Here's recent FOSS4G and open geodata related news in batch mode.

• What can't be missed is the Open Source Geospatial Foundation fifth birthday. There's also a cake and various ideas for celebrations. I vividly remember OSGeo's initial press release, which I helped translate at the time. The highlights shared by Daniel (first link):
  • OSGeo went from 8 founding projects in to 20 software projects today (including 6 in incubation)
  • OSGeo's annual FOSS4G conference turned into a truly international event, visiting 4 continents over 5 years
  • Over 20 local chapters are active around the world, promoting OSGeo's software and mission in their local language and communities.
  • Daniel also reminds us that GRASS GIS, the open source desktop GIS, goes abck to 1982, MapServer around 1995 and GDAL/OGR in 1998.
• If you have interest in OGC Cataloging Services and metadata, there's a new open source CSW server in Python project named "pycsw"
• Here's an entry on Web based printing with QGIS server and another one named importing a DBF containing X-Y Values into QGIS
• Via this weekly summary, I learned about Maps4Mac open source app to get OpenStreetMap data in MacOS X

• MapQuest announced extented use of OpenStreetMap data in their entry named MapQuest Opens Up The Americas, Completes World Routing, Adds New Open Services, there also is an entry specific to MapQuest's introduction of alternate routes.
• MapQuest imagery and OpenStreetMap tiles were added to the open source GeoExplorer
• While I found little information about it I learned about OpenTouchMap, based on OpenStreetMap data, here's the OpenTouchMap website
• Natural Earth vectors are now available in the cloud, we mentioned NE data now being public domain last December

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) announced the availability of their 7th Journal issue and annual report.

The highlights: "The OSGeo Journal team is glad to announce the availability of the Annual Report, including several reports about FOSS4G, various projects, local chapters and OSGeo sponsors:

• FOSS4G: conference review by the Conference Chair
• Software Project Reports: deegree, GeoTools, GRASS GIS, Mapbender, MapServer, OSSIM, Quantum GIS
• Local Chapter Reports:Australia/New Zealand, Brazil, California, China, Finland, Francophone, German, Greek, Italian, Japan, Ottawa, Poland, Quebec, Romania, Spanish, Twin Cities, United Kingdom"

The OSGeo Journal editorial team is happy to announce that the most recent issue of the Journal is now released. You can access the index of the past and current issues here: Or if you simply want to download the latest PDF (21MB) you can grab it directly here: Single article downloads are also available: Feel free to contact me directly with questions or comments, or join our Journal mailing list for direct contact with the editorial team: New articles are always welcome and can be added through our online system at: A quickstart list of steps for authors is here: The Sunburned Surveyor

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the Centre for Geospatial Science (CGS), University of Nottingham have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of an Open Source Geospatial Lab (OSGL) and to develop collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organisations in open source GIS software and data in the UK. Professor Mike Jackson, Director of the Centre of Geospatial Science, said "The MOU between OSGeo and the Centre for Geospatial Science at the University of Nottingham is an indication of the close collaboration between the two organisations which has already underpinned two very successful Conferences on open source research in the geospatial domain. CGS is funding two research internships to help progress joint research activities and welcomes both offers of funding for further internee sponsorships and approaches from potential visiting scientists who may wish to spend a period of time based at the Centre in Nottingham to work on open source geospatial research." Arnulf Christl, President of OSGeo, said, "The Foundation has successfully achieved it's first primary goal: To support Free and Open Source Software projects in the geospatial realm. One of the other two pillars of the foundation is supporting education which is much harder for a developer driven organization to achieve on it's own. Therefore this Memorandum of Understanding with CGS is a great success from OSGeo's point of view and will mark the start of an ongoing strong partnership with academia. In the long run this will enhance education and research in the Open Source geospatial realm in a broader context as other institutes recognize the opportunity and join forces." Tyler Mitchell, Executive Director of OSGeo said "Engaging academia at several levels is crucial to meeting our common long term missions of advancing open source geospatial technology. OSGeo's relationship with CGS serves as a proactive template for how other institutions can also engage with OSGeo at a more formal level. This will open up additional exciting opportunities that we haven't even thought of yet." The MOU provides for the establishment of a research laboratory for supporting development of open-source geospatial software technologies, training and expertise. It also provides provision of internship opportunities for high quality students. An Advisory Board/Steering Committee coordinated by the OSGeo Board and CGS, is to be setup and will be comprised of key members of OSGeo, OSGeo:UK, eminent academics, industry leaders, etc. to give strategic input and direction for Open Source Geospatial Lab and its open source activities. The OSGeo is a not-for-profit organization founded in whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies and data. The University of Nottingham is a world-class research intensive University and in the top 1% of all universities worldwide. The Centre for Geospatial Science is the key leader in the Open Source Geospatial domain within the UK. CGS is actively involved in multiple Open Source geospatial initiatives. The first phase of internships are now released

The GRASS Development Team announced the release of GRASS GIS 6.4.0, the first in the new line of 6.4 stable releases. As a stable release 6.4 will enjoy long-term support. The next release (6.4.1) will introduce a few new features which are still undergoing final testing, but after that all further 6.4 releases will be bugfix-only.

Screenshots

• Screenshots of GRASS in action

What's new in GRASS 6.4.0

(selected improvements from the nearly 9,000 updates to the source code)

This comes from a submission on the old site, which shouldn't be available any moment now. Cameron Shorter writes "Version 4.0 of the OSGeo Live GIS software collection has been released, along with a 25 minute video describing the 42 contributing GeoSpatial Open Source applications. OSGeo-Live is a self-contained bootable DVD, USB flash drive and Virtual Machine based upon Ubuntu Linux that is pre-configured with a wide variety of robust open source geospatial software. The applications can be trialed without installing anything on your computer, simply by booting the computer from the DVD or USB drive. ... more"

Here's last week's announcement regarding the availability of the final FOSS4G conference program. From the announcement: "More than 700 people have already subscribed and the number is growing every day. If you have not subscribed yet, do it now. Some workshops are already sold out so don't loose the chance to choose your favourite workshop." As announced earlier this summer, Slashgeo will have a representative attending the conference.