[OSGeo Africa] reminder: Survey of FOSS GIS usage in South Africa

Tue Sep 4 08:33:08 PDT 2012

Hi

On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 4:27 PM, nyaladzi <nyaladzi at vrl.co.za> wrote:

> Hi Gavin****
>
> ** **
>
> I am a GIS specialist but I work mainly for/with Architects and Engineers.
> Because I don’t work in a highly specialized GIS environment I have over
> the last 5 years worked on different spatial information aspects of several
> projects using several FOSS GIS software and Licensed Software aswell.****
>
> ** **
>
> Rather than give you particular projects and respective software I used at
> that time I will just highlight to you the trends  I have noticed over the
> last few years that reflect general GIS related software use.****
>
> ** **
>
> ESRI developed software still dominates the South African market as most
> specialized GIS projects are carried out by large cooperate organizations
> and have not as yet filtered to small medium enterprises or free lance GIS
> specialists. In my working environment you have a similar situation with
> how Autodesk still holds the greatest market share of customers for
> Architecture and design software despite it being very costly.****
>
> ** **
>
> However geo-referenced files such as .shp,.kmz,.dxf,.gxf formats have
> become increasingly popular file types utilized by a multitude of
> professionals such that there is a large number of Desktop GIS software
> that allows users to display, query or analyse.****
>
> ** **
>
> In the past I have worked mainly off Quantam GIS (QGIS).For me its main
> function has always been data viewing. However in my industry the biggest
> let down with most Desktop GIS has been the quality of Desktop publishing.
> If you have worked with Graphic design programs such as Corel and Photoshop
> you will appreciate how poor most of the quality of exports you can make
> from both FOSS GIS software and licensed software.
>

This is one area we are continually focussing on so please check back from
version to version. Currently we have a contract with the WorldBank which
is bringing a number of great improvements to the print composer in version
2.0 (you can try these things out using the osgeo installer nightly builds
until 2.0 is released).

> So that’s the main reason I would move from one FOSS product to the next.
> Unfortunately QGIS is developed on a C++ platform which made it less
> adaptable for most developers who prefer object oriented programming
> language like Java.
>

C++ is also an object orientated programming language. QGIS is *highly*
adaptable for C++ programmers and we have python bindings which make it
very easy for people who prefer to work with a non compiled programming
language. With python you can create plugins easily and even build stand
alone applications using the QGIS libraries (and I would argue more easily
that you can e.g. repurpose and extend e.g. uDig).

> ****
>
> ** **
>
> I eventually moved over to uDigg which gave me the capability of viewing
> and editing directly in databases and over the web.
>

QGIS has been built from day one to connect to databases and you can
currently connect to PostGIS, ESRI File Geodb, Micrsoft SQL Server, SQL
Anywhere, spatialite. You can also do WFS transactional editing using QGIS
and we have excellent support for OGC web services with WCS coming in the
next release.

> uDigg is developed in JAVA (using the Eclipse platform) and was initially
> focused on editing of vector data. Another FOSS product I found useful was
> Kosmo. Its functionality is similar to that provided by ESRI’s ArcView  and
> also programmed off the JAVA platform which allows scope for developers to
> easily improve the program given the popularity of Java especially in the
> App environment. Both of these work nicely with our WGS84 datasets with
> very few issues or errors.****
>
> ** **
>
> Issues that I have found that FOSS GIS programs have addressed over the
> years are compatibility of file types across different platforms. This is
> the biggest achievement of FOSS GIS Software I have seen in the few years I
> have been a GIS specialist.in the past most files would either not be
> compatible from one program to the next or if they are compatible the
> progression would change.****
>
> ** **
>
> There are areas that I feel FOSS GIS programs will eventually address such
> as the quality of Desktop publications (exports) that can be made from most
> Desktop GIS software. ****
>
> Other limitations involve query capability.
>
****
>
> ** **
>
> I hope this gives you a perspective of my impression in terms of FOSS GIS
> software use be it with spatial databases, viewers, libraries  or
> programming.****
>
> **
>

It's nice to hear your perspective.There is a saying in software that 80%
or the users use only 20% of the functionality available and I think for
the general GIS user we provide a more than adequate platform to relegate
ESRI et al for deep pocketed specialist users.

Regards

Tim

**
>
> Regards****
>
> ** **
>
> Nyaladzi****
>
>  ****
>
> Tel        : 012 346 1289****
>
> Mobile  : 076 147 9451****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Gavin Fleming [mailto:gavin at afrispatial.co.za]
> *Sent:* Monday, September 03, 2012 10:58 AM
> *To:* chapter discussions, Africa
> *Subject:* [OSGeo Africa] reminder: Survey of FOSS GIS usage in South
> Africa****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks for your responses so far. This is a reminder to send your response
> today describing any FOSS GIS work you've done or know about (details
> below). You are welcome to send it to the list as some of you have but you
> can also send it to me off-list at gavin at afrispatial.co.za.
>
> --------[sent last Friday]
>
> Hi fellow FOSS GISers
>
> I'm conducting a snap survey of FOSS GIS in SA - please respond by Mon 3
> Sept! I will use later responses but they won't be guaranteed to make it
> into the proceedings (deadline 5 Sept).
>
> I'll be presenting a paper at the GISSA Ukubuzana in October with the
> following abstract:****
>
> Free and Open Source GIS Software is being used widely across South Africa
> in diverse applications. This presentation will showcase a number of
> projects implemented with FOSS GIS in government, private industry, civil
> society and other sectors. Case studies will be drawn from various
> companies, consultants and service providers.****
>
> I'd like to showcase what's being done and if I get a big enough response,
> to compile some stats.
>
> So, please send me some brief information about FOSS GIS work that you are
> or have been involved with or that you feel we should know about.
>
> I'm looking for work done with FOSS GIS in southern Africa by anyone OR
> work done by South Africans anywhere in the world.
>
> Any project counts, from a helpful script to a backend database to a big
> web application to a desktop GIS rollout - anything goes.
>
> Please send roughly the following:
>
> - a brief description
> - if web-based and public, a url
> - otherwise, send screenshots, publications, etc.
> - reasons why you or the client chose to use FOSS GIS
> - which FOSS GIS technologies you used
>
> PS: Apologies for the short notice but I was only notified of paper
> acceptance yesterday [last Thurs now].
>
>
> ****
>
> -- ****
>
> regards****
>
> ** **
>
> Gavin****
>
> ** **
>
> Gavin Fleming****
>
> http://afrispatial.co.za****
>
> t: 0218620670****
>
> c: 0845965680****
>
> f: 0866164820 ****
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Africa mailing list
> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>
>

-- 
Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
==============================================
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