Dotted Eyes - Open Software, Standards and Data
- 1. An Introduction to Open Software Open Standards Open Data © Dotted Eyes Ltd All trademarks are acknowledged David Downing Account Manager [email_address] Matt Walker Technical Director [email_address] David Eagle Principal Consultant [email_address]
- 2. The Dotted Eyes Story Over 20 Years experience in GIS Solutions UK-Centric solution-lead organisation Focussed on success through our ‘trusted advisor’ status to our customers 850 customers and growing Profitable, professional, knowledgeable
- 4. Geographic, Location & Spatial Solutions Leading Premier Business Partner of PBBI (MapInfo) Products and solutions based approach Software plus related data and services Power clients, intranet, internet and mobile solutions Extract, transform and load tools and solutions Integration and interoperability experience
- 5. An Introduction to Open Software Open Standards Open Data Matt Walker Technical Director [email_address] David Eagle Principal Consultant [email_address]
- 6. GIS traditionally dominated by Open Software Open Standards Open Data … are increasingly more relevant Commercial data MapInfo.TAB Autodesk.DWG Proprietary formats and interfaces ESRI.SHP Commercial software
- 7. Dotted Eyes Approach Long standing spatial solutions provider focused on providing tailored solutions to meet requirements and using the best tools for the job . Commercial Open Source
- 8. Evolution of Web Mapping at Dotted Eyes Microsoft Windows Microsoft IIS / ASP SQL Server Oracle MapInfo MapXtreme MapInfo MapXtreme HTML / HTTP Database Operating System Web Server Map Server Web Service Web Front-end Microsoft Windows or Linux Linux Tomcat / Java SQL Server / Oracle MySQL MapServer Flash / XHTML XML / HTTP PostGIS / MySQL Linux Tomcat / Java PostGIS MySQL GeoServer OpenLayers / XHTML WMS / WFS
- 9. Sustrans website 2002 built on a commercial software stack , utilising a proprietary mapping interface and Ordnance Survey data.
- 10. Sustrans website 2010 built on a open source software stack , utilising a standards based mapping interface and Ordnance Survey data.
- 12. Open Software Software for which source code is provided under a license which permits use, change and redistribution Developed in a public & collaborative manner by a community Commonly free of charge
- 15. Benefits of Open Software High quality Reliable Secure “The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in” – Open Source Initiative Flexibility Reduced cost No vendor lock-in
- 17. Open Standards Formal technical specifications that define how systems communicate together with file formats and data structures Commonly well documented and maintained by a standards body
- 18. Open Geospatial Standards Formats GML, KML, CityGML… Web Services WMS, WFS, WPS… Style SLD, SES… Data Structures Simple Features for SQL, CORBA…
- 19. Web Map Service (WMS) “ a simple HTTP interface for requesting geo-registered map images ” – Open Geospatial Consortium . GetCapabilities Capabilities Document Supported formats , projections and layers GetMap Format , projection , layers and extent Map Image Of required extent showing specified layers in requested format and projection
- 20. Web Feature Service (WFS) Basic WFS Read-only access to features, the vector equivalent of a WMS. Transactional WFS Support for both reading and editing features . Includes support for transactions and feature locking . “ (a set of interfaces) for data access and manipulation operations on geographic features using HTTP ” – Open Geospatial Consortium . GetCapabilities Capabilities Document Supported formats , projections and layers GetFeature Format , queries and layers… Features (GML) From the required layers that satisfy the specified queries .
- 21. Benefits of Open Standards Interoperability and data sharing Vendor independence Encourages competition Lower costs
- 23. Open Data Data publicly available Subject to a suitable open data licence “ Anyone is free to use, reuse and redistribute without restriction (except, perhaps the requirements to attribute and share alike)” – opendatacommons.org
- 25. OpenStreetMap Crowd sourced Collected using GPS, local knowledge and digitising over open imagery and out of copyright maps. Worldwide cover but detail and quality variable. "OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them." – openstreetmap.org OpenStreetMap
- 26. data.gov.uk Central directory of government data Enabling the linked data initiative Ordnance Survey consultation ongoing looking at providing free access to some OS datasets Recently launched by HM Government to provide access to public sector information. Spearheaded by Tim Berners-Lee the creator of the world wide web and Nigel Shadbolt .
- 27. Ordnance Survey Free Making Public Data Public recognises value of location Options for the access mechanism could include: Online public viewing service Online download centre Web based Application Programming Interface (API) CD or DVD distribution, with a charge for media and P&P Proposal to offer ‘Ordnance Survey Free’ data sets “ An additional contribution from government of up to £40m pa from 2010/11 has been proposed. This would be funded from several government departments and Agencies”
- 28. Summary There has been a growing trend towards Open Software, Standards and Data Significant advantages to open computing including flexibility, interoperability and low cost of adoption
- 30. Your total cost to deliver a project will decrease Increased ability to deliver core functionality Mitigate your ‘risk’ by working with a trusted partner Benefits of Using Open Source Software, Standards and Data
- 33. "We are able to keep our match day transport map live and current. We are very pleased with Dotted Eyes as the work they have done has been absolutely brilliant. It has been a real help to us. Without this solution we would have had to use static PDFs which would have been a headache to update. The solution was cost effective, deployed very quickly and exceeded expectations. There is also the added advantage that people visiting the site can play with the map interactively and compare transport options to see what will suit them best.“ Lee Preece – Aston Villa FC Aston Villa Football Club
- 36. “ Licensing contractors can be complex and we recognise that a hosted web application can deliver greater cost-efficiency in data analysis and audited workflows, so freeing up our internal GIS resource for other mission-critical work." “Contractor Portal will help us to offer a reliable, fully managed data distribution service that simplifies contract compliance for us and our contractors.” Joanne Brooker – GIS Manager, SEEDA
- 43. Web Client: OpenLayers Web-based user-interface to mapping data Consumes WMS & WFS Supports tiling for performance Open source alternative to: Google Maps Microsoft Bing Maps (formerly Virtual Earth)
- 45. Mapping Server: GeoServer Map rendering and data publishing Supports WMS and WFS Standards based styling (SLD) Can utilise GeoWebCache for tiling and performance Open source alternative to: ESRI ArcGIS Server MapInfo MapXtreme
- 47. Database: PostGIS Spatial extension of PostgreSQL Direct connection using desktop GIS clients Enterprise class spatial database Open source alternative to: Oracle Spatial Microsoft SQL Server Spatial ESRI ArcSDE
- 49. Translation and Transformation Capable of plugging into open source tools to enable spatial transformation and translations Provides a bridge between the open source and proprietary GIS environments Migrate PostGIS “Test” > Oracle Spatial “Live” Spatial ETL: FME
- 53. Desktop: Quantum GIS Supported on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and UNIX Small installation footprint c.100mb Minimal resources so functions on older computers Used in academic and professional arenas “ Born” in 2002 Official current release is 1.3.0, aka “Mimas” (Sept 2009)
- 54. Features of Format Support: TAB, MIF/MID, Shape, DGN, S57, CSV, GML, GPX, KML PostGIS, ODBC, Oracle Spatial, MySQL ECW, JPG, MrSID, GIF … and many more View and overlay with no conversion required Core Features: Digitising tools Print composer OGC support (WMS, WFS) Overview window Spatial bookmarks Identify/select features Edit/view attributes Feature labelling On the fly projection
- 55. Open GIS in action Demo OpenLayers GeoServer WFS and WFS-T PostGIS query and editing Quantum GIS capabilities
- 56. Summary Choose appropriate parts of the technology stack to suit your needs Connect to data in native format or transform and translate it with FME Analyse, query and edit Invest in the ‘best-fit’ solution
- 58. Principles of Software Licensing Copying and distributing the software Modifying the software or creating derived software Authorising anyone else from copying or creating derived software Commercial License Open Source License Restricts the user, to avoid: Open source software enables the user to: Freely copy and distribute the software Modify the software and create derived software Pass these rights on to others
- 59. Open Source Licenses GPL Dual GPL LGPL/MPL Apache/MIT Download Evaluate Use Redistribute Modify Linux, GeoServer MySQL, Ext/ GeoExt Firefox, MapGuide OS OpenLayers, MapServer Matrix adapted from original at http://www.bitsandbuzz.com. 1 Application must be licensed under the same license Library code modifications must be licensed under the same license Usually requires a commercial license from the copyright holder 2 2 2 3
- 60. License Summary Open source licenses look to provide freedom and encourage adoption There are a variety of open source licenses in regular use ranging from Copyleft ‘viral’ licenses such as GPL to Permissive licences such as MIT
- 62. One of the biggest challenges facing open source software in the business sector is the perceived lack of commercial support
- 63. Open Source Support Options Product Open source vendors often provide better support than commercial Passion Frequently include members of the original design team Stack Assemble stacks of commonly used open source software components Offer services around them - support, consultancy, training and integration testing Community Active online communities Mailing lists, discussion forums, direct E-mail correspondence
- 65. Dotted Eyes Services Support Standard and tailored support packages Consultancy Needs assessment, training, mentoring and data migration Development User centred solutions development