Hi<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Llewellyn Gush <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:llewellyn@jgdm.gov.za" target="_blank">llewellyn@jgdm.gov.za</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Hi Gavin<br>
<br>
I am the IT manager at the Joe Gqabi District Municipality in the
Eastern Cape. Covering the area <br>
<br>
</font>
<ul>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Mt Fletcher, </font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Maclear, </font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Ugie, </font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Rhodes</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Rossouw</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Barkly East (Main
Campus)</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Lady Grey</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Sterkspruit</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Aliwal North</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Burgersdorp</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Jamestown</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Venterstad</font></li>
<li><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Steynsburg</font></li>
</ul>
<p><br>
I have implemented a FOSSGIS (PostGIS) solution, using DMS
consulting in East London (Dylan Rawlings is the director and I
know that he has quite a few other installations out there
<a href="mailto:dylan@mapserver.co.za" target="_blank">dylan@mapserver.co.za</a> and does in my opinion excellent work). <br>
</p>
<p>The system is web based though not yet available on a public
portal as some of the maps that we have are proprietary and for
Government use only. WE use QGis to access the database directly.
I currently have problems in this area in that the GIS Technician
has "NO GIS" experience beyond a few very brief in service
training sessions on Arc GIS................ so the updating and
data capture process has stalled until a suitable staff member is
identified that will understand the system.<br>
</p>
<p>We are looking to extend the functionality of this system to
include a CRM module as well as possibly a asset maintenance and
management module. All will be an extension of the existing
system. This is necessary as the District Municipality is taking
over the Water Service Provision function from the local
Municipalities. With the additional developments I would like to
link the system to the customer debtor info and then make it
available for customer queries via our existing website (Joomla
installation). I have other OSS installations that work very well
thank you.<br>
</p>
<p>As government policy goes it may be interesting to get hold of
some of the policy docs that have been published by the Government
IT Officers Council (GITO) as they are responsible for the
formulation of policy especially the following docs<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>OSS Policy</li>
<li>MIOS doc (Minimum Interoperability Standards in Gov)<br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These are most interesting for the TOTAL disregarding of these
policies. Not one dept in Gov seems to care about them and merrily
goes their own way purchasing proprietary software at what cost.<br>
</p>
<p>If you will allow me the following.<br>
</p>
<p>In RSA we have approx population of 50 mil <br>
Approx half are of working age - 25 Mil<br>
Approx 20 % work in Gov - 5 Mil<br>
Approx 50 % have computers 2.5 Mil<br>
</p>
<p>All the above figure may be to some extent disputed - give me the
accurate ones if you can<br>
</p>
<p>For every windows PC the following costs are incurred - exclusive
of the hardware costs<br>
</p>
<p>1 x copy Win (XP) Win 7) OS - R2000-00<br>
1 x copy MS Office - R2660-00 - The average user using maybe 1% of
the full functionality of the product<br>
1 x copy AntiVirus product - R500-00<br>
</p>
<p>That is +/- R5000 per PC <br>
</p>
<p>With a total number of 2.5 mil PC's is a total investment in a
single vendors products of <b>R12.5 BILLION</b>. Makes it worse
that this vendor is offshore and that the products are paid in
Dollar based currency.<br>
</p>
<p>With the usual life span of a PC being 3 to 4 years the
replacement cost incurred annually in MS Licensing is <b>3.125
BILLION</b>.<br>
</p>
<p>Besides the risk management issue associated with the huge virus
threats to MS Win this makes NO economic sense to me whatsoever,
the sooner we can have someone/organisation start to make people
aware of this and that there are other products available that
will cost the tax payer rather less.<br>
</p>
<p>I'm afraid that yes it gets better but I will leave that for
another day<br>
</p>
<p>Regards<br>
</p>
<p>Llewellyn Gush<br>
</p><div><div>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Llewellyn hear hear! This is the rant I always give too, our governement is sending m/billiions of rands out the country instead of creating a local knowledge economy. Anyway that reasoning is why I joined the QGIS project - GIS software should be freely accessible to everyone. It's so exciting seeing how many people in SA and beyond are now making a living on top of support and training services around QGIS and FOSSGIS in general!</div>
<div><br></div><div> </div><div>If your users have QGIS questions / issues, please encourage them to join our user mailing list or to post them on GIS Stack Exchange</div><div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user" target="_blank">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user</a></div>
<div>[2] <a href="http://gis.stackexchange.com/" target="_blank">http://gis.stackexchange.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Our community is generally very helpful and responsive (assuming questions have been well put together). There are also local folks like Gaving who can offer support around QGIS. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Regards</div><div><br></div><div>Tim</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div><div><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
<br>
</font>
<div>On 03/09/2012 10:57, Gavin Fleming
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>
Thanks for your responses so far. This is a reminder to send your
response today describing any FOSS GIS work you've done or know
about (details below). You are welcome to send it to the list as
some of you have but you can also send it to me off-list at <a href="mailto:gavin@afrispatial.co.za" target="_blank">gavin@afrispatial.co.za</a>.<br>
<br>
--------[sent last Friday]<br>
<br>
Hi fellow FOSS GISers<br>
<br>
I'm conducting a snap survey of FOSS GIS in SA - please respond by
Mon 3 Sept! I will use later responses but they won't be
guaranteed to make it into the proceedings (deadline 5 Sept).<br>
<br>
I'll be presenting a paper at the GISSA Ukubuzana in October with
the following abstract:<br>
<blockquote>Free and Open Source GIS Software is being used widely
across South Africa in diverse applications. This presentation
will showcase a number of projects implemented with FOSS GIS in
government, private industry, civil society and other sectors.
Case studies will be drawn from various companies, consultants
and service providers.<br>
</blockquote>
I'd like to showcase what's being done and if I get a big
enough response, to compile some stats. <br>
<br>
So, please send me some brief information about FOSS GIS work that
you are or have been involved with or that you feel we should know
about. <br>
<br>
I'm looking for work done with FOSS GIS in southern Africa by
anyone OR work done by South Africans anywhere in the world. <br>
<br>
Any project counts, from a helpful script to a backend database to
a big web application to a desktop GIS rollout - anything goes. <br>
<br>
Please send roughly the following:<br>
<br>
- a brief description<br>
- if web-based and public, a url<br>
- otherwise, send screenshots, publications, etc. <br>
- reasons why you or the client chose to use FOSS GIS<br>
- which FOSS GIS technologies you used<br>
<br>
PS: Apologies for the short notice but I was only notified of
paper acceptance yesterday [last Thurs now].<br>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
regards
Gavin
Gavin Fleming
<a href="http://afrispatial.co.za" target="_blank">http://afrispatial.co.za</a>
t: <a href="tel:0218620670" value="+27218620670" target="_blank">0218620670</a>
c: <a href="tel:0845965680" value="+27845965680" target="_blank">0845965680</a>
f: <a href="tel:0866164820" value="+27866164820" target="_blank">0866164820</a>
</pre>
<br>
<fieldset></fieldset>
<br>
</div></div><pre>_______________________________________________
Africa mailing list
<a href="mailto:Africa@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">Africa@lists.osgeo.org</a>
<a href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa" target="_blank">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div>-- <br>
Llewellyn Gush<br>
Information Technology Manager<br>
Joe Gqabi District Municipality<br>
<br>
<br>
<img height="110" width="95" align="left"> Email <a href="mailto:llewellyn@jgdm.gov.za" target="_blank">llewellyn@jgdm.gov.za</a><br>
Tel : "<a href="tel:045%20979%203070" value="+27459793070" target="_blank">045 979 3070</a>"<br>
Cell: "<a href="tel:082%20573%204112" value="+27825734112" target="_blank">082 573 4112</a>"<br>
Fax: "<a href="tel:086%20699%203633" value="+27866993633" target="_blank">086 699 3633</a>"<br>
Website "<a href="http://www.joegqabi.gov.za" target="_blank">www.joegqabi.gov.za</a>" <br>
<p>This Email and any files transmitted with it are confidential
and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to
whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in
error please notify the system manager at the following address
<a href="mailto:postmaster@jgdm.gov.za" target="_blank">"postmaster@jgdm.gov.za"</a>. Please note that any views or opinions
presented in this email are solely those of the author and do
not necessarily represent those of Joe Gqabi District
Municipality. The recipient shall check this email and any
attachments for the presence of viruses. The company accepts no
liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this
email.</p>
</div>
</div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
Africa mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Africa@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">Africa@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa" target="_blank">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release Manager)<br>==============================================<br>Visit <a href="http://linfiniti.com" target="_blank">http://linfiniti.com</a> to find out about:<br>
* QGIS programming services<br> * Mapserver and PostGIS based hosting plans<br> * FOSS Consulting Services<br>Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at <a href="http://freenode.net" target="_blank">freenode.net</a><br>==============================================<br>