[postgis-users] Who is Using PostGIS? For What?

[Øyvind Vestavik]

> It is that time of year again (conference time) so I am going to ask my
> annual question(s):
>
>      Who are you?

Øyvind Vestavik
Research Fellow
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Trondheim Norway

>      What are you using PostGIS for?

Georeferencing of news articles from a regional newspaper in Norway based 
on occurences of placenames and other hints to the geographic significance 
of the text, so journalists later can find articles based on their 
interest in a specific area using maps for searching and browsing for
articles in their text archives.

Also, some of our Master Student uses
the database for georeferenceing historical images for a prototype
application where tourists can find historical images using handheld
devices in a wireless urban setting based on the locations they are at.
(One of many demonstrators in the project Traadloese Trondheim (Wireless 
Trondheim) of what you can do when you give free, transparent wireless
access to the Internet to an entire city (anywhere, anytime and from any 
device)).

We have also previously, in a project, used Postgis to store 
coordinates automatically assigned to images taken with a handheld camera 
from a helicopter. The coordinates were computed by projecting the 
image onto a map based on the cameras position and tilt, yaw and pitch.
(using a GPS and gyrosensor connected to the camera)

>      Why did you choose PostGIS?

Licencing, reliability, availability, interoperability, standalone.

>      What makes you happy about your PostGIS installation?

It just works. Seems to meet my needs allthough I'm a fairly new to 
this database extension. Easy to change other components in the system
without that being affected by the database. Works with 
PostgreSQL wich I already am familiar with. Compliance with OpenGis 
standards (nice separation in documentation between OpenGis compliant 
features and extensions that are not). And of course the fact that it
is OpenSource..

>      What makes you unhappy about your PostGIS installation?

Nothing so far

Kind regards

Øyvind Vestavik