Slashgeo

Over the Quantum GIS blog, the easy-to-use open source desktop GIS in active development, we learn about Quantum Navigator, a new open source routing / navigation system in the works. From the announcement: "The aim of the project is to enable basic routing and navigation capabilities on a roadmap. Given a shapefile of roadmap with correct format, you'll be able to select start and end point of your route. The application will calculate you a route that will meet your needs (shortest, fastest or economic path). This route should follow all restrictions like one-way streets or turning restrictions from one road to another one." I wonder if they're aware of the open source GMap, Roadster, and RoadNav efforts? Related to QGIS, there's a QGIS MapServer project in development, described as: "QGIS mapserver is a server module for geographic maps. The content of vector and raster datasources (e.g. shapefiles, gml, postgis, wfs, geotiff ) is visualized according to the request parameters. The generated map image is sent back to the client over the internet.".

st_0x0ef writes "Not everyone wants a full blown GIS desktop application. Sometimes you want to just have a widget inside your application that displays a map while the main goal of the application lies elsewhere. In these tutorials Tim Sutton show how to embed QGIS widget in your C++ applications to quickly develop geospatial applications." A few previous stories on Quantum GIS copied below.

The OSGeo has announced the graduation of the open source Quantum GIS to a full OSGeo project. From the announcement: "Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports many vector, raster, and database formats and lets you browse and create map data on your computer. Graduating incubation includes requirements for open community operation, a responsible project governance model, code provenance and license verification and general good project operation. Graduating incubation is the OSGeo seal of approval for a project and gives potential users of the project added confidence in the viability and safety of the project." QGIS has been mentioned here several times, see also related stories below.

A short note on old summer geonews (while I was away) which were not yet featured on the site. First the release of QGIS 0.11.0, GeoJSON 1.0 and the graduation of GeoTools as full fledge OSGeo project. See also related stories. Not directly related, FOSS4G 2008 is going on this week. We'll share the best summaries we'll find.

OGR2Layers Plugin detects any OGR supported data layer loaded into Quantum GIS, convert it to KML and write an OpenLayers HTML map including the KML overlay. The OpenLayers parameters like WMS base layer, default map extent and layerswitcher control can be configured from the plugin. Outputs KML can also be direcly loaded in Google Earth. See this web page for more information: http://ogr2layers.org/

The QGIS team announced the availability of the open source GIS 'Quantum GIS' version 1.0.2 (stable) and 1.1.0 (unstable). From the announcement: "Our 1.0.x 'stable' release series are part of our effort to provide a stable, unchanging, long term supported environment. Each minor release in our stable series contains only bug fixes and no new features. [...] Our 'unstable' release series are provided to offer users a chance to try out new features as they make their way into the code base. We will not support these releases over a long term and they are aimed more for those who value new features over stability." See the previous QGIS stories below.

This has been a crazy week for me. Here's a batch of recent geonews that you may find interesting. There's a biased review of QGIS 1.0 with a top 5 favorite features: "Dockable windows, Python plug-ins, GRASS toolbox, Mapserver and WMS layer and The community". QGIS is also amongst the 20 OSGeo projects that got funding for Google's Summer of Code. Autodesk announced Topobase 2010. Vector One discusses the geospatial potential of the purchase of Sun by Oracle. Google now have My Location in their Toolbar, you can also now save and share directions with My Maps. The Map Room shares another map of U.S. job losses, an entry on true orthophotography and a singles map for the U.S., differentiating women and men. Spatial Sustain informs us Japan plans to launch as many as 100 mini-satellites, offers an entry named How can geospatial solutions capture more of the IT budget? and finally a map of the most remote locations on Earth. Mapperz informs us Via Michelin is revamped and that 140,000 miles of African roads has been added to OpenStreetMap. The FGT blog provides two entries on more free MacOSX GIS software. All Points Blog has an entry on GPS to assist guide dogs, another one on the new agenda for the U.K. Ordnance Survey, another one on the "GIS Alley" in Colorado, another one of an interesting Tokyo subway touchable interactive map. Ok, I'll stop there... but I still have over 400 entries to catch up :-/ Have a nice weekend! See also related stories below.

It's been almost three years since the last mention mention of OpenJUMP here. Mapperz just shared a short 'review' of OpenJUMP, a free, Java-based and open source Geographic Information System: "OpenJump GIS is one of the better all round 'Free GIS' programs because: 1. It supports common GIS formats (.shp, .tif, .gml etc). 2. You can EDIT the data - lots are free but this one you can fully edit the data. 3. You can do some GIS Analysis!" Here's the official OpenJUMP website. We mentioned other open source GIS software such as Quantum GIS, GRASS GIS, uDig and gvSIG amongst others.

Time for a new poll. Our last one asked users about Quantum GIS and their recently released version 1.0 underline the fact that these polls aren't exactly reliable - I suspect QGIS enthusiasts having influenced the results! :-) Out of 144 votes, 52% shout "GIS rules", 27% are on the maybe or occasionally side, 8% admit they don't know about QGIS or don't need it, and 10% are using another open source GIS client instead.

Our new poll asks you about the potential impacts of the current economic crisis on the geospatial industry. On that very topic, you can find a lot of recent coverage with a search.

Our last poll asked you about your expectations for 2009, the results out of 47 answers are clear: 51% believe geospatial will continue to grow steadily, the rest is rather well distributed, with 10% claiming geospatial will conquer the world and another 10% think we'll see unique contributions from geospatial, and at the other end of the spectrum, 12% believe that geospatial itself will vanish in the multitude. Our new poll asks you about Quantum GIS, which released version 1.0 this week.

A few unrelated minor news about Slashgeo, we updated the website of Spatial Enlightenment, the registered non-profit organization behind Slashgeo.org. I also updated our Open Budget with the Geoweb Guru donation. With no revenue at all other than sporadic donations, it's not a surprise to find out we're in the red. Anyone is welcomed to give donations if you like the service we're voluntarily providing to the geospatial community, even 5$ counts.

Sometimes a common web search doesn't help you find what you're looking for, you have to ask the 'right persons'. I asked the OSGeo-Discuss list and learned that many open source geospatial software can generate html clickable image maps. Here's the summary of the findings: GRASS GIS, MapServer, GeoServer and QGIS. If you find more, don't hesitate to share it with the Slashgeo users below.

Quantum GIS aka QGIS, one of the most popular open source GIS project, has released version 1.2.0 code-named 'Daphnis'. The main areas of improvements: Editing, Plugins, New GRASS shell, Keyboard shortcuts, Map Composer, Attribute tables, Projects Management, PostGIS & the PostgreSQL Provider, Symbology enhancements, Command line arguments. Read more on the link above. Snippets for Editing and Plugins: "Editing functionality in QGIS has had a major update in this release. This includes the addition of new vector editing tools: * delete part of multipart feature * delete hole from polygon * simplify feature * Added a new "node" tool (in advanced digitizing toolbar). * New functionality for merging features * Added undo/redo functionality for vector layer editing. * Added option to show only markers of selected features in editing mode. * Change layer's icon in legend to reflext that the layer is editable. [...] # A new OpenStreetMap provider and plugin have been added to QGIS! # The order of layers in the WMS dialog can now be changed. [...] # The interpolation plugin now has the ability to use line layers as constrains for triangulation in interpolation plugin." See also related stories below.