Dr. Peter Mooney Environmental Protection Agency Ireland &

1. Possibilities for free and open source software in developing distributed systems Dr. Peter Mooney Environmental Protection Agency Ireland & National Centre for Geocomputation Ireland January 15th , 2008

2. B.Sc, PhD Computer ScienceEvolutionary Algorithms, Shortest Path Optimisation Expertise areas: Web-based GIS, databases, metadata Open Source user & advocate An introduction … • Research Data Manager, • EPA Ireland • p.mooney@epa.ie

3. This talk aims to highlight strengths of F/OSS approaches in developing distributed systems such as WISE ? What exactly is Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) in geomatics and environmental science? ? What are the key F/OSS products and how can they help build an SDI or a Distributed System? ? Why should organisations consider moving towardsas F/OSS orientated SDI architecture?

4. EPA will fund over €100M environmental research in Ireland during period 2007-2013 Very large volumes of raw and aggregated Geospatial and model-based data generated and stored Estimated 1000 unique Metadata submissions Upwards of 600 separate projects Funding of €45M from 2000 - 2006

5. SAFER-Data is a flagship product from the ERC – allowing researchers to manage their spatial data INSPIRE compliantmetadata handling Research community-drivendevelopment ethos Plans to rollout as an F/OSS product for other organisations Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data http://erc.epa.ie/safer

6. Future planned extensions and improvements to SAFER-Data will utilise FOSS components

7. Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) carries much philosophical baggage

8. F/OSS also carries a great deal of misconceptions to the point where users are “afraid” to even try it out “There is no free lunch” Its flaky, cheap, and amateur Only for Linux people It is less secure Open source is a “go it alone” strategy. “Ominous” linkages with “Hacker-Culture”

9. Discussions about F/OSS must be carefully demarcated from any “OS Wars” discussions

10. Most client/desktop and server & management computing is dominated by various software market leaders Recognise these?

11. Robust, mission critical ready, scalable F/OSS alternatives are readily available Recognise these?

12. F/OSS offers organisations and users market leading alternatives

13. Raymond proposed two SW development styles: “Cathedral” (commercial) and “Bazaar” (Linux world)‏ Traditional, vendor-lead proprietary software development “ No Beta to be released before its time” Open source, community driven, involving potentially thousands of developers ``Release early, and release often'' ``Given enough eyes, all bugs are shallow''

14. “Free as in freedom ... not as in beer” Freedom (noun) “The power or right to act, speak, or think freely” Oxford English Dictionary Free Beer: (at no cost)‏ Globally welcomed, but usually available with constraints Freedom to: 1. Run for any purpose 2. Study and Modify 3. Copy and Distribute 4. Improve and release “Limited” Freedom: only the freedom to USE

15. The WISE GIS Service specification provides MS with an opportunity to use existing SW & HW while harnessing in-house GIS and software development skills Upholds INSPIRE principle of maintaining datasets at the most appropriate level “Pan-European spatial views in small scales” “Any of the data sources will have full freedom to model and organise their data in their databases according to their ownneeds as long as they provide services corresponding to agreed WISE data models and service specifications”WISE GIS Guidance Document: Chapter 4 (2.0), pp 7 “When zoom levels go beyond 1:250,000 data sources shouldbe from national web servers”

16. Open Web Mapping API and de-facto standards such as KML created the “Long Tail of Mapping” Zero start up cost – Many tools to import GPS tracks etc... These Map Mashups are easily published on BLOGSand other personal spaces

17. The next slides will look at some examples of F/OSS specifically developed for environmental geomatics Desktop GIS Software – which can access OGC WMS and WFS Metadata Management: Creating standards compliant metadataand making metadata accessible Web-Based Mapping – Providing “slippy-map” functionality and integrate mapping/data from OGC WMS & WFS

18. PostGIS “Spatially Enables” the PostgreSQL database server – implementing OGC SQL specs Robust functionality for import and exportof spatial data in various standard formats UDIG is a full read/writeenvironment for PostGIS JRC Maritime Affairs – “Vessel Detection System” PostGIS (storage of SAR images) and MapServer Institut Géographique National, France - Storing approx 50M geographic features

19. GDAL/OGR – A C++ translator libraries for Raster and Vector data (http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/)‏ ShapeFile TIFF ArcInfo Binary Coverages Mapinfo Files Etc… Compliant with OpenGISStandards and Specifications >ogrinfo prov.shp prov -summary INFO: Open of `prov.shp' using driver `ESRI Shapefile' successful. Layer name: prov Geometry: Polygon Feature Count: 12 Extent: (-2340603.750000, -719746.062500) - (3009430.500000, 3836605.250000) Layer SRS WKT: (unknown) NAME: String (30.0) ID: Integer (2.0) Extensively used in GIS Software including: ArcGIS 9.2+, MapServer, MapGuide, Google Earth, FME, etc…

20. GeoTools is a Java code library providing standards compliant methods for manipulation of spatial data Position of GeoTools in the uDIG software stack Inside GeoTools (and Plugins)‏ Example: Desktop GUI and Web Developers to avoid implementing Coordinate Reprojections, image rendering,format conversions and concentrate on building a really good user interface experience.

21. GeoServer is a Java-driven fully featured GIS Data server with full WMS, WFS, and WCS functionality Well integrated with F/OSS Desktop GIS such as uDIG Offering more or less similarfunctionality as MapServerbut built on more modernJava J2EE Frameworks “The most standards compliant open source geospatial server.”

22. OpenLayers is a lightweight Javascript API which allows dynamic mapping to be added to any webpage Consumers not forced to choose between stovepiped APIs. Integration of OGC WMS datasources and localtext/database source data Full featuredJavascript API Currently supports OGC WMS layers, navigation, icons, markers, and layer selection

23. Using basic Javascript code – very elegant web-based map interfaces can be developed Example of OpenLayersaccessing a remote WMS source

24. Mapbuilder is a powerful, standards compliant geographic web mapping client Allows users to build their own maps, save & share them. Rich DHTML/XSLGUI Development Renders maps from OGC WMS, WFS, GeoRSS, Google Maps Configuration via GetCapabilities docs

25. MapGuide is a F/OSS web-mapping product originally developed by AutoDesk Fully web-based ,draws data from a MAPSERVER backend Buffer, measure, select, queries Spatial Plan for municipality of Schiedam Extensive PHP, .NET, Java, and JavaScript APIs for development.

26. uDIG (User Friendly Desktop Internet GIS)‏ Functionality to accessWMS and WFS Good symbology editingand nice print-readymap creation Richly featured desktop GIS by Canadian Company Refractions Research Ltd.

27. gvSIG (Generalitat Valenciana, Sistema d'Informació Geogràfica.) is a multilingual GIS which can handle vector and raster data Recently released a migration which runs on mobile computers (PDAs, etc)‏ Gazateer Search and Catalogue Search (Geonetwork)‏ Comprehensive set of extensions adding advanced spatial data analysis capabilities Georeferencing, NetworkAnalysis, Surface Analysis

28. Quantum GIS (QGIS) http://qgis.org Very good RASTERhandling & processing QGIS supports plugins to: import delimited text data, download tracks, routes, & waypoints from GPS Access WMS and WFS Can act as a GUI for the GRASS GIS via XML control files

29. ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System) - http://52north.org Initially developed by ITC Enschede Production Printing of Maps Advanced Image Processing capabilities Geostatistical Analysis Currently MS Visual 6 Compiler (so Windows only at present)In process of switching over to GCC compiler

30. GeoNetwork is a comprehensive metadata management and portal tool developed by UN-FAO Harvesting and access through Catalog Services for the Web 2 (CSW2)‏ Fully customisable “look-and-feel” Integrated Map Viewer for data formats such as SHP Set Internet privileges to “view” and “download”

31. GeoNetwork includes native support for ISO19115/ISO19139, FGDC and Dublin Core Online editing of metadata with a powerful template system Includes an interactive Web Map Viewer to combine Web Map Services from distributed servers

32. GeoNetwork offers service-chain search access to local and distributed geospatial catalogues http://sandre.eaufrance.fr/ http://geomatics.nlr.nl/unsdi/

33. CatMDEdit Metadata Editor (Java) - originally developed for Spain’s NSDI efforts TeIDE Universities of Zaragoza, Jaume I, Politécnica de Madrid Metadata: (ISO19115)‏ Spainish Core Profile SPIGER – INSPIRE SPIGER - WFD MS Excel Metadata Template import

34. Convinced? … outside of outstanding functionality, user-friendly software, and reliability what does F/OSS for Geomatics actually offer ..

35. F/OSS will in-directly “cost money”. Organisations must consider the ingredients F/OSS needs to ROI Migration of existing or legacy systems, F/OSS system training, programming skills development, consultancy People willing to drive F/OSS “Learning Curve” is in some casessubstantial for “non-IT” people F/OSS must be integrated into management/reporting workflows

36. A 2006 Report to the European Commission emphasised the economic impact of F/OSS on innovation & competitiveness of the EU ICT Sector Economic Role:Europe is leading region for globally collaborating F/OSS developers Direct Economic Impact: Existing base of quality F/OSS applications would cost EU business ~ €12Bn to develop internally Indirect Economic Impact:F/OSS potentially saves industry over 36% in software R&D investment http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf

37. F/OSS develops software that “get things done” rather than “Swiss army knife” software Excellent: WMS, WFS, WCS, cartographic operations But… does not strive to be a web server or GIS sys Excellent: Slippy maps, WFS, WMS Client But .. Can have problems with multiple layers/features Excellent: Multi-threaded, Multi-User SQL DBMS But … does not generate sophisticated graphicalreports/output

38. Free and Open Source Software for Spatial Data Infrastructure (FOSSDI) is an INSPIRE Spatial Data Interest Community (SDIC)‏ Free access (in the sense of freedom) to INSPIRE spatial data: Availability of free software allowing citizens to manage such data. Open formats: patent-free, well documented formats; Reasonable data licensing, free access granted without political or technical barriers; Transverse (time) and Longitudinal (community)interoperability

39. Market leading F/OSS (such as MySQL, OpenOffice, PostGIS) exhibit most attributes of their proprietary counterparts Mailing Lists, Bug Tracking, Nightly Builds, Forums Commercial Support/Consultancy Comprehensive Documentation Features Roadmaps Global Community of Developers and Users

40. F/OSS provides Nodes with flexibility to develop and manage their Web GIS Services An example of an Open SDI Technical Solution NationalSpecificData AccessServices GeoNetworkCatalogue OpenLayers Map Guide Rich ClientuDIG Apache Tomcat MapServer GeoServer Data Brokers MySQL PostGIS MS SQL Server Others

41. The OSGeo Foundation organises the annual FOSS4G conference Code Sprints Training Workshops Meet the developers Attendance has increased by 50% every year! An event which demonstrates all that is good about F/OSS

42. F/OSS for distributed systems like WISE offers a real, scalable, secure, GIS solution Built by the community for the community – driven by requirements Inherently standards based: ISO 19115, INSPIRE Specifications,OCG WMS, WFS, WCS The ability to customise a low-cost solution to meet your particular needs. Implicit Savings: No Upgrade Costs or recurring licensing Questions/Comments Email: p.mooney@epa.ie