[Qgis-user] Re: [Qgis-developer] Selecting an Enterprise GIS Solution - QGIS is Selected!

[Alex Mandel]

On 01/08/2011 05:10 AM, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> Il giorno sab, 08/01/2011 alle 11.36 +0100, xavi ha scritto: 
>> I think that maybe it's  off-topic, but please, I want to know your
>> opinion on this question :)
> 
> Thanks for your interest.
> I do not think it is OT. I reiterate what I wrote on qgis-dev (sorry for
> crossposting):
> ===
> I was referring to the statement:
> "The use of Quantum GIS is not intended to replace DSE's investment in
> ArcGIS for more sophisticated analysis, mapping and data management
> activities"
> I am sure the *investment* in QGIS is far more effective, functions for
> money, that any other. When organizations stop (or reduce) their
> investment in proprietary GIS solutions, and channel the same resources
> into QGIS, the advantages are evident.
> What is wrong is to compare investment in one solution with no
> investment in the other.
> ===
> More generally, I think the many institutions around the world that are
> more or less formally evaluating QGIS would do much better doing it in
> the open, collaborative fashion that we use for all QGIS activities. A
> closer contact with the QGIS developer and user community would bring
> advantages to all.
> All the best.

I completely agree with your sentiments but realize there are ongoing
constraints. In this case, which sounds similar to many gov agencies
I've worked with their is a well established core GIS group with many
years experience on ArcGIS, but what the org is looking for is a way to
roll basic GIS viewing/exploring or custom data entry apps to the rest
of their users. Moving their existing GIS specialists off of ArcGIS
would be traumatic and require significant "retraining" time which is
why they probably can't jump all at once. That and they may have
specific custom workflows built in Arc already.

Our hope can be that if many users in an org start using QGIS, the GIS
specialists will also get a taste and may move more towards FOSS for
many of their projects when it fits. I've seen an anecdotal trend
amongst people I work with moving parts of their work to QGIS because
they need Postgis functionality for massive geoqueries that were
crashing Arc.

So I see it as a win even if just a small one.

Thanks,
Alex