[postgis-users] PostGIS case usages

Wed Oct 31 22:07:49 PDT 2018

I know what you mean, my last few trips to Washington was timezone hell!
Simon

On Thu, 01 Nov 2018 15:06:22 +1100, Regina Obe <lr at pcorp.us> wrote:

> Would love to go to Australia sometime.  Unfortunately too far of a trek for
> us.  Someday.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Simon Greener [mailto:simon at spatialdbadvisor.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 11:39 PM
>> To: 'PostGIS Users Discussion' <postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org>; Regina Obe
>> <lr at pcorp.us>
>> Cc: 'PostGIS Development Discussion' <postgis-devel at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Subject: Re: [postgis-users] PostGIS case usages
>>
>> Regina,
>>
>> Some very good points.
>>
>> I stopped using the term years ago given that I concentrate on applying
>> spatial data and functions to solving business problems.
>>
>> One problem is that the "spatial" industry is dominated by "GIS" vendors
> and
>> practitioners: it isn't easy to find new non-GIS work.
>>
>> In fact, I think this is one of the problems with FOSS4G technologies:
> they are
>> marketed and sold as specific toolsets in opposition to the vendor
> products
>> but on the same playground.
>>
>> I have a few examples I can provide you with, just give me a bit of time
> to
>> write them up.
>>
>> As you going to FOSS4G in Melbourne this month?
>>
>> regards
>> Simon
>>
>> On Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:17:04 +1100, Regina Obe <lr at pcorp.us> wrote:
>>
>> > Tom,
>> >
>> > That's a pretty nice use case and one I've thought of coming from a
>> Bioelectronics/Biomechanics educational background.
>> >
>> > I think a lot more people would be using PostGIS if they saw it as a
> tool set
>> of tools for visualizing and analyzing space, instead of "a toolset for
> GIS"
>> > The GIS word seems to be a turn-off for a lot of people who have spatial
>> problems to solve but don't think of themselves as GIS practioners.
>> >
>> > I much prefer the term "Spatial" than GIS because it really focuses on
> what I
>> think makes PostGIS great - "A tool for analyzing space"
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Regina
>> >
>> >> -----Original Message-----
>> >> From: postgis-users [mailto:postgis-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On
>> >> Behalf Of Tom Kazimiers
>> >> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2018 3:16 PM
>> >> To: PostGIS Users Discussion <postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org>
>> >> Cc: 'PostGIS Development Discussion' <postgis-devel at lists.osgeo.org>
>> >> Subject: Re: [postgis-users] PostGIS case usages
>> >>
>> >> Hi Regina,
>> >>
>> >> It might not really fit the book, because it's not exactly GIS, but
>> >> our PostGIS use case is certainly an interesting one as well: As a
>> >> software engineer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, I work on a
>> >> collaborative neuron reconstruction and analysis software called
>> >> CATMAID [1] [2] (screenshot: [3]), which is used for neuroscience
>> >> research. We use PostGIS to represent neurons in a 3D space. They
>> >> consist of 3D points that reference their parent nodes or are the
>> >> root [=soma of neuron] if they have no parent). Together with
>> >> synapses, point clouds and TIN meshes for modeling compartments in a
>> >> dataset, they model the spatial aspects of our neuroscience world.
>> >> Users create those neuron reconstructions manually in a collaborative
>> >> fashion plus segmentation programs can be used as additional data
>> >> source. Using its spatial indices, PostGIS helps us to quickly query
>> >> neurons in a particular field of view. The space of a single project
>> >> contains sometimes 100s of millions of interconnected individual
>> >> points. We also do bounding box intersection queries between neurons
>> and compartment meshes, which then refine in the front-end by doing more
>> precise intersection tests.
>> >>
>> >> This software is used by quite a few research labs and as far as I
>> >> know they all do their own hosting with a dedicated server and this is
> what
>> we do as well.
>> >> The reason being mainly that wth larger datasets, we benefit from
>> >> machines with a lot of RAM (>256G), fast SSD/NVMe drives and many
>> >> CPUs as well as fast local data access for e.g. image data.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks so much for making PostGIS work well in non-GIS contexts
>> >> too---it makes my live much easier! Looking forward to the book!
>> >>
>> >> Cheers,
>> >> Tom
>> >>
>> >> [1] https://www.catmaid.org
>> >> [2] https://github.com/catmaid/CATMAID
>> >> [3] https://twitter.com/tomkazimiers/status/1057657843174772737
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 01:05:52PM -0400, Regina Obe wrote:
>> >> >Hey all.  So we've been in talks with our editor about having a 3rd
>> >> >Edition of PostGIS hopefully to be released around the same time as
>> >> >PostGIS
>> >> 3.0.
>> >> >
>> >> >I think they are more or less sold on the idea except they did ask
>> >> >about current market share and usage.
>> >> >
>> >> >Part of the reason for that is our previous editions focused a lot
>> >> >on "How do I use this function or do this weird sounding thing that
>> >> >only GIS people can make sense of"  instead of "How do I do this
>> >> >real world
>> >> thing"
>> >> >
>> >> >So one of the thoughts was having our table of contents be more like
>> >> >"How do I do this with PostGIS" in somewhat laymen terms that most
>> >> >people can relate to - like Political Districting, Real Estate
>> >> >analysis (walk scores, elevation measurements to determine
>> >> >viablility of building on a plot of
>> >> >land)
>> >> > without scaring people off with "real world things" they can't
>> >> >relate to or in overly techy terms.
>> >> >
>> >> >Also since the 2nd Edition (which was in 2015 super ancient now
>> >> >since the New shiny version at the time was 2.1 and 2.1 is not even
>> >> >supported anymore).
>> >> >Other major thing changed is a lot of people are deploying PostGIS
>> >> >on cloud offerings like Amazon RDS, Microsoft Azure, and Google
>> >> >PostgreSQL for Cloud so we plan to cover a bit about some things
>> >> >relevant in those that may not be relevant when deploying on your own
>> server.
>> >> >
>> >> >That said, if people can respond with what things they are currently
>> >> >using PostGIS for and also what hosting they are using for PostGIS,
>> >> >that would be helpful for us to get a better idea of focus points.
>> >> >
>> >> >It'd be great if you posted on the list, but if you are shy or need
>> >> >your usage anonymized, you can write directly to me.
>> >> >
>> >> >Thanks,
>> >> >Regina
>> >> >
>> >> >_______________________________________________
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>> >> >postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org
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>> >
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Regards
>> Simon
>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------
>> Spatial Advice & Solutions Architecture
>> Database Spatial Stored Procedure Designer Oracle Spatial, SQL Server,
>> PostGIS, MySQL, ArcSDE FME Awarded "2011 Oracle Spatial Excellence Award
>> for Education and Research"
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>

-- 
Regards
Simon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spatial Advice & Solutions Architecture
Database Spatial Stored Procedure Designer
Oracle Spatial, SQL Server, PostGIS, MySQL, ArcSDE FME
Awarded "2011 Oracle Spatial Excellence Award for Education and Research"
A: 39 Cliff View Drive, Allens Rivulet, 7150, Tas, Aust
W: www.spdba.com.au
E: simon at spdba.com.au
V: +61 362 396 397
M: +61 418 396 391
GITC Supplier: T1005
Skype: sggreener
Long: 147.20515 (147° 12' 18" E)
Lat: -43.01530 (43° 00' 55" S)
GeoHash: r22em9r98wg
NAC:W80CK 7SWP3