[Qgis-user] Local Government for QGIS

Mon Jun 15 15:29:53 PDT 2015

I work for a small public entity that helps all local governments with their road networks.  I am the one-man GIS/Database/Website/assorted-technical-needs department for our agency and deal with many local government GIS personnel as well as several state GIS entities.  Let me summarize what I've seen:

Our own (small public agency) GIS
Started with only basic ArcGIS desktop license, skipped upgrading to a (needed) ArcEditor license due to cost.  Went all open source for database and web services.  QGIS is used to manipulate all the PostGIS data as ArcGIS cannot reliably connect, but we use both.

Local government GIS
Many don't have any GIS personnel and probably would not know to consider open source.  Others are on commercial options, ESRI the easy leader.

State agency GIS
These are overwhelmingly ESRI shops.  The state negotiated an enterprise ArcGIS Online deal.  As a result, many less technical and non-GIS employees in various state departments are using ESRI products.

Some Observations/Opinions
- Many I deal with are not aware of open source GIS options.
- If you want a full "turnkey GIS solution", commercial (esp. ESRI) seems the only consistent option, though open source GIS is making strides.
- ArcGIS Online is becoming more attractive as it gets more capable and billing more simplified.
- Open source can handle most small to medium needs very well out of the box.
- Large integrated open source GIS stacks are harder to sell for "free" because of the effort, expertise, or time required (real or perceived) to tap into it. Capital expenses seem more easily justified than an employee.
- Good documentation is always needed.
- Commercial support is nice, but small shops may be flexible enough to go without, especially if they routinely search online for answers.
- Someone who likes to "figure it out" and "make it work" is necessary for an open source stack.
- In the end, most small governments are looking for a product that "just works" with minimal fuss, even for more money.  Some individual open source products have arrived at this stage, but not all pieces or integrations have.
- Commercial is the default mindset for GIS around here: "Where do we buy GIS software?" instead of "What GIS options are out there?"
- Configuring wins over customizing.

Matthew

________________________________
From: qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] on behalf of Chris Buckmaster [chris.buckmaster at runnymede.gov.uk]
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 3:51 AM
To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] Local Government for QGIS

Hi All

Interesting discussion – I am responsible for GIS at a small local authority in the UK; we are an ESRI site but I have seen just how far FOSS4G has come in the last couple of years and have now had a proposal accepted to look at migrating our ESRI infrastructure over to PostGIS / QGIS / OpenLayers over the next year. I’ve been impressed at how efficient FOSS is, and particularly for us where we don’t deal with advanced analytics etc, for the tools we need FOSS can provide these just as well, if not better in some cases than proprietary offerings.

Does anyone know of any local gov authorities that have gone completely FOSS? i.e. built their own web app(s) and are using open source desktop and database software?

Chris

From: qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Andreas Neumann
Sent: 15 June 2015 10:39
To: Micha Silver; qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] Local Government for QGIS

Hi Micha,

Thanks again for your response. I will discuss this with the devs and will probably come up with a proposal, asking for some organizations to join the funding.

Andreas
On 15.06.2015 10:28, Micha Silver wrote:
Hi Andreas:

Thanks for your response.
I'm quite sure that for most regional councils here, DXF would not be enough. The surveyors and planners that we work with all use Autodesk products. All their work is delivered in dwg, and some do not even know that there is such a thing as DXF.

I have not been following the Open Design Alliance lately, but including that library QGIS would certainly be a quantum leap forward. After Radim's success in crowd funding the implementation of GRASS 7, your suggestion indeed sounds feasible.

Regards,
Micha

On 6/15/2015 10:28 AM, Andreas Neumann wrote:
Hi Micha,

That is interesting - we invested a lot in the DXF export capabilities of QGIS. Once this is finished I am pretty sure we will also look to improve the situation regarding the import.

Do you think import of DXF is enough or do we also need DWG support? If so, the best bet would probably be the Teigha library from the Open Design Alliance (https://www.opendesign.com/the_oda_platform/Teigha), which isn't available for free - but it is the library most other GIS (eg. ESRI, Intergraph) and CAD (eg. Bentley, Bricscad, etc.) are using. We would have to pay a membership fee, but it allows us to redistribute the library with the software. Membership in the consortium is affordable in my opinion.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you also be available to help with a crowd-funding effort? Do you see options besides Teigha?

Andreas
On 15.06.2015 08:57, Micha Silver wrote:

On 06/15/2015 09:23 AM, Bernhard Ströbl wrote:
Hi Joseph,

could you elaborate why "it would be unrealistic to say we
could ever be a 100% QGIS"? I am curious because I lost contact with ESRI products a couple years ago.

>From our point of view, we need support for dwg. That side of vendor lock-in is, unfortunately, even stronger that the ties to ESRI. So we stay with Arc* not because of the GIS capabilites, but more or less only because of the ability to read Autocad plans and surveys.

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