Page 1 of 1  Frank Warmerdam President OSGeo In recent years Open Source GIS (or OSGIS) has been increasingly visible in industry news and events, but does this reflect a meaningful change? And what is the relevance to ordinary organizations using geospatial technologies? The term "Open Source" or "Free" software refers to software which is provided with source code, and permissive licenses allowing users to duplicate, modify, and redistribute the software without cost. The details of the freedoms required to qualify as open source are defined by the Open Source Initiative at opensource.org. Open source has played a significant, though not always very visible role in the development of GIS technology. Examples include the GCTP and PROJ.4 projections libraries, widely used in proprietary and free software. File format libraries such as libtiff, libpng, and libjpeg are also very widely used throughout the industry. GRASS GIS was one of the original full featured GIS software packages, and has been influential through it's nearly 25 year history. Since the late 1990s the UMN MapServer web mapping application has become popular, and taken a substantial role in the web mapping space. In 2003 the first worldwide MapServer Users Meeting was held with roughly 100 attendees. Since then this meeting has grown into an annual conference covering a growing number of open source packages with 2006's FOSS4G Conference in Lausanne Switzerland attracting over 500 people for an event focused exclusively on open source geospatial technologies. The new century has also seen the growth of integration and services companies organized primarily around use of open source technology. DM Solutions Group, Intevation Gmbh, CCGIS, and Camptocamp SA are some substantial examples. There are also many large and small consulting, integration and services organizations using open source as part of their software mix, even if it is mostly out of sight. Essentially all proprietary GIS software vendors are using some Open Source GIS components in their products. Whether a few very low level components like libgeotiff, or larger scale use of libraries such as GDAL/OGR. The authors GDAL library has been used by vendors as largeas Google, Microsoft, and ESRI, as well as medium sized players such as Safe Software, Cadcorp, Delorme and SRC. The most dramatic example of open source taking a large role with proprietary software vendors is this years announcement by Autodesk that they have released their new generation MapGuide as open source. This ties in closely with the other sign of the increasing impact, and relevance of open source software in the geospatial arena. The launch of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). The foundation was launched in early 2006 with eight open source software projects including the previously mentioned GRASS, MapGuide Open Source, MapServer and GDAL/OGR. The foundation provide supports, and promotion for open source geospatial solutions. Open Source Benefits I may have convinced you that something is happening, but is it relevant to your organizations needs? Let me list a few key reasons why OSGIS is attractive to many organizations. Open source is malleable. When necessary the the source code, documentation and interfaces can be changed to meet local needs. This includes fixing bugs, translating interfaces, and adding critically needed features. Open source is agile. An open source component can be downloaded, and tried out quickly, often in only minutes, avoiding the a need for license key negotiations, or worst of all the dreaded "procurement process". Open source is portable. Many packages can be built for Win32, Win64, Linux and Unix on a variety of hardware, Mac OS X, and various mobile platforms. Open source is transparent. When necessary the algorithms at the core of critical analyzes can be reviewed. Open source is free. Avoiding costly software licensing leaves more financial resources for staffing to get the actual work done, data acquisition and hardware purchases. Budgets are not subject to arbitrary changes in vendor licensing schemes, and solutions can be replicated to more seats without the software budget ballooning. The benefits can be summarized as giving control to the organization, instead of putting it in the hands of a software vendor whose interests are not always in complete alignment with the organization. Practical Issues Having made a pitch for why open source can be an important part of your software mix, lets review the caveats, and risks associated with use of Open Source. The first problem is that identifying an appropriate piece of OSGIS software for a purpose can be challenging. Open source projects don't have multi-million dollar advertising budgets and booths at all major trade shows, so it falls to the user to do some investigation to find appropriate technology. A first round review of options might involved Google searches and seeking referrals from others in the field. The freegis.org web site is also a valuable directory of open source geospatial projects. Determining whether a given package meets your needs will require at least some poring over web site materials, and likely installing and preliminary use of the software package. After background research, consider asking for some advice on the project mailing list. Before making a long term commitment to use an open source product, it is wise to evaluate the maturity of the product and the vitality of the community. A mature product will be in use by multiple organizations for a purpose similar to your own. This gives some assurance that the software is appropriate and ready for the task. Signs of maturity include multiple releases, reasonably complete documentation, and indications that bugs are being resolved over time. A healthy project community gives some assurance that the software will continue to improve, and that problems can be resolved. Signs of project vitality include regular software releases, activity on project mailing lists and that an active bug database. There are lots of projects out there that were a nice idea, but never reached a useful level of completeness. There are also many projects which are potentially useful, but have been abandoned by their developers. These projects might still be useful for a specific purpose, but caution should be used before committing to them. Proprietary software vendors, or integrators providing software to end customers must also pay close attention to the licenses used for open source packages. Some licenses, such as the GPL (GNU Public License) are designed to maximize sharing of source code and are generally incompatible with mixing with proprietary source code into a single final program. Other open source licenses such as the MIT/X license put very few restrictions on how the source code can be mixed into an existing application. End user organizations who do not redistribute software can be comfortable with any approved open source license. The open source licenses are the assurance that organization can do whatever they need with the software. OSGIS software will often require an investment in staff skills development. This will minimally include time to review a variety of documentation and to experiment with the software. It may also involve participation in project mailing lists, learned related software packages, and attending conference workshops. To take full advantage of OS GIS flexibility it can also be helpful to have some modest software development capacity - at least the ability to build software from source, and to script in languages such as PHP, or Python.  Grass6.1 GIS Manager If an organization is going to depend heavily OSGIS software, it is difficult to establish expertise in all aspects internally. It is often important to identify appropriate outside partners. In some cases this might involve outsourcing a large project to an integrator or services organization. In others it may be establishing a consulting and support relationships with outside organizations or individuals to support internal staff. Healthy OSGIS project communities often include individual developers, or consulting companies that are prepared to offer professional support, training and software development on an as needed or long term basis. Ultimately many of the above factors are similar to concerns that apply to proprietary software. The need to review product maturity, and vitality. The need for skills development, and an external support relationship. But in the open source world, more of the onus is on the organization to search out appropriate options rather than sit back and listen to the pitch from vendor salespeople. Steps Forward For an organization considering some use of OSGIS technology, there are a few steps that can get you started. Spend some time experimenting with open source packages. Get a feel for some of the packages in your area of interest. Given OSGIS a chance for new projects. This might mean giving Open source oriented consultants and integrators a chance to participate in RFPs, or in house evaluation of open source alternatives before buying a proprietary package. Plug into the community. Browse websites, join mailing lists, and watch for OSGIS activities at OSGIS specific conferences like FOSS4G 2007 or general conferences like Map World Forum. Open source GIS gives progressive organizations an opportunity to build internal capabilities, improve flexibility and accomplish more in a budget constrained environment.
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