<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///D:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CBENS%7E1.CAR%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///D:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CBENS%7E1.CAR%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///D:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CBENS%7E1.CAR%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:swiss;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Book Antiqua";
panose-1:2 4 6 2 5 3 5 3 3 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in .75in 1.0in .75in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hi Noli & Giovanni,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for both of your replies. Your questions about
funding are fair and understandable.<span style=""> </span>I
should clear something up right away.<span style=""> </span>I
am not associated with the NatCap project, and have not been asked by the project to
approach the QGIS community.<span style=""> </span>I *have*
exchanged a few emails with project members, and while they of course like the
idea of an open source GIS, no one actually requested me to do what I'm
doing.<span style=""> </span>I'm just an "outsider"
who really believes in the projects goals.<span style="">
</span>So what that means is that I have absolutely no say on where funds go or
even any inside track to talk to somebody who has funds.<span style=""> </span>That being said, I'm all for the QGIS project
getting funding if it can be made available.<span style="">
</span>Here are a couple of options that I see.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">1) Do an upfront investment of time - Volunteer to invest
the time into converting the scripts over to QGIS, then help show the NatCap
project how an open source platform speeds adoption of the software, how much
better users like to use QGIS, etc. Basically show the demonstrated benefits after
the conversion. Once the value of QGIS is demonstrated, it should be very easy
to get funding.<span style=""> </span>Obviously all the risk
is on the QGIS community with this option.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2) Work up a proposal to move Invest over to QGIS.<span style=""> </span>The proposal would have to estimate the
benefits of moving to an open source platform ahead of time, and the community
would also need to know how much funding they are looking for to do the
work.<span style=""> </span>The overall investment to the
project is less with #1 than #2, but of course it is always easier to show
someone the benefits (plan #1) than to convince them of the benefits ahead of
time (plan #2).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the community is interested in pursuing either approach,
I am interested in helping.<span style=""> </span>With either
approach, however, it will take an initial analysis to estimate how many hours
it will take to convert the scripts over.<span style="">
</span>How many hours would just this initial analysis take?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, while all talk about funding is understandable, I
also want the community to keep in mind that the project is for a great cause,
so you can rest assured that any amount of "volunteer" time that
people can provide is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sincerely,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ben Carlson</p>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 12:59 AM, G. Allegri <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:giohappy@gmail.com">giohappy@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Thanks Ben,<br>
I think NCP is a very good effort in the field of natural sources<br>
evaluation and externalities management.<br>
A venial question: is there some founding for the project to move<br>
Invest to Qgis? Do you mean to ask for volunteer time? The actual<br>
modules seems to be quite small, so it shouldn't require a big<br>
work.... but it requires time to get into it.<br>
<br>
giovanni<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
I would like to contribute, gievn the time (and the money...)<br>
<br>
2010/2/22 Noli Sicad <<a href="mailto:nsicad@gmail.com">nsicad@gmail.com</a>>:<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5">> Hi Ben,<br>
><br>
> I downloaded Invest 3 months ago and look at it and see what is the<br>
> "inside" of invest. I was particularly interested in the carbon<br>
> sequestration model / module.<br>
><br>
> I am hoping INVEST project would be one of the projects of Qgis. I<br>
> think QGIS could find developers or current developers can find time<br>
> to work in this project, if Natural Capital Investment can sponsor and<br>
> fund this project.<br>
><br>
> Probably later on, I can later on "plugin" for optimising the forestry<br>
> carbon estate model to cater for various carbon protocol and standard<br>
> e, REDD and REDD+, etc. using GNU GLPK<br>
> (<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/glpk.html" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/glpk.html</a>). I have a forest estate<br>
> LP model (timber supply at the moment) reading data for areas from<br>
> shapefile and writing results in dbf as part of the GNU GLP project<br>
> examples. It can be found in glpk-4.43/examples/db folder).<br>
><br>
> BTW, I am forest carbon estate modeller.<br>
><br>
> Noli<br>
><br>
><br>
> On 2/22/10, Ben Carlson <<a href="mailto:ben.s.carlson@gmail.com">ben.s.carlson@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> Hello QGIS community,<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> I'm writing because I'm looking for a few QGIS programmers who are<br>
>> interested in using their skills to help with an important environmental<br>
>> project. Before I get into how you can help, here is some info about the<br>
>> project.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> The Natural Capital project, a joint venture between Stanford University,<br>
>> The Nature Conservancy, and the World Wildlife Fund, is "developing tools<br>
>> for quantifying the values of natural capital in clear, credible, and<br>
>> practical ways". What is Natural Capital and why is it important to value?<br>
>> To use another related term, Natural Services are services that nature<br>
>> typically, and historically, has provided for free. Unfortunately, since<br>
>> society is so used to getting these services for free, the services often<br>
>> don't have a value attached to them.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> For example, a standing forest today may only have one economic value in the<br>
>> marketplace: the price of its timber once cut. But a forest provides many<br>
>> tangible benefits to society that are not measured in the marketplace, such<br>
>> as water filtration, carbon sequestration, or flood mitigation. If a real<br>
>> economic value could be put on these services, would their value be greater<br>
>> or less than cutting the forest for timber?<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> You can get quite a bit more information about the NatCap project here:<br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org" target="_blank">http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org</a><br>
>><br>
>> You can also read a good book on the subject by one of the projects leading<br>
>> scientists:<br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Economy-Nature-Conservation-Profitable/dp/1559631546/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266733265&sr=8-2" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/New-Economy-Nature-Conservation-Profitable/dp/1559631546/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266733265&sr=8-2</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> So where does QGIS fit in? As part of its strategy, the NatCap project is<br>
>> developing software tools using GIS software. Unfortunately, the only GIS<br>
>> the tool runs on is ArcGIS, which presents a significant barrier to entry<br>
>> for many would-be users around the world. Based on the project's goals and<br>
>> the open nature of the software it is developing, a free GIS is the more<br>
>> logical choice. I'm emailing the QGIS community since I use QGIS myself,<br>
>> have found the tool to be great, and the community to be strong. For anybody<br>
>> who feels this is an important use of your time, I would like to ask for<br>
>> your help in making the software work for QGIS.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Now for the details. The software, called Invest, runs as a python script<br>
>> in ArcGIS. There are around 6 different modules, comprised of 1 to 3 python<br>
>> files for each module. Each module is around 300 to 900 lines of code. It<br>
>> would be great if somebody could volunteer to analyze a few of these<br>
>> modules, say - Carbon, Biodiversity, and Timber, to see what it would take<br>
>> to convert them over to QGIS. Are there any ArcGIS scripting calls that<br>
>> can't be ported over to QGIS? Can an API layer be written to abstract<br>
>> different GIS? What about the user interface? After the assessment is<br>
>> complete, we'll figure out what are next steps.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> You can read more about the software here:<br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/InVEST.html" target="_blank">http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/InVEST.html</a><br>
>><br>
>> And you can download the software here:<br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://invest.ecoinformatics.org/" target="_blank">http://invest.ecoinformatics.org/</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> I'm also attaching the Timber module for you to take a look at if you want<br>
>> instant gratification for your curiosity.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> So, what do you say, any volunteers? Please let me know, I really<br>
>> appreciate any help!<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Thanks!<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Ben<br>
>><br>
</div></div>> _______________________________________________<br>
> Qgis-user mailing list<br>
> <a href="mailto:Qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org">Qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>
> <a href="http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user" target="_blank">http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user</a><br>
><br>
</blockquote></div><br>