[GRASS-user] setting-up a FOSS GIS lab

[Micha Silver]

maning sambale wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am a new instructor on Basic GIS in a small college in the Philippines.
> We find it hard to request for a dedicated GIS lab for student to
> tinker around.  In last term's basic GIS course, we used the
> foss4g2006 lausanne live-CD for our exercise using the schools generic
> computer lab.  The live-cd works just fine, we basically set-up the
> samba server so that students can access Philippine datasets for the
> exercises.
>
> For this term, were trying out the ominiverdi live-cd.
>
> With constant lobbying, I finally persuaded the department to explore
> setting-up a dedicated GIS lab.  No assurance on when and how will
> this initiative will go through, but I was asked to write a proposal
> on how do we plan to implement this project.
>
> I would like to ask this list on experiences in setting up a GIS lab
> for students (both for undergrad & graduate course).  Initially, I
> have the following on my mind:
>
> hardware: 1 server, 5 thin clients
> OS: Linux LTSP route (debian-based)
> GIS applications:  OSGEO stack (GRASS, QGIS, Mapserver)
> databse and stats: R, postgesql
> other apps: standard office applications (openoffice, firefox, pdf reader)
> online course management: moodle
>
> Any ideas on how we should go about this?  One thing thats bugging me
> is, can LTSP setup handle GIS computing-intensive tasks using the thin
> clients.
>   
Hello Maning:
First, I highly suggest you take this question to the k12ltsp mailing 
list: K12OSN at redhat.com
They are a very helpful and very knowledgeable group.
Second, in general you'll probably want to stick plenty of memory into 
the server, and it definitely should be on a gigabit port on the network 
switch.
Please keep us posted as to your progress.
Regards,
Micha
> Apart from preparing the proposal, I am also looking for sponsors or
> where we can submit the proposal for possible funding.  I know ESRI
> has this "altruistic" facility to schools.  But I also want the lab as
> advocating for software freedom (as in speech) philosophy.  Any
> org/institution we can ask for help?
>
> Any ideas would be helpful.
>
> cheers,
>
> maning
>
>