[postgis-users] Who is Using PostGIS?

[Darren Houston]

Who are you?

My name is Darren Houston and I coordinate the GIS for a company called
Beyond Compliance Inc. (BCI) based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
(www.beyondcompliance.ca)

BCI deals with regulated industries (such as oil and gas), and has developed
a web driven Integrated Compliance Management System (ICMS), which also allows
field audits and inspections to be performed on hand-helds (such as Palm)
which sync. with our PostgreSQL database.


What are you using PostGIS for?

I use PostGIS to maintain our spatial datasets (for B.C., Alberta, and
Saskatchewan) and serve out dynamic clickable maps using SVG.


Why did you choose PostGIS?

Our whole company runs off one PostgreSQL database, from accounting to our
ICMS, so when we needed a GIS, PostGIS was the only way to go.


What makes you happy about your PostGIS installation?

The incredible superabundance of functions included with PostGIS.
Stability.
Ease of use.
PostGIS is open source and I can program functions to suit me.
PostGIS has an excellent e-mail list with great contributed effort and
answers from the PostGIS staff.


What makes you unhappy about your PostGIS installation?

I'm not really un-happy, more so I would be thrilled if these ever changed.
The performance with some functions are a little slow (I haven't tried the
new lwgeom).
There is a lack from proprietary GIS software providers to support PostGIS
(cheers for Safe, jeers for everyone else).