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Favorite geo projects?

posted by Satri on Monday September 26, @01:51PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the open-your-hearts dept.
Open Source Community Ask Slashgeo
Myself writes "Open question: What are your favorite open projects, where are they headed, and what do they need to get there? Allow me a moment to plug NASA's WorldWind project."
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  • Where is "there" + open projects in GIS/RS

    (Score:2, Informative)
    by Satri (3) on Monday September 26, @03:03PM (#13)
    ( http://alexandreleroux.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 17, @04:07PM )
    What are your favorite open projects, where are they headed, and what do they need to get there?

    Myself, where is your "there" in your «what do they need to get there»?

    Here are some of the open projects in GIS & RS that I know of.
    - GDAL: http://www.gdal.org/ [gdal.org]
    - OGR: http://www.gdal.org/ogr [gdal.org]
    Two great libraries for GIS & RS.
    In terms of open software:
    - GRASS GIS: http://grass.itc.it/ [grass.itc.it]
    - OSSIM: http://www.ossim.org/ [ossim.org]
    - Virtual Terrain Project: http://vterrain.org/ [vterrain.org]

    Other open software I never really used:
    - mapserver: http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/ [umn.edu]
    - Thuban: http://thuban.intevation.org/ [intevation.org]
    - Multispec: http://dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu/~biehl/MultiSpec/ [purdue.edu]
    - Spring: http://www.dpi.inpe.br/spring/english/index.html [dpi.inpe.br]
    - Chips: http://www.geogr.ku.dk/chips/ [geogr.ku.dk]
    - Earth 3D: http://www.earth3d.org/ [earth3d.org]
    - Java GeoTools: http://geotools.org/ [geotools.org]

    You might also take a look at:
    http://opensourcegis.org/ [opensourcegis.org]
    and
    http://cbc.rs-gis.amnh.org/guides/viewing_data/ope n_source.html [amnh.org]

    Well, that's a start ;-)

  • WorldWind rocks

    (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Voxel on Monday September 26, @03:08PM (#14)
    I interned at NASA this summer doing some programming for WorldWind. It's a really cool piece of software and the people behind it are awesome.
    • Re:WorldWind rocks by Ben (Score:2) Monday September 26, @05:35PM
      • Re:WorldWind rocks by Myself (Score:2) Monday September 26, @05:54PM
      • Re:WorldWind rocks by adamhill (Score:2) Monday September 26, @09:18PM
        • Re:WorldWind rocks by Ben (Score:2) Monday September 26, @09:46PM
          • Re:WorldWind rocks by adamhill (Score:2) Monday September 26, @11:11PM
            • Re:WorldWind rocks by Ben (Score:2) Tuesday September 27, @12:40AM
              • Re:WorldWind rocks by adamhill (Score:2) Tuesday September 27, @03:29AM
              • Re:WorldWind rocks by Ben (Score:1) Tuesday September 27, @03:53AM
              • Re:WorldWind rocks by adamhill (Score:2) Tuesday September 27, @05:18AM
              • Re:WorldWind rocks by Ben (Score:1) Tuesday September 27, @01:23PM
              • Re:WorldWind rocks by spatialguru (Score:1) Thursday September 29, @12:14PM

              • Re:WorldWind rocks

                (Score:3, Interesting)
                by piradical (211) on Friday October 14, @02:22AM (#114)
                ( Last Journal: Friday October 14, @12:18AM )
                Well, this is an interesting thread. I will be frank right off the bat, and divulge the following information about myself:
                • I think WorldWind is singularly the most amazing program I have come across in about 20 years of computer use. This is subjective, of course
                • I am active in the WorldWind community, and therefore I am heavily biased towards that 'side' of most arguments
                • I get an ugly tight feeling in the pit of my stomach when it comes to Microsoft. Calling them the 'Evil Empire' is a bit weaker than many of my comments of the subject, so I DO have a small 'conflict of bias,' if you will.
                • More than just about anything else I can think of, I believe in the value and moral superiority of Open Source. This is not likely to change.
                • I am known to occasionally rant endlessly on topics of Open Source and web standards-compliance. Many webmasters dread the sight of my email address in their inbox, although I try to be as cordial as possible
                • I, too, wish that WorldWind was not based on C#/.NET/DirectX - I dislike proprietary anything
                • While I don't 'know' Adam, I have spoken with him quite a number of times on IRC - I DO know him to be very credible, openminded, technically astute, humble, helpful, and a lot more- I cannot recall at any point having the impression that he was a 'Microsoft apologist,' or whatever name you wish to give to that effect. Basically, I think Adam represents the finest qualities in any open source community- and he is never pushy about his beliefs, as are many people I run into with his experience and knowledge.
                • In spite of my personal 'friendship' with Adam (or anyone else affiliated with WW, for that matter), I would take an opposing view, if I believed it to be true. I will leave it to the reader to decide the validity of that statement in the context of this thread.
                • Although I have quite a few years of experience on several platforms, I cannot claim to be as technically astute as many people here certainly are. However, I have been around long enough to see many trends come and go, and to appreciate things which last in this world of temporary fixes. For these reasons and others, many of my arguments/comments tend to be on a conceptual or moral basis, rather than purely technical in nature.
                • I like to argue

                So now that I have explained some of my biases (which are mixed, but probably pit me against those who speak poorly of WW, especially when they do it without all the information they need to make their claims), I will get to the points of my argument . . .
                • First of all, ranting about 'Evil Empires' may win arguments in supportive circles, but trust me when I say that such statements carry little credibility in the rest of the world- many of my otherwise solid arguments have failed because I failed to remember this simple truth.
                • In one post, I remember a comment about WorldWind users never being present at open source GIS forums. All I have to say to that is: 'Don't be so sure!' (I, for one am around many places) Also, the comment was to the effect that WorldWind users somehow discourage contact/communication with the Open Source community. That is not only complete BS, but the truth is in fact the other way: the bulk of the Open Source community has snubbed WorldWind simply because it currently uses Microsoft technology. This is stupid, hypocritical, and antithetical to what I have always considered to be the core principles of Open Source - that not only is the code open and free, but that discussion and ideas are allowed to flow freely as well. Some Open Source Nazis are getting a little big for their britches-remember, it is for EVERYONE, not just an exclusive clique.
                • My love of Open Source and dislike of Microsoft does not mean that I automatically reject all Microsoft technology and embrace all Open Source versions- such a viewpoint is very limiting in nature and is one sign of a close-minded individual.
                • I am a geo-fanatic- always have b
                [ Parent ]
        • Re:WorldWind rocks by Anonymous Voxel (Score:0) Wednesday September 28, @12:17PM

  • Spring. Open or Freeware?

    (Score:2, Informative)
    by Daniel Victoria (12) on Tuesday September 27, @07:29AM (#30)
    I know this is a bit picky of me but, I think technically, Spring is a freeware and not open software since the source code is not available. But anyway, it's a good freeware and lots of people in Brazil use it.

    Just to add to the list, INPE (the guys behing Spring) have a real open source project. It's called TerraLib. I never used it myself since I'm no programer, but it's a "GIS classes and functions library" http://www.terralib.org/ [terralib.org]

    As for favorite, I have to say GRASS is impressive, even though I'm the only one here on campus that uses it.

  • Favourite OSS GIS

    (Score:2, Informative)
    by Whisper (73) on Tuesday September 27, @06:34PM (#34)
    Quantum GIS http://www.qgis.org/ [qgis.org]. I haven't fully checked it out yet, but it looks OK.
    PostgreSQL http://www.postgresql.org/ [postgresql.org] gets my vote as the best spatially enabled open source RDBMS.
    The Virtual Terrain Project http://www.vterrain.org/ [vterrain.org] deserves another honourable mention.

  • PostgreSQL...

    (Score:1, Interesting)
    by Anonymous Voxel on Monday October 10, @03:11PM (#105)
    ...with PostGIS. - Missing a good way to access it from ArcGIS, but still awesome. Really stable, fast DB. I use it with 1.2TB+ of data in production.

    uDig http://udig.refractions.net/ [refractions.net]-more editing and layout tools. Don't know where it's going, but it's definitely a good start. Eclipse can take it anywhere.
    Of course GDAL, OGR, QuantumGIS, GRASS...
    Good projects though - keeps licensing costs down for people who really don't need to use ArcGIS or MapInfo.