[Qgis-user] Open Source Routing in QGIS

[Anita Graser]

Hi,

Thanks again for the initiative Paolo

On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 12:26 AM, Bernd Vogelgesang
<bernd.vogelgesang at gmx.de> wrote:
> 1. Crowd funding is great!
+1 I'm very happy that we are giving it a try now.

> 2. There should be a poll/survey on wanted/needed features
I think that would introduce unnecessary bureaucracy. If users don't
want/need a feature, they won't fund it. If users really want a
feature badly, they can just express themselves on the mailing list.

> 3. Digest those ideas
> 4. Make raw budgets
+1 I think it should be announced how much donations are necessary for
a feature. This can be very helpful to motivate users to "donate those
last x EUR to get it rolling".

> 5. Ask for donations
> 6. Find developers
I'm not sure if that's the order to go. In my opinion it would make
more sense to first find a developer since otherwise it's impossible
to get budget estimations. What if the feature is offered for x EUR
but no developer wants to do it for that amount?

Introducing new systems is always a challenge. I think this routing
service is a good first try because it's not too huge. So far we only
have a C++ plugin which requires the user to have a local copy of the
road network and another plugin which requires access to a pgRouting
installation and road network data. Getting routes from a well
maintained server will be much more user friendly. I would appreciate
if there was an additional way to specify start and end points
(besides manually clicking the map canvas) such as loading a CSV with
start and end points but I guess such can be added later on too.

Thanks again!

Anita