[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [OSGeo_discuss] Re: FOSS GIS in India

[Landon Blake]

I wanted to comment on some things that Tyler said:

 

Tyler wrote: "However, professionals who build their skills on top of
open source tools have complete freedom, motivation and encouragement in
their careers without licensing constraints."

 

There is an important "freedom" that comes with open source software in
an educational or training environment. That is the freedom for the
student to look into the guts of the program to see how a GIS program
accomplished a specific task. For example, if I want to know how
OpenJUMP paints a line segment representing a road on my computer
monitor I can look into the code and find out. If I am interested in
developing an algorithm to solve a particular problem in geospatial
analysis I can look at other open source code that tackles the same, or
similar problems. I believe open source software is one of the most
provides one of the most powerful tools to teach GIS. There is no better
test of a student's understanding of a geospatial principle than the
test that requires them to write functioning source code that works on
that principle. I really believe GIS as a profession would be better of
if all who practiced it did a little closet programming. :]

 

Tyler wrote: "We know that all too often proposals or contracts require
specific software - often without any rationale except comfort by the
client.  Instead, is it not in our collective best interests to
encourage professionals to use the best tool they know to do the job?"

 

We are fighting the beast called "corporate monopoly" in this case. But
I think we have indirectly identified an important way to fight this
monopoly. Promote the use of open source GIS software in our educational
institutions. People use what they learn, and they learn what they are
taught in school. As an example of this, a certain unnamed surveying
equipment vendor supplied my small community college with as many seats
of their software package as we wanted. What was the end result? All of
my graduating class left comfortable with that vendors way of doing
things, right or wrong, good or bad. When we eventually make it into
responsible positions, guess what we do? We buy that same software.
Those free licenses given to the community college was the best money
that vendor ever spent.

 

Maybe we need to do something similar with community colleges, trade
schools, and universities that teach GIS classes. Perhaps we can set up
an online course materials sponsored and maintained by the OSGeo that
these institutions could use.

 

Landon

 

 

________________________________

From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Tyler Mitchell
(OSGeo)
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 11:41 AM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [OSGeo_discuss] Re: FOSS GIS in India

 

On 11-Aug-07, at 9:08 PM, RAVI KUMAR wrote:

	Emphasis is to be on GIS tools and principles, and not on GIS
brand labels.

 

This is the important part for me, allow me to take it a step further.
One of my interests is to see professionals develop their skills for
geospatial analysis, mapping, etc.  This does not require any particular
brand of software.  However, professionals who build their skills on top
of open source tools have complete freedom, motivation and encouragement
in their careers without licensing constraints.  As long as the concepts
are well taught, they can likely learn (or re-train) to cover any
particular instance of geospatial applications in any workplace.

 

In the bigger picture this is a conflict between corporate "standards"
and recognising professional choice or capabilities.  We know that all
too often proposals or contracts require specific software - often
without any rationale except comfort by the client.  Instead, is it not
in our collective best interests to encourage professionals to use the
best tool they know to do the job?  This takes faith in professional
skill sets instead of faith in a particular software package.

 

Whether the package is open source or proprietary is important from a
licensing or philosophical standpoint, but when I look at people who are
training to work in the field I'd much rather see them develop/learn
tools that they can use for the rest of their careers.  Unfortunately we
aren't required to bring our tools with us to our jobs to prove our
skills - instead we're given tools within the confines of the workplace
and expected to know how to use them.  That seems reasonable but is very
limiting.  

 

Fellow staff that I have worked with in the past have appreciated the
option of finding the best tool for the job instead of being forced to
use one that they might never have access to again in the future.

 

Hope this makes some sense.  

 

Tyler



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