[GRASSLIST:1166] Re: creating a desktop GIS application using GRASS

[Bill Dickinson Jr]

Not to muddy the waters any more on this topic, but I had a couple of 
pennies worth of thoughts to throw in since we are talking about 
creating a commercial product out of GRASS. ;-)

I have just submitted a proposal to NASA for a small research grant 
to apply remote sensing data to archaeology using GRASS as the GIS 
development environment to tie everything together (that's the 
Reader's Digest version of the proposal). The general process of 
creating archaeological predictive models within a GIS is pretty well 
documented, but our "proprietary" angle is in the advanced image 
processing and analysis technologies of our experts. Assuming that we 
can prove the basic concept of the research, we will then also submit 
for a larger pot of money from NASA to actually develop  a commercial 
product out of it. My company is very conservative with their 
business development dollars, but even they think my chance of 
funding is rather good and so they were willing to actually spend 
some internal money on the proposal effort. ;-)

Our basic theory for any commercial product is to develop, in ESRI 
terms, an extension to existing GIS software with our proprietary 
approach and techniques as the extra value added. The big target, of 
course, would be ESRI, but we will also look into ENVI and IDRISI, as 
well as our own GIS software, called DirectMet GIS 
(http://www.gst.com/prod_directmet.html). (Yes that is a shameless 
company plug - heh, forgive me.)

Since we are doing the basic research in GRASS, and me being a 
current ESRI user trying desperately to get that monkey off of my 
back, we would also like to take a shot at a commercial GRASS 
product. In my mind, the way to sell a commercial GRASS product is 
along the lines of the OpenOSX cd-rom, just with a twist towards 
whatever your proprietary application may be - in our case, 
proprietary image processing and analysis technologies for 
archaeological purposes.

I would like to end up with a cd-rom that would contain (1) all of 
the packages necessary to install GRASS on the various operating 
systems (a separate cd-rom for each OS, not all on the same cd-rom), 
and (2) our proprietary "extension" to GRASS along with the 
documentation on how to use it. What we would be selling is the use 
of our proprietary stuff along with the cd-rom installation of GRASS 
(the same as OpenOSX), including the tech support for the entire 
bundle.

The next big issue would be the cost of such a product. My personal 
opinion is that it is ludicrous for any software to cost $6500+ (I 
believe we know of which software I speak) for a single license. I 
would  like to see our (hoped for) GRASS bundle go for something like 
$75-100, the value added to the open source GRASS packages being our 
proprietary application, the tech support, and the bundled cd-rom 
itself. I would imagine that any extensions for the other GIS 
software (ESRI, ENVI, IDRISI) would have a cost more in line with 
their price structures.

I think this type of approach also benefits the general GRASS 
development effort as well. One way that GRASS development will 
continue to advance is through solid commercial applications using 
the software. Put together a bundle like what I outline above, a 
bundle that allows you to pop in a cd-rom, install all the needed 
software and get working with minimal fuss, and you will see a lot 
more people using GRASS. Unfortunately, as already pointed out, this 
requires money to implement. Hopefully, NASA will see the value in my 
research proposal and give us some funding to at least take some 
steps in this direction. ;-)

Does anyone see a problem with this approach in light of this recent 
discussion on licensing?

Bill

-- 

Bill Dickinson
GIS Specialist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Environmental & Safety Branch, Code 250
wdickins at pop700.gsfc.nasa.gov