[OSGeo-Discuss] Abstract, please look at.

[Chris Holmes]

Eventually I think I would really like to see an 'academic' committee, 
focused more on getting academics and indeed students to use and 
contribute to open source.  I see this as different from the core 
curriculum stuff, which I also think is vitally important.  But whereas 
that's focused on using the OS tools to teach, this would be more 
oriented towards getting those working in academia involved in the whole 
open source process.  The most obvious is academics doing bleeding edge 
work, get them to not only use OS packages, but lay out the mechanisms 
for them to roll back their changes in.  Lots of code just gets thrown 
away, and some of it can be very useful in the OS world.  The other is 
to encourage 'students' to see themselves as potential contributors. 
Many see their work as not 'real' until they get in to a paying job, 
when in reality they do some of the best work.  Ideally we could capture 
some of that energy for open source.

One idea to really encourage that is to make a analogue to the 
'job'/volunteer board, but focus it on projects that are more cutting 
edge, and that would be of the size that one could do for a masters or 
phD thesis.  Hopefully someone in the OS world could 'mentor' them, not 
so much on the actual work, but how to work with the community and get 
their improvements incorporated.  Every year there are lots of students 
searching for cool masters projects, and if we had a lively board of 
interesting ideas I think we could attract a lot of interest.  And 
forward thinking professors would start to recommend to their students 
to start there.  We've definitely had a few good masters students 
contribute work to GeoServer over the years.  And I personally know 
several profs who would happily slot their new students in to OS goals, 
if we took the time to write them up.

best regards,

Chris


Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> On a similar note, I've seen some institutions build their own tools or
> build on top of existing tools.  Then in subsequent years, different
> researchers and student continue adding on to it.  What you get in the
> end is a more comprehensive package than you could otherwise have had if
> you had purchased a canned product or started from scratch on your own.
> 
> Good ideas, Gary.
> 
> Tyler
> 
> Gary Watry wrote:
> 
>>Several good points, with your permission, I would like to include the
>>following
>>
>>  * Ability to verify what is going on internally.  Black-boxes interfere
>>with good science.
>>  * Flexibility to tweak any aspect of the system in experimentation.
>>  * Ability to disseminate solutions to other researchers without requiring
>>    them to acquire software licenses first.
>>
>>In the rework of my abstract
>>______________________________________________________________
>>Gary L. Watry
>>
>>GIS Coordinator
>>Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies
>>FSU / COAPS
>>Johnson Building, RM 215
>>2035 East Paul Dirac Drive
>>Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2840
>> 
>>E-Mail: watry at coaps.fsu.edu
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Frank Warmerdam [mailto:fwarmerdam at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Frank
>>Warmerdam
>>Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 8:55 AM
>>To: discuss at mail.osgeo.org
>>Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Abstract, please look at.
>>
>>Gary Watry wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hi
>>>
>>>I am starting to put together a presentation for the Florida Joint Mapping
>>>Conference. The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
>>>(ASPRS) Florida Region, is soliciting presentations for the Joint Mapping
>>>Conference entitled "Accessing Geo-Spatial Data".  
>>>
>>>Here is what I want to submit as a abstract
>>>
>>>Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>Abstract
>>>
>>>Open Source GIS Software and its potential use in the Post Grad
>>
>>Environment
>>
>>
>>>One of the major issues that arise with the introduction of Geospatial
>>>technology in a post-college education or research program is the inherent
>>>cost of Commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS). The initial cost and
>>>annual maintenance fees for most COTS, is hard to justify by the
>>
>>occasional
>>
>>
>>>use of these applications in Non-GIS courses and research projects. The
>>>introduction of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) at the college and
>>>post-grad level will make available the powerful tools of Geospatial
>>>analysis without the cost. As FOSS applications achieve parity and in many
>>>cases exceed the capabilities of the comparative COTS tools, a valuable
>>
>>tool
>>
>>
>>>is available to the grad student or research assistant. Once educated in
>>
>>the
>>
>>
>>>usefulness and availability of FOSS applications, the individual would be
>>>able to download, utilize, and then discard the appropriate GIS tools
>>
>>until
>>
>>
>>>the next time they were useful. If and when the FOSS applications are not
>>>capable of meeting the needs of the user, then and only then should the
>>>individual be encouraged to examine COTS.  
>>
>>
>>Gary,
>>
>>This seems like a useful presentation to make.
>>
>>I would encourage you to focus on a variety of benefits of FOSS in the
>>post-grad / research environment.
>>
>>  * Low cost - focus available research money on humans and hardware.
>>  * Low barrier to introducing new tools.  No purchase cycle just to try a
>>new
>>    package.
>>  * Ability to verify what is going on internally.  Black-boxes interfere
>>with
>>    good science.
>>  * Flexibility to tweak any aspect of the system in experimentation.
>>  * Ability to disseminate solutions to other researchers without requiring
>>    them to acquire software licenses first.
>>
>>Some of the above benefits are generic too many fields, but some of them are
>>(in my humble opinion) especially important in research.  I think it would
>>be
>>an error to be overly focused on the cost aspect.
>>
>>I trust you will let us know when it is complete so we can make the material
>>more widely available?
>>
>>Best regards,
> 
> 
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-- 
Chris Holmes
The Open Planning Project
thoughts at: http://cholmes.wordpress.com
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