[OSGeo-Announce] ITC's GIS software ILWIS migrates to open source

[Frank Warmerdam]

Press release

Enschede, The Netherlands, 30 January 2007

ITC's GIS software ILWIS migrates to open source

The Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS, 
http://www.itc.nl/ilwis) is a PC-based GIS & Remote Sensing software, developed 
by ITC. ILWIS comprises a complete package of image processing, spatial 
analysis and digital mapping. It is easy to learn and use; it has full on-line 
help, extensive tutorials for direct use in courses and 25 case studies of 
various disciplines.

ILWIS software is renowned for its functionality, user-friendliness and low 
cost, and has established a wide user community over the years of its 
development. Even after its last release in 2005, its user community remained 
vivid, both within and outside ITC, however without a common base for further 
system development.

In order to create better opportunities for the reuse and deployment of GIS 
functionality in a wider community, the ITC directorate has recently decided to 
make current ILWIS software free of charge and to migrate it as such to open 
source software under the 52°North initiative.

52°North is an open initiative that advances the development of cutting edge 
open source geospatial software. Leading research organizations in the field of 
geoinformatics (ifgi, conterra, ITC, ESRI) participate in 52°North's innovative 
development for establishing open spatial data infrastructures (SDI) and 
transformation of these into practical technological solutions. 52°North uses 
the GPL license, which implies that newly developed software should be open 
source as well. More information can be found at http://www.52north.org/.

The migration has the following implications:

* ILWIS software will be made freely available ('as-is' and free of charge) as 
open source software (binaries and source code) under the 52°North initiative 
(GPL license) as per July 1st, 2007. The current ILWIS download page 
(http://www.itc.nl/ilwis/downloads/default.asp) will be directed to a page at 
52°North, which will be announced in due time.

* ILWIS support by ITC has been stopped as per January 1st, 2007.



In case you have further questions on the ILWIS migration please contact ITC's 
52°North team:

* Rob Lemmens (lemmens at itc.nl)
* Martin Schouwenburg (schouwenburg at itc.nl).

For questions on participation in 52°North, please contact info at 52north.org.


About ITC

ITC develops and transfers knowledge on geo-information science and earth 
observation

At ITC, knowledge of geo-information management is plenty available and is 
continually being developed and extended. By means of postgraduate education, 
research and project services, we contribute to capacity building in emerging 
countries and countries that are economically and/or technologically less 
advanced. In doing so, considerable attention is paid to the development and 
application of geographical information systems (GIS) for solving problems. 
Such problems can range from determining the risks of landslides, mapping 
forest fires, planning urban infrastructure, and implementing land 
administration systems or detecting environmental pollution.

The key words characterising our activities are geo-information management, 
worldwide and innovative. We concentrate on earth observation, the generation 
of spatial information, and the development of data integration methods.

International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)

PO Box 6

7500 AA ENSCHEDE

T: +31 (0)53 4874 441 - F: +31 (0)53 4874 554 - E: pr at itc.nl - I: www.itc.nl 
<http://www.itc.nl/>