[GRASSLIST:7878] OGC news

[nicholas.g.lawrence at mainroads.qld.gov.au]

I noticed this snippet of news from OGC

"GROWING OPEN SOURCE AND OPEN STANDARDS IN SPAIN

Looking for an Open Source/Open Standard Solution

At the end of 2002, the "Conselleria de Infraestructuras y Transporte"
(Council of Infrastructure and Transportation) of the "Generalitat
Valenciana" (Regional Government of the Comunidad Valenciana in Spain)
began a global migration towards open systems under Linux. Due to its
heavy use in the Conselleria, this process required a focused
examination of GIS and CAD software migration. Further, GIS and CAD
are relative newcomers to the Free and Open Source (FOSS) software
world, meaning few widely used options are available.

The Conselleria began by defining their requirements and then did an
evaluation comparing FOSS solutions to commercially developed
proprietary software. A survey gathered information from current and
future users about their requirements for working with spatial
information. The survey collected a great deal of data including
specifics on the type of tasks to be addressed and the performance of
software and hardware of the surveyed users. It addressed both
graphical and non-graphical data, GIS/CAD tools and integration,
formats and data types, common operations, frequency of use and other
considerations.

A Procurement

After reviewing the findings, the team concluded that there was no
existing GIS/CAD software solution that would serve the Conselleria's
needs. The decision was made to begin a new project to address the
current deficiencies and support the transition to FOSS.

The Conselleria issued a public procurement for GIS development, with
these requirements:

-  Portable: provides support for multiple hardware / software
  platform, in particular support for Linux and Windows at the outset
-  Modular: is extendable with new functionality
-  Open Source: follows FOSS ideals, that is, is both free and the
  source code is available
-  License "Free": includes an open source license with no limitation
  in the number of installations allowed
-  Data Interoperable: can access data from proprietary programs
  without format conversion
-  Standards-Supporting: follows the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
  and European Union directives"


  I'm curious, was GRASS considered by the OGC for this purpose?

  nick



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