[Board] Support needed for FOSS SDI and it's viability

[Brian Hamlin]

Ravi-

   In my opinion, this is classic FUD - spreading Fear, Uncertainty and 
Doubt amongst decision makers who are not able to discern the technical 
details on their own. I am sorry to read this, although I am not 
completely shocked that it exists..

   Unfortunately, there is a layer of FOSS adoption that is not 
addressed by pure technical merit - that is making clear, credible and 
understandable presentations to sophisticated, but not developer, 
audiences. Whole companies in the commercial world include internal 
branches that can make these presentations, in addition to developers, 
leadership and finance. As a technical community, it seems OSGeo is 
left dependent on others to make their case, or not.

   all for now
    -Brian

==
Brian Hamlin
planetwork.net
OSGeo California Chapter


On Aug 1, 2010, at 7:58 AM, Ravi wrote:

> My Dear Fellow board members of OSGeo,
>
> Some so called SDI experts feel that FOSS SDI cannot perform at-par 
> with
> Proprietary SDI.
> Please  provide examples to fight a case from an Indian state which 
> swears by Free and Open Source Software. We can never expect a better 
> level playing field.
>
> Kerala - India
>
> Here are some excerpts from a document that has false claims 
> supporting Proprietary Software.
>
> However,  it is worthwhile to mention here that the OSS (Open Source 
> Software) does not match the advanced functionalities of many of the 
> commercial (proprietory) software that is in the market. Image 
> processing and analysis capabilities of the open source software is 
> not comparable to the commercial software when one require to carry 
> out advanced data manipulations, image fusion, 3D modeling, 
> ortho-correction, auto-georeferencing, stereo-image/air photo 
> interpretation (PROBABLY REFERRING TO GRASS), advanced geospatial 
> analysis etc., In such cases, certain proprietary software become an 
> integral part of the Spatial Data Infrastructures, which can not be 
> avoided. At a  later stage the some of the proprietary software need 
> to be purchased.
>
> It is a well known fact that web portal that run with OSS are neither 
> OGC-compliant nor
> interoperable. At the present juncture it is only possible to 
> establish the KSDI Geoportal
> with the available COTS enterprise software.
>
> The detailed PDF document will be emailed on demand.
>
> This is a case that has the potential to set trends in India. Hope to 
> have a good discussion such that we can sum it up and present at a 
> meeting being conducted on August 11th 2010, to settle the issue.
>
> regards
> Ravi  Kumar
>
>
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