[postgis] The Next Level

[Timothy H. Keitt]

A couple of comments:

I definitely hope to see postgis proceed to the next level.

All the items you  listed would be great to have.  High on my list would 
be native support for geodetic coordinates.  Also, packaging for Debian 
would be great (I might help  out here).  I've been experimenting with 
generating some test data sets for postgis, which would be nice to 
include in the distribution.  I've converted Paul Wessel's global 
coastline data to postgis format (go to 
http://keittlab.bio.sunysb.edu/download/ for psql dumps).  I work a lot 
with R (http://www.r-project.org/) and have written a postgresql query 
interface.  I was experimenting yesterday with querying postgis geometry 
types from the database and plotting the polygons in R.  This could be a 
quick and simple front end for visualizing postgis data (plus includes 
extensive statistical functions for data analysis).

In terms of funding, have you approached Great Bridge and Red Hat?  They 
have commercial postgresql distributions.  They might be willing to 
support postgis development, especially if users request the features. 
 Perhaps we could canvas them a bit.  Having cvs access via sourceforge 
or equivalent might also attract additional volunteer developers.

Cheers,
Tim

Paul Ramsey wrote:

>Gentlepeople:
>
>We here at Refractions have been discussing how to take PostGIS to the
>"next level" as a spatial database, and the general consensus is that a
>few things are needed:
>
>  a) add most/all of the OGC Simple Features Spec (union, 
>     intersection, xor, etc)
>  b) bundling of binaries (RPM, WIN32 Setup) for easy install
>  c) full install / tutorial documentation to go with 
>     bundled software
>  d) client access by some kind of viewer/editor tool
>     commercial or otherwise
>
>The other consensus we have reached is that we cannot afford to do all
>that stuff and still stay in business. Fortunately, we are in Canada,
>and there is a program called 'GeoInnovations' which will fund up to 50%
>of certain kinds of geomatics R&D projects. Unfortunately, even with 50%
>funding we cannot afford to procede with the kind of PostGIS project
>outlined above. So, we are looking for a partner (or partners) to join
>in a proposal to GeoInnovations willing to take on 30% of the project
>cost, or about $35,000CA. A company or agency which wants to see an
>open-source SFSQL database. If anyone on the list knows of (or is) such
>a company or agency, your help in putting us together with them would be
>most appreciated.
>
>Let me close by saying that PostGIS will remain an open GPL project, and
>will continue to be developed (albeit a good deal more slowly)
>regardless.
>
>Sorry to polute the list with non-technical stuff, but I figured it was
>better to turn every stone than find out later of a missed opportunity.
>

-- 
Timothy H. Keitt
Department of Ecology and Evolution
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, New York 11794 USA
Phone: 631-632-1101, FAX: 631-632-7626
http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/keitt/




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