[GRASS5] Open Source Vector Database

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

I see a substantial need in the "free GIS software community" for a
reasonably sophisticated vector datastore that can be shared between a
variety of products.  In particular it should support efficient spatial
and attribute queries and be easily accessable from a variety of software
environments.

I am envisioning a RDBMS datastore, with PostgreSQL as one (of hopefully 
several) host databases, with geometry and attributes store in the database.  
The advantages are:

 o Databases are accessable from many environments (via ODBC, direct C
   interfaces, JDBC in Java, etc).

 o Databases generally include highly optimized attribute queries.

 o Databases are "the way things are going" with much commercial GIS (we
   see this with SDE, MapInfo`s heavy movement to Oracle, and so on).

Further, I would like to see the database utilize OpenGIS standards, perhaps
holding the geometry data in OGC Well Known Binary, and keeping projections
information in auxilary tables in OGC Well Known Text format.

I would like to invite individuals interested in the concept of an 
Open Source Vector Database (OSVecDB) to visit:

  http://gdal.velocet.ca/projects/osvecdb/index.html

and join the newly formed mailing list to discuss the possibility.

Mail to: majordomo at remotesensing.org

Put the following in the body of your message:

   subscribe osvecdb

I am particularly interested in getting at least one representative of
any project that might like to integrate with such a database, and also
any one with experience with geospatial databases to join.

I think the time is ripe for open standards and open source to come together
to foster interoperability of geospatial data!

Best regards,

--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerda at home.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://members.home.com/warmerda
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent

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