Open Source Computing and GIS in the UK

I’ve been looking at a couple of “cool things” recently that don’t seem to have picked up much coverage in the blogosphere, so I’m going to do a series of occasional posts on them.  The first is GvSIG Mobile and the Tellus Project.

GvSIG Mobile is a development from Prodevelop in Spain, to create an optimised version of GvSIG for small-screened mobile devices such as smartphones and netbooks. The Tellus project links GvSIG mobile with an embedded mobile database, and allows you to synchronise with a remote database, eg PostgreSQL either on demand or when you choose (eg when you have a data signal), using OpenMobileIS.

What you get is a GIS package, allowing you to add base mapping either from your local device or via WMS, and the ability to edit a vector layer on top using on-board GIS or by drawing on the screen. You can add attribute data, and store it locally, then synchronise with a remote database, with full conflict resolution. All in open source- just install it on your device of choice!

GvSIG Mobile screenshot

We think this is fantastic. In it’s current very simple form, we can see many uses for this as, say, a simple remote issue-recording device. We’re adapting this for use as a full relational on-site recording tool for archaeologists, but it could easily work for environmental staff or anyone trying to record data outdoors, perhaps in areas where there isn’t always a good 3G signal.

This is an ongoing project, but is fully working, so if you’d like more information, then get in touch!

… or there again, there might not!

This is just a heads up for a couple of events/workshops that I’m involved in over the next couple of weeks and months.

Firstly, next Tuesday is the AGI Northern Group Where2.0Now one-day conference, at GeoPlan in Harrogate. If you want to know what this whole “neogeography” thing is, and what it means to you, then be there or be terribly antiquated. There are some great speakers lined up (and me, but beggars can’t be choosers), and it’s looking like a good day. With luck and a fair wind I will have “cool things” to show too…

Secondly, in January 2010 I’m helping on a 2-day workshop at Lancaster University on open source GIS. We did this last year, and it was well received, so it’s getting a reprisal. There’s a flyer here, and you can book here. For UK higher ed or other educational types, it’s pretty cheap if you ask me, and the food’s good too.

Hope you can make it to one or both of these.

I also did a talk last week to local government types, on how open source GIS could be viable within their organisation. The slides are up on slideshare if you’re interested!

I’m excited to announce that the list of papers and workshops for the first UK Open Source GIS conference is now available on the website. With Tyler Mitchell doing the keynote,  and a choice of 25 papers and 4 workshops, it’s going to be a really good day. We’re hoping to finish up with the first AGM of the UK local chapter of OSGeo too, so I hope you’ll join us!

Not wanting to miss out on the whole discussion about data formats, I was surprised to see people give up their control of their data quite so easily, as this comment and following post seem to suggest that we should. Imagine if we ceded so much control to the other people that sell us products. Software companies are only glorified shopkeepers, in the same way that people who sell us televisions and cars are. However (if we have any sense) we don’t allow car salesmen to dictate where we drive, or television salesmen to dictate what we watch. We have allowed software vendors to lull us into believing that they are allowed to dictate what we do with our data. Sorry, but no. That’s what the open approach is all about- remaining in control of our data. At the risk of seeming overly dramatic, anything else is apathy.