[OSGeo-Discuss] New Mexico local chapter?

[Gary Watry]

We have produced several intro course works (Udig, Quantum GIS, 
MapWindow) for open source GIS desktop software here at Florida State, 
You are welcome to use them if you want.

Also we have a course for open source software that includes other 
software beside GIS . I can send the syllabus if you want. It includes 
al the reading assignments, etc.

Zachary L. Stauber wrote:
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> Hi All,
> 	Some of us down here in New Mexico (or up depending on your orientation) want
> to start a local chapter.  I've started a wiki here listing some info on us.
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/New_Mexico
>
> Anyone think it's a great idea?
> A bad idea?
> Too small of an area?
> Too big?
> Just right?
>
> Before you answer let me go into a little bit of why we need a chapter.  I work
> for a private engineering firm that does photogrammetry that does a high volume
> of orthophotos plus I teach photogrammetry part time at the local tech-voc
> institute where we can't afford the usual software.  I'd like to see the
> software cheaper (specifically, free) and developers pay more attention to bug
> fixes and so on, which open source usually does.  So I need a vehicle for
> starting up photogrammetry in open source, and rather that duplicating efforts,
> we figured we'd join OSGeo.  My co-worker John Nipper is a programmer with
> experience in programming for aerial cameras and LiDAR sensors and wants to
> help.  But we also need to be able to solicit help from experts in the field,
> professors of photogrammetry and surveying, mathematics, etc., and open source
> is the only neutral ground on which we can easily work together.
>
> My colleague and chair of the GIT program at the tech-voc school Amy Ballard
> wants to offer a class just on open source software.  She believes it's taking
> off and will is useful in real jobs around New Mexico, and she wants to
> encourage its further use.
>
> R. Cliff Wilkie, geodetic surveyor for the City of Albuquerque, wants to offer
> users some shifting and reprojection software for surveyors to manipulate their
> points that operates transparently and has a good manual or explanation of the
> mechanics internally so people know what's happening to their data, for people
> like him to whom 1mm is a significant error.
>
> Karl Benedict is hosting the server.  He's the senior research analyst and IT
> manager for the University of New Mexico's Earth Data Analysis Center.  He's
> been 100% open source for years now, big user of the usual suspects (MapServer,
> Linux, SOAP, and so on), and is all for encouraging their use in the GIS
> community in New Mexico.
>
> I think we have a unique setup here, not only having people from all three
> communities (private, government, and academic) but most important working in
> some fields that are somewhat esoteric.  GoogleEarth has millions of users, and
> with it things like MapServer.  Desktop GIS has tens of thousands around the
> world, but photogrammetry and high accuracy geodesy, probably only several
> hundred.  So there are a lot of things being developed in the high volume areas
> of open source that get a lot of attention, and the esoteric ones don't so much,
> which is too bad because the commercial software available suffers in quality
> from the same dynamic.  There are only a dozen photogrammetry packages out there
> compared to scores of desktop GIS, and most of them are flirting with a price
> around US$20,000 per component, per license.
>
> The US National Geodetic Survey provides some tools for datum shifts and
> reprojecdtions like CorpsCon, but they are US-centric, and the development is
> controlled by a body which is not funded as well as it should be considering
> it's the foundation on which all geographic data is collected.  Some software is
> still DOS-only.
>
> We need to be part of OSGeo so development can make sure the intellectual
> property rests in the public domain and the development is still controlled by a
> long-lived body devoted to the task like OSGeo rather than the US federal
> government or any private business.  They can donate money and their peoples'
> time to us, grants, etc., but development that goes into a private box is
> notoriously cumbersome to update, doesn't have a wide range of users to test it,
> and has a habit of dying off.
>
>
> 	-Zack Stauber
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>   

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----------------------------------------------------
Gary L. Watry
GIS Coordinator
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
FSU / COAPS
Johnson Building, RM 231
2035 East Paul Dirac Drive
Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2840

Phone (850) 645-7457

E-Mail: watry at coaps.fsu.edu

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