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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Several important announcements regarding the GeoServer Project. For those with no background regarding GeoServer (formerly FreeFS), it is an open source (GPL) implementation of the OpenGIS Consortium's Web Feature Server specification, built on top of PostGIS. If you are interested in experimenting with OpenGIS distributed web services, GeoServer is a good place to start.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">(1) Beta (0.90) Release Available</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">GeoServer moved out of alpha this week, at long last. By beta we here at the GeoServer project mean: normal humans have a good chance of successfully installing/configuring GeoServer and can have a reasonable expectation of compliance with the 0.0.14 and 0.0.15 versions of the Web Feature Server specification. Furthermore, the code base is now well documented and should be accessible to most Java developers. GeoServer was tested extensively in the OpenGIS Consortium's Open Web Services demonstration project and has successfully communicated with several WFS clients. We encourage both users and developers to download this release, play with it, and tell us about your experiences. Please send all flames and love to: geoserver@vfny.org. You may download the beta here: </FONT><A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25086"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25086</FONT></U></A><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">(2) New GeoServer Site (</FONT><A HREF="http://geoserver.sourceforge.net"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">http://geoserver.sourceforge.net</FONT></U></A><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Although our new site has been around for a while, it was in a relatively unfinished state. It is now a bit more polished, including some additional and updated documentation. If you register at the site, you will automatically be placed on our release announcement list and may participate in site polls and discussions.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">(3) GeoServer 1.0 Release Timeline</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Astute readers will note that our previous release timelines were a pack of lies. This was due in part to rapidly changing circumstances in the OpenGIS world, but was mostly due to our own poor judgment. We pledge to do better in the future. To that end, we will now stop claiming to be prepared to release a 1.0 version of GeoServer before a 1.0 version of the specification is approved! Since it is not clear when the specification will be approved, we have no clear GeoServer 1.0 release date, except that it will be after OGC approval of WFS 1.0. We here at the GeoServer project speculate that this will be sometime this summer. Current development priorities, in rough order of importance, include: transactional capabilities, full filter support, and additional back-end data format support. We here at the GeoServer project take our user requests seriously, so if you have a working installation of GeoServer and need a feature to improve your quality of life, let us know.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Rob Hranac</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Vision for New York</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">377 Broadway</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">NY, NY 10013</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">tel: 212.219.6052</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">fax: 212.219.6006</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">eml: robhranac@vfny.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">web: </FONT><A HREF="file://www.vfny.org"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">www.vfny.org</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">*******************************************************</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">You are receiving this email as a result of either:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">(a) Expressed interest in the Free Feature Server or GeoServer projects at some point -OR-</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">(b) A subscription to one of the specialty mailing lists that we spam with important release announcements.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">You man cancel your subscription to this low volume list:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">If you are an individual and wish not to receive these announcements, just let me know here: robhranac@vfny.org. Similarly, if you are an *administrator* of one of the lists we send this to and find this posting irrelevant, let us know and we will stop sending you updates.</FONT></P>
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