in cloud and mobile platforms, and our expanded work in data editing workflows."

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode. With FOSS4G next week, I expect exciting news soon!

On the open source / open data front:

• OpenStreetMap's State of the Map ended, here's an outsider overview, keywords: growing and healthy
• It's been a while since we mentioned that one, New MapProxy 1.6.0 released, a reminder, "It caches, accelerates and transforms data from existing map services and serves any desktop or web GIS client"
• GeoMoose is now officially an OSGeo project, reminder, it's an "Open Source Web Client JavaScript Framework for displaying distributed GIS data"
• Paul shows us Census Mapping Made Easy with open software

On the Esri front:

• Esri added Landscape Layers to ArcGIS, "over 60 layers are available at your fingertips as input to geoprocessing models and for the creation of beautiful and informative interactive web maps"
• Here's for next Tuesday, Check Out What’s Coming in ArcGIS Online
• Esri also introduced GeoEnrichment for JavaScript developers, which helps you "create a web app that’s full of interactive demographic, consumer spending, and lifestyle data for the viewers of your map"

On the Google front:

• The GEB shares More great Google Earth resources for teachers
• Google invites us to Explore the Galapagos’ biodiversity with Street View, and why not boats, Kurt shares the R/V Falkor in Street View and still on the same topic, Updated Street View imagery of tsunami-affected areas of northeastern Japan, including the exclusion zone
• Same old story still making the news, Court Declares Google Must Face Wiretap Charges For Wi-Fi Snooping when collecting data for StreetView
• In the trivia category, Court Orders Retrial In Google Maps-Related Murder Case
• Nice to look at, Tri-bridges around the world, three-way bridges

In the everything-else category:

• Bing Maps got a major imagery update, 13 Million Square Kilometers of Imagery, or 315.92 terabytes
• Here's a beautiful 4-minutes video on the last 50 years of the satellite industry made by DigitalGlobe
• Amazon improves its geo offerings with a New Geo Library for Amazon DynamoDB, allowing a basic set of spatial queries
• Another way Apple Maps will improve, Apple Working to Leverage New 'M7' Motion-Sensing Chip for Mapping Improvements
• Wired reviews the book The Lost Art of Finding Our Way by Harvard's John Edward Huth
• An OGC entry named Smart Cities Depend on Smart Location Communication
• Efforts mentioned before, 3 million data points collected by Safecast to warn Japan about radiation
• Yes, the NSA knows where you've been, NSA Can Spy On Data From Smart Phones, Including Blackberry
• Geoff has an entry on the successful use of satellite imagery to reduce illegal deforestation in Brazil
• On GhettoTracker and segregation through geospatial knowledge, Could Technology Create Modern-Day 'Leper Colonies'?
• When geospatial apps goes too far, New Smartphone Tech To Alert Pedestrians: 'You Are About To Be Hit By a Car', this other app might be more useful: Dangerous Neighbourhood? Kovert App Will Navigate With Vibration From Your Pocket
• In the maps category, Wired offers links and maps on The Geography of American Agriculture

I lied, I have not yet shared all the pertinent geonews that happened during my extended holidays, I was keeping this gem just for myself, here it is! In late July, the open source geojson.oi website for drawing, changing, and sharing GeoJSON-formatted map data was announced by MapBox's Tom MacWright. This is major news in my opinion: creating and sharing basic vector geodata on a map can't be made easier and accessible. Try it out yourself.

Here's the about page. The brief initial announcement: "geojson is for drawing, changing, and sharing GeoJSON-formatted map data. Save as a GitHub Gist and share a link. Hit Cmd-S to do it quickly. Edit the JSON properties in GeoJSON features easily. Line-specific JSON-validation errors from jsonlint. Line-specific GeoJSON-validation errors from geojsonhint. Use geojson with modern mapping tools, like TileMill, MapBox.js, GitHub, and Shapely. It’s made of open source: Leaflet.draw, MapBox.js, CodeMirror, and a new library I wrote called geojsonhint, that does GeoJSON validation."

While we mentioned several times the WMTS OGC standard and its brother the TMS protocol, we never mentioned TileServer-PHP, an open source Web Map Tiling Server.

From the github readme: "This server distributes maps to desktop, web, and mobile applications from a standard Apache+PHP web hosting. It is a free and open-source project implementing OGC WMTS standard for pre-rendered map tiles made with MapTiler Cluster, MapTiler, GDAL2Tiles, or available as MBTiles files. It is the easiest and cheapest way how to serve zoomable maps in a standardized way - practically from any ordinary web hosting. It is easy to install - just copy the project files to a PHP-enabled directory along with your map data containing metadata.json file. It comes with an online interface showing the list of the maps and step-by-step guides for desktop GIS software [...]"

Also important, supported protocols are:

• OpenGIS WMTS 1.0.0
• OSGeo TMS 1.0.0
• TileJSON.js
• Direct access with XYZ tile requests (to existing tiles in a directory or to .mbtiles)

Catching up the August geonews, we're now all up to date with this way too long entry.

On the open source front:

• The new open source GraphHopper Maps – High Performance and Customizable Routing in Java based on OpenStreetMap data (via OSM)
• Here's Quantarctica, a free GIS package for Antarctica, the basic package is 7 gigs of free geodata and works with QGIS
• MapBox has an entry on the US Census Bureau released the version of TIGER
• There's more of those, the first Open Source Geospatial Lab in Switzerland is established at SUPSI, Ohio's First Open Source Geospatial lab will be established at KSU, and another one, First Australian Open Source Geospatial Laboratory at the University of Melbourne
• Frequent improvements, GeoTools 9.5 Released, GeoServer 2.3.5 Released, and Geopaparazzi 3.6.0 is out
• MapGuide Open Source is still alive and a major release planned for next year, meanwhile, Announcing: MapGuide Open Source 2.4.1 and 2.5.1
• Try open source software easily, OSGeo-Live 7.0 Released

On the Esri front:

• WordPress and Esri are both very popular, this gives us a WorldPress Plugin for ArcGIS Online: Spatial-Blogging for all Bloggers
• Esri released ArcGIS for State Government
• Here's an open source boilerplate for ArcGIS API for Javascript apps
• From Esri Press, the second edition of book 'The GIS 20: Essential Skills'
• MS and Esri, Bing Maps Use in ArcGIS Has Changed
• Updates, ArcGIS API for JavaScript Version 3.6 Released and ArcPad 10.2 Released

Discussed over Slashdot:

• More free data, Using Zillow's Creative Commons Neighborhood Boundary Data For the U.S.
• Microsoft acquires a part of Nokia, including access to Nokia mapping services
• Patents block innovation, How Patent Trolls Stalled a New Transit App
• Mapping unhappiness, Twitter-Based Study Figures Out Saddest Spots In New York City
• With MapBox behind, Open Source Mapping Software Shows Every Traffic Death On Earth, on a similar topic, Visualizing New York’s Road Accidents With the Interactive ‘Crashmapper’
• Old maps, Ostrich-Egg Globe Believed Oldest To Show New World
• More competition for driverless cars, Nissan Plans To Sell Self-Driving Cars By
• Sharks with lasers? Great White Shark RFID/Satellite Tracking Shows Long Journeys, Many Beach Visits

In the miscellaneous category:

• Another insightful entry from Brian Timoney, with an example of how difficult it can be to simply get the latest US state boundaries
• Kickstarter to get a 4-cm accuracy real-time kinematic GPS for only 2,000$, named Piksi
• OGC standards and Advancing Toward Spatial Data Quality Assurance
• MapBox has been testing their upcoming quick access to satellite imagery 'MapBox Satellite Live'
• Another research indicating using GPS negatively impact our internal picture of the world
• MapQuest wants to stay relevant with their new spatially aware Data Manager API web service
• Here's the YouSayCity, a 3D tool to discuss and document the future of individual cities
• Not directly geospatial, Discover the World's Greatest Internet Cities
• While it's a rather poor game, gamification of crowdsourcing geospatial data is here, this example of the Landspotting iPad app to crowdsource satellite imagery classification in a game, I preferred the Kort game to improve OpenStreetMap
• Wired shared an article on Google Map Maker, OpenStreetMap and the State of Crowdsourced World Mapping
• Nothing surprising, Apple too will leverage its users, iOS 7 Will Ask Users To Help Improve iOS Maps, Apple also acquired Embark to Further Improve Mass Transit Navigation
• In-the-house mobile devices, Are Mobile Users Really Mobile? Not So Much
• With Agile everywhere, it's Agile somewhere, 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science
• Don't know how many people there is an in area? Use the pickle consumption index
• Something we heard before, the geospatial identity crisis and the term 'geomatics'
• We mentioned it in and here's an updated about Gmap4: REST and WMS Map Viewer for Google Maps and GIS Data
• Another OGC entry, this time on big data and Big Processing of Geospatial Data
• A generic NYT article on Microsatellites: What Big Eyes They Have
• Drones again, Light-weight UAV-mounted laser scanning system announced
• Future unevenly distributed, Video Flashback 1987: Star Trek's Shatner Tells You Where You Can Stick Your Maps
• Pretty interesting, geo doesn't have to be that complex, James Fee shares GIS Is Complicated by Design

In the maps category:

• Yosemite fires entries: The Fire Last Time: Mapping Blazes Past, Present - and Future, 6 Months of Wildfires Burning North America, and Yosemite Fire’s Destruction Mapped in Beautiful, Frightening Color
• Another source for marine traffic, Visualize and Monitor Maritime Vessels, Real-time on Google Earth
• Map of Nobel prizes, A visual exploration of the Nobel Prize history
• An printed atlas, Atlas of the World Wide Web
• Maps of war, Targeting Sites of Attack in Syria
• Correlation is not causation, maps of Milk, the Drink of Conquerors
• Via Wired, don't miss (really) this London’s Underground With This Mesmerizing Interactive 3-D Map
• On a similar topic, the Interactive Map of the Paris Metro
• A new version, the nice Submarine Cable Map

Still catching up geonews, this is a major one, the mature open source geospatial database PostGIS 2.1.0 has been released.

In short, "This release contains a ton of speed improvements, function additions , and super sexy new features. It has been over a year in the making. New functions itemized here". The highlights:

• "More terrain analysis functions. In addition so slope and aspect calculations, there are now also roughness, Topographic Position Index and Terrain Ruggedness Index.
• Tiling large rasters into small rasters with ST_Tile. This is useful for analyses that work best on large rasters, but are served out as results best as small tiles. The raster opposite of ST_Tile is ST_Union, which has received performance improvements in 2.1
• New geocoding engine. The TIGER geocoder that has shipped with PostGIS for several years has been enhanced using the address normalization engine from PACG. As a result, batch geocoding is an order of magnitude faster.
• New selectivity calculations, supporting N-D and geographic indexes, as well as improved join selectivity calculations. Will provide generally improved query planning for complex SQL.
• Performance enhancement by up to 20x for ST_Distance calculations on geography.
• Delaunay triangulation inside the database with ST_DelaunayTriangles.
• Performance and functionality enhancements to ST_MapAlgebra, allowing even more crazy in-database raster analytics."

• 

While we mentioned the Fiona a few times since, with the recent 1.0 release, here's more about it. Fiona is an open source OGR API for Python.

From the official page: "Fiona provides uncomplicated Python interfaces to functions in OGR, the best open source C/C++ library for reading and writing geographic vector data.

Fiona is designed to be simple and dependable. It focuses on reading and writing data in standard Python IO style, and relies upon familiar Python types and protocols such as files, dictionaries, mappings, and iterators instead of classes specific to OGR. Fiona can read and write real-world data using multi-layered GIS formats and zipped virtual file systems and integrates readily with other Python GIS packages such as pyproj, Rtree, and Shapely."

In the 1.0 announcement, Sean summarize what it offers:

• Simplicity and less code.
• Familiar Python types and protocols like files, dicts, and iterators instead of classes specific to GIS.
• GeoJSON style feature records.
• Reading and writing single and multi-layer files.
• Reading zipped data, too.
• A handy command line tool that upgrades "ogr2ogr -f GeoJSON".
• Comprehensive tests.
• 15 pages of narrative documentation.

And yes, Fiona is already updated to version 1.0.1.