[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [Live-demo] Has anyone written a "How do you XXX with Open Source GIS?"

[Stephen Woodbridge]

On 2/2/2011 5:14 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Below, Frank has done a great job asking the exact sort of question that
> new GIS users ask, and which we as an OSGeo community should address to
> attract new users.

I think that it would be helpful to identify gaps also, for two reasons:

1. if someone is planning to migrate from say ArcMap to OSS, know the 
pain points and gaps will make it easy fro them to decide if their use 
case makes sense of not to convert now or not. Knowing what to expect up 
front lets them plan better and design new processes to work around 
those issues.

2. if we as a community have a clear idea of the gaps and pain points 
then it gives us a check list if high value projects that we might want 
to work into our projects. While I suspect most projects maintain some 
kind of wish list, I do not think there is a high level document like 
this FAQ that covers this. Maybe it is as simple as creating additional 
entries like "How to you XXX with Open Source GIS?" which identify gaps 
and pain points also.

I think we are all about transparency, and this would help, IMHO.

ATB,
   -Steve W

> What has been done so far toward building a FAQ on "How to you XXX with
> Open Source GIS?"?
>
> Frank wrote:
>> Not only am I new to the forum, but
>> I'm new to GIS work in general.
>>
>> I downloaded the Live CD and installed it on a virtual machine and it's
>> working great. I'm trying to build a suite of GIS tools I can for the
>> various
>> tasks I have to do at work and it's great having so many products right
>> in front of me. It's highly quality work and I appreciate all the hard
>> work to pull it together.
>>
>> What would be really helpful to me (and possibly other new-to-GIS folks
>> like myself) is a FAQ-type list of questions with app answers. For
>> example:
>>
>>
>> Do you want to edit shapefiles? Try xxx, yyy, zzz.
>> Do you want to style shapefiles? Try ...
>> Do you want to work exclusively with raster files?
>> Do you need to work simultaneously with raster and vector files?
>> Do you want to convert one file into one another format?
>> Do you want to convert raster to vector?
>> Vector to raster?
>> Vector to another vector?
>>
>> etc.
>>
>> If there were a couple dozen questions with short answers it would really
>> supplement the disc quite well.
>>
>> For instance, I'm trying to figure out how to convert a raster (binary
>> GRID) file into a shapefile. I dink around in the various programs on the
>> CD, but I don't know if I just can't find the "convert raster to vector"
>> option in a particular app or if it isn't there at all. A short little
>> Q&A text file would be nice to help at least focus my initial search
>> a little bit better. At the least I (hopefully) would be pointed to the
>> best choices for my purpose.
>>
>>
>> Hope this makes sense!
>>
>> Frank
>>
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>
>