Happy 2009

Posted January 9, 2009 * Comments(2)

OK, so this is a slightly delayed New Year post, partly due to the happy fact that I was without an internet connection for most of Christmas. It’s good to go without sometimes!

My love-affair with Mapfish continues with the news that it’s now possible to integrate the google earth browser plugin into your map. I am really keen to try this out, but there is the problem that there’s no google earth browser plugin for linux yet. So it’s going to be a challenge to build this kind of functionality into a map without it being blatantly obvious that it’s not working for a proportion of the audience. I’ll have to ponder this for a while…

In other news- with luck the UK local chapter of OSGeo will get official approval today.  I’ve been quite quiet on the subject of the chapter here on archaeogeek for a while now, but we have been steadily building support and raising the profile of OSGeo in the UK, mainly through attendance at conferences and seminars. Of course if you don’t know about it already we’re also co-organising the first UK Open Source GIS conference, happening on the 22nd of June this year at the University of Nottingham Centre for Geospatial Sciences.  If you’re interested in either the local chapter or the conference, check out the websites, sign up for the mailing list or otherwise make your presence known- the more the merrier!

2 Comments so far

  1. ChrisW on January 11th, 2009

    Have you seen the discussion on James Fee’s blog (http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2009/01/08/mapfish-and-google-earth-api/) about the alleged licencing implications of using MapFish (GPL3), which includes Ext (GPL3), alongside Google in a web app? Some people say there’s a risk of GPL contamination, others say it’s an “aggregate” which is permitted by the GPL. You pay your (lawyers) money, and you take your choice, I guess!

  2. admin on January 14th, 2009

    Hi ChrisW,

    Thanks for pointing out that discussion- I had seen the original post but not the follow-on comments. I wish I totally understood OSS licensing (even having just been to a seminar on it)! My personal view is that it’s up to the mapfish guys to sort it out for their demo, and then for everyone else to sort it out for their own particular circumstances (eg if they have the commercial licenses etc). Not that I’m trying to back away from the issue at all :-)

    Jo

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