[postgis-users] PostGIS case usages

Wed Oct 31 22:40:18 PDT 2018

Hi Regina,

We are a Spatial Analytics company which has diversified into developing
standard WebApps and tools. PostGres+PostGIS is the only database that we
use company-wide, whether the solution involves GIS or not.

Out Usage of PostGIS is varied, and includes things like:

1)We have began to love the ability to do spatial Analytics (Overlay,
Spatial Join etc) in the Database, instead of doing that in a Desktop GIS.
This has given us an ability to have repeatable processes instead of
error-prone point and click, Manual processes.
2)In many of our projects, the client is not GIS-savvy, and the application
is not a GIS portal. But Having PostGIS in the backend gives us the ability
to develop functionality which users expect, like find the closest store
and the like.
3)We also develop simple, light-weight APIs on a SASS model, which allow
our clients to send a query containing the end-user's lat-long, and we can
return whether or not they fall in a given polygon (Say service areas of a
stores, or areas where discounts are available and so on)

Regards,
Devdatta

On Thu, Nov 1, 2018 at 9:36 AM Regina Obe <lr at pcorp.us> wrote:

> Would love to go to Australia sometime.  Unfortunately too far of a trek
> for
> us.  Someday.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Simon Greener [mailto:simon at spatialdbadvisor.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 11:39 PM
> > To: 'PostGIS Users Discussion' <postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org>; Regina
> Obe
> > <lr at pcorp.us>
> > Cc: 'PostGIS Development Discussion' <postgis-devel at lists.osgeo.org>
> > Subject: Re: [postgis-users] PostGIS case usages
> >
> > Regina,
> >
> > Some very good points.
> >
> > I stopped using the term years ago given that I concentrate on applying
> > spatial data and functions to solving business problems.
> >
> > One problem is that the "spatial" industry is dominated by "GIS" vendors
> and
> > practitioners: it isn't easy to find new non-GIS work.
> >
> > In fact, I think this is one of the problems with FOSS4G technologies:
> they are
> > marketed and sold as specific toolsets in opposition to the vendor
> products
> > but on the same playground.
> >
> > I have a few examples I can provide you with, just give me a bit of time
> to
> > write them up.
> >
> > As you going to FOSS4G in Melbourne this month?
> >
> > regards
> > Simon
> >
> > On Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:17:04 +1100, Regina Obe <lr at pcorp.us> wrote:
> >
> > > Tom,
> > >
> > > That's a pretty nice use case and one I've thought of coming from a
> > Bioelectronics/Biomechanics educational background.
> > >
> > > I think a lot more people would be using PostGIS if they saw it as a
> tool set
> > of tools for visualizing and analyzing space, instead of "a toolset for
> GIS"
> > > The GIS word seems to be a turn-off for a lot of people who have
> spatial
> > problems to solve but don't think of themselves as GIS practioners.
> > >
> > > I much prefer the term "Spatial" than GIS because it really focuses on
> what I
> > think makes PostGIS great - "A tool for analyzing space"
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Regina
> > >
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: postgis-users [mailto:postgis-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On
> > >> Behalf Of Tom Kazimiers
> > >> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 3:16 PM
> > >> To: PostGIS Users Discussion <postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org>
> > >> Cc: 'PostGIS Development Discussion' <postgis-devel at lists.osgeo.org>
> > >> Subject: Re: [postgis-users] PostGIS case usages
> > >>
> > >> Hi Regina,
> > >>
> > >> It might not really fit the book, because it's not exactly GIS, but
> > >> our PostGIS use case is certainly an interesting one as well: As a
> > >> software engineer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, I work on a
> > >> collaborative neuron reconstruction and analysis software called
> > >> CATMAID [1] [2] (screenshot: [3]), which is used for neuroscience
> > >> research. We use PostGIS to represent neurons in a 3D space. They
> > >> consist of 3D points that reference their parent nodes or are the
> > >> root [=soma of neuron] if they have no parent). Together with
> > >> synapses, point clouds and TIN meshes for modeling compartments in a
> > >> dataset, they model the spatial aspects of our neuroscience world.
> > >> Users create those neuron reconstructions manually in a collaborative
> > >> fashion plus segmentation programs can be used as additional data
> > >> source. Using its spatial indices, PostGIS helps us to quickly query
> > >> neurons in a particular field of view. The space of a single project
> > >> contains sometimes 100s of millions of interconnected individual
> > >> points. We also do bounding box intersection queries between neurons
> > and compartment meshes, which then refine in the front-end by doing more
> > precise intersection tests.
> > >>
> > >> This software is used by quite a few research labs and as far as I
> > >> know they all do their own hosting with a dedicated server and this is
> what
> > we do as well.
> > >> The reason being mainly that wth larger datasets, we benefit from
> > >> machines with a lot of RAM (>256G), fast SSD/NVMe drives and many
> > >> CPUs as well as fast local data access for e.g. image data.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks so much for making PostGIS work well in non-GIS contexts
> > >> too---it makes my live much easier! Looking forward to the book!
> > >>
> > >> Cheers,
> > >> Tom
> > >>
> > >> [1] https://www.catmaid.org
> > >> [2] https://github.com/catmaid/CATMAID
> > >> [3] https://twitter.com/tomkazimiers/status/1057657843174772737
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 01:05:52PM -0400, Regina Obe wrote:
> > >> >Hey all.  So we've been in talks with our editor about having a 3rd
> > >> >Edition of PostGIS hopefully to be released around the same time as
> > >> >PostGIS
> > >> 3.0.
> > >> >
> > >> >I think they are more or less sold on the idea except they did ask
> > >> >about current market share and usage.
> > >> >
> > >> >Part of the reason for that is our previous editions focused a lot
> > >> >on "How do I use this function or do this weird sounding thing that
> > >> >only GIS people can make sense of"  instead of "How do I do this
> > >> >real world
> > >> thing"
> > >> >
> > >> >So one of the thoughts was having our table of contents be more like
> > >> >"How do I do this with PostGIS" in somewhat laymen terms that most
> > >> >people can relate to - like Political Districting, Real Estate
> > >> >analysis (walk scores, elevation measurements to determine
> > >> >viablility of building on a plot of
> > >> >land)
> > >> > without scaring people off with "real world things" they can't
> > >> >relate to or in overly techy terms.
> > >> >
> > >> >Also since the 2nd Edition (which was in 2015 super ancient now
> > >> >since the New shiny version at the time was 2.1 and 2.1 is not even
> > >> >supported anymore).
> > >> >Other major thing changed is a lot of people are deploying PostGIS
> > >> >on cloud offerings like Amazon RDS, Microsoft Azure, and Google
> > >> >PostgreSQL for Cloud so we plan to cover a bit about some things
> > >> >relevant in those that may not be relevant when deploying on your own
> > server.
> > >> >
> > >> >That said, if people can respond with what things they are currently
> > >> >using PostGIS for and also what hosting they are using for PostGIS,
> > >> >that would be helpful for us to get a better idea of focus points.
> > >> >
> > >> >It'd be great if you posted on the list, but if you are shy or need
> > >> >your usage anonymized, you can write directly to me.
> > >> >
> > >> >Thanks,
> > >> >Regina
> > >> >
> > >> >_______________________________________________
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> > >> >postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org
> > >> >https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >
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> >
> >
> > --
> > Regards
> > Simon
> >
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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