Computing, GIS and Archaeology in the UK

The geospatial world rightly got quite excited over the last few weeks with the discovery that Geofabrik are offering openstreetmap data in shape file format. You have been able to export openstreetmap data to postgresql (and from there to shape or whatever takes your fancy) for some time, but this makes the process of really using the data far easier.

However, I got to wondering exactly how useful it would be as a real-life background dataset (in the absence of anything affordable from the Ordnance Survey or similar), when you would need to repeat the process ad infinitum to keep the dataset up to date. I remembered that once upon a time there was an openstreetmap wms server, but that it was taken down several years ago.

A quick google search, however, shows that the Geofabrik crew are actually in the process of putting up their own wms server and it’s in testing at the moment. This is fantastic news, and I for one look forward to more information about their progress!

I guess a lot of people will have seen the article on slashdot pointing to an article on a Stanford/Harvard paper on how businesses can win against open source software/technology. I don’t want to get into a debate about how the authors are in fact the spawn of the devil, as you can read the slashdot comments for that. Personally, I started off being slightly disappointed by a number of points that they made, and then quite up-beat about the prognosis for open source as a result.

Why disappointed? Firstly, the article (which is of course a summary of a paper and not the actual paper, so possibly a mis-interpretation) confuses free software with open source, again. Lazy. It assumes that the only reason people will choose an open source product is because it is free, and not because it gives the users better control and freedom from licenses etc. Secondly, they argue that particular types of software are popular because so many people use it (circular argument?, even more lazy?). Apparently this leads to less issues with training, and incompatibility. If this was the case, would Microsoft have had so many issues when they changed the interface for Vista, or Office 2007, and the default file format for Office? Ditto Autocad with their file format in every new release? Consumers are more intelligent than that, and these things do have a big impact on how easy it is to upgrade software.

Why up-beat? Well the point has been made elsewhere that this paper only exists because open source software is seen as a threat. Not only that, all of the strategies outlined in the paper are reactive- how can businesses deal with this threat by using aggressive practices. Even making better, more compatible software is seen as a reaction to this threat, rather than the modus operandi for the company. It’s disappointing that improvement is only seen as a reaction to a threat, but on the other hand if companies are forced to improve their product, and make it more interoperable, everyone wins.

All in all I think it’s disappointing that consumers are given such short shrift in this article, and as always we have this lazy assumption that the open source argument is all about price. It does, however, show that open source software can, and does, have the power to affect the proprietary market, and I find that very encouraging indeed.

I’m off to the AGI conference tomorrow, ready to give my talk about Open Source GIS in the UK on Wednesday. (What kind of nutter agrees to give a talk about open source GIS at a conference supported by ESRI, Autodesk and the Ordnance Survey, amongst others… if I don’t post again you’ll know that I have been “removed” or something).

Anyhow, if anyone wants to meet up, and perhaps huddle in a corner somewhere talking about OSGeo local chapters, or even, I dunno, non-gis things, then catch me there!

I don’t often (ever?) ask for help on my blog but I’ve hit a snag with my continuing investigations into installing mapguide open source on ubuntu. My questions on the mailing list haven’t been answered, so I’m hoping that some kind blog reader will help me out.

The problem:

I can only use arbitrary x-y coordinate systems. This is officially recognised as bug 582, where categories.txt is in the wrong place, and a fix has been suggested.

The fix:

Move/copy (not sure which) categories.txt into the correct folder, and you should see all the coordinate system options.

But, there’s the rub- I can’t. I have moved, copied, reinstalled, changed makefiles, restarted, ran as root or non-root, checked environmental variables, and nothing changes. I still can’t see any other coordinate systems.

I think one of two things has happened:

1: Something went awry in my install that I didn’t notice.

2: The fix is actually more complex but no one will tell me what it is.

If the answer is 1) I would love it if someone could show me how to debug it, and where it might have gone wrong so I can try and fix it. If 2) I would be equally grateful if someone could tell me in very simple but precise terms how they fixed the problem.

Either way, I can offer eternal gratitude, good karma, complimentary blog-posting, and if I’m anywhere near your area I’ll buy you a pint/bar of chocolate/reasonably-priced indulgence of your choice.

Seriously guys, this is my last ditch attempt to persevere with what I think is the best web mapping application around at the moment, and I really, really want to make it work…