Slashgeo

The import cartography blog indicates MapServer 4.8.1 has been released. Honestly, the changelog list is so huge I can't tell you what important features have been added. There's no roadmap on the site either (or I haven't found it).

The Chris GISMo blog tells us OpenLayers 2.0 has been released. From the press release: "OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. OpenLayers is completely free, Open Source JavaScript, released under the BSD License. This new release of OpenLayers supports a number of new layer types, including support for Virtual Earth, Google, and more, alongside WMS, WFS, KaMap, and GeoRSS." The official website.

Tim Schaub writes "Ok, you're putting together a new web mapping app and you want good looking data without all the work of hosting it. You might decide to rely on a publicly accessible web mapping service (WMS), but how can you find what's out there? A number of sites have links to these resources, but they come up short if you want to know the extent of the data, or what it looks like. The recently launched http://wms-sites.com/ is an effort to ease your pain. The site houses a growing catalog of useful WMS resources. Each layer (just under 3,000 at this writing) can be browsed in a slippy map interface – kudos to the OpenLayers team. The most useful way to find data is to enter a keyword or two in the search box. Hover over listed results to see the layer extent on a map, or consume the RSS if you prefer GeoRSS in the Resource Description Framework." Read what's left of the announcement with search examples below. See also related stories.

belg4mit writes "Is anyone aware of an existing (FLOSS) software package for community development? I know of various pieces I could cobble together (MapServer, OpenLayers, phpMyAdmin), but am looking for something that'll work seamlessly and be more user friendly. This is for a Community Development Corporation, and they'd like to track and map a variety of attributes for parcels in a neighborhood." I take the occasion to share my best wishes for 2007. Slashgeo.org will be back at full speed in a few days.

The OpenLayers mailing list announced the release of OpenLayers 2.3. Here are the release notes. OpenLayers is in the OSGeo incubation process. From their about: "OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. MetaCarta developed the initial version of OpenLayers and gave it to the public to further the use of geographic information of all kinds. OpenLayers is completely free, Open Source JavaScript, released under the BSD License." To be honest, I'm enthusiastic about OpenLayers since it makes it very easy to generate mashups, and allows you to keep using Google Maps tiles, and to map GeoRSS feeds (this is still under construction).

I'd like your opinion on webmapping technology choice. The context is rather simple, my small team will produce a small prototype which must publish geospatial data on a website. The data is already processed and georeferenced. This is a tiny project but we want to choose the best long term webmapping solution possible. When I asked an internal (to the Canadian Government) mailing list about this, I surprisingly received numerous (and sometimes passionate) answers claiming either MapServer or MapGuide Open Source was best. I unexpectedly stumbled onto a sensible topic! From what I've been told, MapServer is fast, reliable, mature while MapGuide OS is easy to use and configure, modern (e.g. AJAX) and has higher scalability. Other opinions/facts for and against MapServer or MapGuide OS were shared along with several websites which demonstrate those technologies. Our webmapping server will run on Debian, therefore excluding ESRI's ArcIMS. Additionally, MapGuide is already operationally supported in my organization, this obviously favors MapGuide OS but does not exclude MapServer if it's really the best option! To be honest, I haven't took the time yet to do a complete assessment of the two avenues. That said, what's your opinion? Thanks!

Fernando Quadro writes "Who is initiating in the development of space solutions is very common the following questioning: Which server of maps is best? MapServer or GeoServer? Looking for to answer this question, I wrote an article showing some of the differences between MapServer and GeoServer." Fernando's points are interesting, I invite readers to see the previous story on choosing between MapServer and MapGuide Open Source and read the informative comments. I also copied a few related stories below.