[OSGeo_discuss] Fwd: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS GIS in India

[RAVI KUMAR]

"http://gis.nic.in/infrastructure.html shows proprietary software and
  in house developed software. Nowhere there is mention of GRASS and
  other FOSS GIS software."
  
  True to a large extent, but there are some nice exceptions. NIC  Chennai, pioneers in using open source for webserving maps. They are  also actively evangelising FOSS GIS through participation in OSGeo  India chapter.
  
  "There is another effort in India GRAM++ http://www.csre.iitb.ac.in/gram++/Grampp_GIS.htm"
  This is a wonderful effort by IIT Mumbai, with active support from  Department of Science and Technology. It will set a welcome trend in  India if it is released as Open-Source, and also will assure a  continuity for the software unlike those developed earlier (by Isro  etc). As an example, ITC Holland has assured ILWIS it's GIS a continued  life by joining the Opensource domain.This is one of the most welcoming  developments for the Opensource community. Even 'IDRISI', a product  from educational institute (http://www.clarklabs.org/), hopefully will  follow suite.
  
  The GISDA of Pune-Chindwaramunicipal corporation  is a much awaited development, and releasing documentation of the  effort will encourage more such efforts. If the data generated for  GRASS, Qgis and PostGIS, is released, It will immensely benifit, the  FOSS GIS community in India. 

  GIS tools vs GIS label:
  GIS is more of a  principles, of technology and it should not be labeled with any  proprietory product. GIS datasets derived from any software Open Source  or even proprietory can be used across platforms, and are indipendant  to a large extent.Emphasis is to be on GIS tools and principles, and  not on GIS brand labels.
  
  Ravi Kumar
  
"H.S.Rai" <hardeep.rai at gmail.com> wrote:  On 8/11/07, Arup Dasgupta  wrote:
>
> No body wants to touch OSS because it is perceived to be a nerd thing/
> not useful/ not maintainable/etc.

Can there be possibility of following for perceiving such things:

a) Lack of confidence/competency
b) Getting few events sponsored from vendors
c) co mission

http://gis.nic.in/infrastructure.html shows proprietary software and
in house developed software. Nowhere there is mention of GRASS and
other FOSS GIS software.

There is another effort in India GRAM++

http://www.csre.iitb.ac.in/gram++/Grampp_GIS.htm

and there may be more such efforts (including NIC's), but problem is
they are neither co-ordinating among themselves, nor their products
are FREE and / or Opensource. We just want to use FOSS software at the
most, but don't release our own developed software as FOSS. So we
unable make use of benefits of FOSS.

> efforts. You can ask Dadhwal what happened to ISROGIS, ISROVISION,
> SIPS and GeoSpace.

If ISRO, NIC, IITB and other such organisations join hands and try to
use and refine existing FOSS software, then things can change
dramatically, India can save billions of rupees, but at at the cost of
loss to software vendors ;-)

-- 
H.S.Rai
===================
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