introducing Chris Legg

[Legg, Chris (IITA)]

Hello OSGEO listers,

 

I am Christopher Legg, and I manage the Geospatial lab at the
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan Nigeria (so I
will not be coming to the JUGSA meeting). The IITA works throughout
sub-Saharan Africa, with offices in Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin Republic,
DRC, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique, and the Geospatial
Lab supports agricultural research work in these countries by preparing
base-maps, carrying out targeting studies, and mapping data collected by
scientists. We use ESRI and ENVI software for GIS and RS respectively,
and maintain as comprehensive a collection as possible of geospatial
data of Africa, including the complete African Landsat 1990 and 2000
archives.

 

I have been in GIS and remote sensing since 1984, starting with using
Intergraph, then moving to ESRI (Unix ArcInfo, then ArcView, recently
ArcGIS). I have worked in GIS in the Middle East, Britain, Sri Lanka,
Indonesia, Cameroon and Nigeria, initially as a geologist and later on
renewable resources.

 

My interest in OS GIS is mainly from the point of view of wider
dissemination of GIS technology to users who cannot afford commercial
systems. In IITA we have enough commercial licences (ESRI gives us a
substantial discount) for internal use, but we are often asked to run
training programmes for staff from African research institutes and
universities. There is little point in training someone to use software
which they cannot afford to buy, so I am looking for low-cost or
freeware software, and OS could be an option. Up to now I have
experimented with DIVA, a GIS (raster and vector) package developed
within the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR), of which IITA is a part. This is not strictly Open Source, but
is a very powerful suite, and free to use. I am open to other
possibilities, but I am not really a developer, more a user. 

 

I welcome any comments and suggestions.

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