[Qgis-user] Local Government for QGIS

[McDonaldR]

Here in the UK there is a growing momentum in the move towards using FOSS/FOSS4G (QGIS / Geoserver / MapServer / PostgreSQL / PostGIS / OpenLayers / Leaflet / etc / etc) in local government (and central government too).  This is being driven by a number of factors - open formats/standards vs proprietary lock-in, flexibility vs more static processes, robustness/reliability/speed of development vs more static release schedules.  Cost plays a small part.

There is also a (small) pool of companies starting to offer support services for desktop and web GIS, open source databases, and consultancy specialising in FOSS4G.  Some of these companies also offer enterprise solutions (intranet and internet mapping, database backend, web services, back-office integration) based on a full FOSS4G stack.

As for paying for all this - the subscription model is gaining in popularity as more and more is being offered in the cloud as a remotely hosted and managed service.

If you want some examples of solutions and offerings being made here have a look at:
* https://astuntechnology.com/
* http://www.thinkwhere.com
* http://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk/
* https://www.esdm.co.uk/
* https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/search?lot=saas&showSubcategories=true (search "GIS" or "mapping")

Cheers

Ross

-----Original Message-----
From: qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Steve G
Sent: 11 June 2015 21:29
To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [Qgis-user] Local Government for QGIS

I am not sure this is the correct forum for a start to this discussion, but I've been pondering this for a while and interested what others think.  I work for local government in the U.S. and when people generally talk about GIS there is no doubt an automatic association with the ESRI ArcGIS platform.  And beyond GIS itself, the dominance that ESRI has is even more pronounced given the fact that many cities have implemented other related systems (permitting, computer aided dispatch, etc) that are identified business partners with ESRI.  Furthermore, the "GIS Local Government" track that ESRI developed has evolved to offer an "turnkey" approach for local government self-service to establish a robust geodatabase (Local Government Information Model), maps, apps, web services, etc.  This extends a COTS approach for local governments to establish, develop, and maintain a fairly complete GIS.  In my opinion, pure genius...because for a lot of small cities/governments with limited staff and budget, the turnkey approach is very appealing.  For city bureaucrats thinking about implementing/extending GIS, what they might think as little $$$ and you get all of this?
Awesome...here's my money.

HOWEVER, this approach has its drawbacks.  Long-term license/use costs, vendor lock-in, continuous waiting for someone at the company to fix something....well, the list goes on (just read any blog post supporting open source/FOSS).

So, with the evolution of QGIS as a prevailing replacement/alternative for the other product, is anyone thinking about building more of a turnkey approach (database, maps, apps, web services, etc) geared to local governments?  I like the direction of the OpenGeo platform (and others) trying to provide the whole software stack, but still if a small local government wants to have a full fledged interactive GIS, it might seem like a lot of work to develop and maintain.

I am interested in other thoughts...perhaps this belongs on a blog post somewhere more independent, but perhaps this can be a place to begin.

Steve G.



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