[Qgis-user] Local Government for QGIS

Mon Jun 22 04:10:23 PDT 2015

Hi,

2015-06-19 15:19 GMT+02:00 Carlos Cerdán <sig.upagu at gmail.com>:

> Hi there:
>
> As open source philosophy, personal motivation has a big weight. One
> enthusiastic QGIS user can do difference to motivate other GIS users into
> QGIS adventure.
>
> I'm working in a local government for two years and half. It took me
> almost a year convince other that our geodatabase is public and that we had
> to share shapes also, not PDF only (Sorry... life in tropics).
>
> Next step was QGIS. I developed a pilot QGIS course into the office: two
> hours each day, per one week, doing exercises with our own data.
>
> QGIS has new followers over here. The seed is sown.
>
> Here, the main feature that attracts to QGIS is the language.... so i
> think it'll be great if plugins can be also translated.
>
>
Agree with this, reason why I opened this thread (
http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-developer/2015-May/037762.html) that
unfortunately doesn't seem to attract the crowds. Any comment, idea or help
is still welcome.

Regards,
DelazJ


> Cheers from Peru
>
> Carlos Cerdán
>
>
>
> 2015-06-19 6:30 GMT-05:00 Bernhard Ströbl <bernhard.stroebl at jena.de>:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I think this is a useful discussion as QGIS is (at least IMHO) the most
>> popular OpenSource GIS in the public sector. From the discussion I
>> understand there are two reasons to not use QGIS as the sole GIS in this
>> context:
>> One are missing features (e.g. missing dwg support). As the discussion
>> shows this can easily be overcome by extending QGIS. Someone needs to
>> coordinate and pay, of course, but if there are enough users in need of
>> this particular feature it will be done. The second reason seems less easy
>> to tackle: A local government has many different tasks related to spatial
>> information: parks, sewage, streets, water bodies, playgrounds, cadastral
>> information etc.. Most administrations lack the knowledge to just take QGIS
>> and model the needed data themselves, instead they are willing to pay some
>> money to a company that does it for them (and I assume this is what ESRI
>> offers with "ArcGIS for Local Government"). But most of these companies are
>> tied to a proprietary GIS software. Maybe it is also the other way round:
>> the adminstration already has a proprietary GIS and looks for someone to
>> implement their needs with it because it is (understandibly) unwilling to
>> introduce another GIS for this particular task.
>> IMHO the situation is as it is because for the overwhelming majority of
>> local government tasks there are no data standards. As soon as data
>> standards exist users are more free to choose the software that addresses
>> their needs, e.g. WMS-Servers. IMHO this makes it hard "to extend QGIS to
>> include more "applied" solutions for local government". There are, however,
>> examples: The Swiss QGEP project implementing the Swiss sewage data
>> standard, the German PostNAS project implementing the German cadastral data
>> standard. For non-stanardized data every user/company is free to model the
>> data according to their specific needs therefore QGIS is probably not the
>> right addressee. Instead the national QGIS user groups could try to
>> standardize their data needs thus making it possible to enhance QGIS to
>> support this "standard", which then would lead to an extension of QGIS.
>>
>> just some more thoughts :)
>>
>> Bernhard
>>
>>
>> Am 18.06.2015 um 08:10 schrieb Steve Golden:
>>
>>> I am glad to have sparked some discussion.  Being a FOSS4G application
>>> forum,
>>> I am not entirely surprised by some of the comments, but all are
>>> appreciated. (sorry upfront, this turned into a long post which perhaps
>>> would be better suited on a blog of some sort)
>>>
>>> I am a bit envious of those individuals who work in the public sector
>>> outside of the U.S. because it seems like there is more acceptance and
>>> directive to use FOSS/FOSS4G as primary applications and not just
>>> something
>>> that you "kick the tires" with.  As for the use of FOSS4G applications in
>>> the States, I think that Randal and others summarized it pretty well (at
>>> least perhaps for the mid-sized cities).  I knew of some cities that were
>>> using Intergraph or MapInfo, but now it is ESRI all the way.  You read
>>> about
>>> some larger government organizations using FOSS for GIS web services,
>>> but my
>>> main focus, at least for this post, is small/mid-sized local government.
>>> ESRI seems to have done a very good sales job with their "ArcGIS for
>>> Local
>>> Government" branding.  And like my original post suggested, if you look
>>> at
>>> all of the tools, apps, and maps that ESRI provides for "free" (yes,
>>> this is
>>> part of the sales propaganda) it makes their product look really good for
>>> local governments might see it as a great GIS entry point or for those
>>> older
>>> systems looking to extend into more web mapping or application
>>> development.
>>> And as others pointed out, there is the reality that you have to have
>>> staff
>>> that are knowledgeable in open source and/or willing to figure things
>>> out.
>>> Maybe things will change over time, but the majority of people working in
>>> GIS learned with commercial software and probably haven't had the
>>> opportunity or need to look beyond what they know best and are
>>> comfortable
>>> with.
>>>
>>> Strange as it may seem, I work in local government in the Bay Area, CA
>>> (i.e.
>>> Silicon Valley) and like Randal stated and as far as I can tell, most of
>>> the
>>> local governments look around at one another and if one city has a
>>> working
>>> solution, the others pretty much duplicate with some variations (not
>>> necessary a bad idea as long as you duplicate an intelligent solution).
>>> When I talk GIS to staff at other cities, people generally want to
>>> discuss
>>> the latest tools and functions in ArcGIS.  At times I've tried to
>>> encourage
>>> others to look outside the box, but I generally get a chilling look or
>>> responses as if they don't have a clue that there are other technologies
>>> out
>>> there.  However, I also think there are a lot of mid-manager, non-GIS,
>>> non-technical individuals that are leading cities, control the budgets
>>> and
>>> staffing and don't really know anything except for what the majority of
>>> cities are using and what is advertized to them.  And like another poster
>>> stated, a lot of managers are more comfortable spending a bunch of money
>>> on
>>> a commercial solution that is advertised to work.  Paul Ramsey has some
>>> great  presentations <http://www.cleverelephant.ca/writings.html>   that
>>> speaks more to this which I can't agree more.
>>>
>>> It seems to me and others (based on comments in this thread and across
>>> the
>>> net), that the FOSS4G solutions (QGIS probably leading the way in desktop
>>> GIS) have evolved and are starting to replace commercial providers like
>>> ESRI.  If you follow ESRI products, you've probably seen the changes to
>>> try
>>> to include more "free" functions, tools, and access to certain data
>>> formats
>>> to keep up with the FOSS4G counterparts.  But alas, they are doing more
>>> to
>>> lock in their customers with the ESRI centric data specifications/formats
>>> and online user accounts which is leading to some consternation, well
>>> maybe
>>> a  revolt
>>> <
>>> https://geonet.esri.com/groups/arcgispro/blog/2015/04/24/arcgis-pro-is-this-the-start-of-a-revolt-against-esri#comment-14969
>>> >
>>> .
>>>
>>> While the foundation of my initial post (and even this one) is a little
>>> ESRI
>>> bashing (even though that the organization that I work for primarily
>>> uses it
>>> and is looking to sink further into it), and pondering the more wide
>>> spread
>>> use of FOSS4G, what my real aim was to understand if there was anyone
>>> looking to extend QGIS to include more "applied" solutions for local
>>> government.  I hate to think that replicating exactly what commercial
>>> providers are doing is the right thing to do, but I wonder even though
>>> QGIS
>>> has matured greatly over the past few years, and there are now supported
>>> open stacks of FOSS4G applications like OpenGeo and consulting firms who
>>> are
>>> providing support for QGIS, if there is something missing to make QGIS an
>>> easier entry point for a GIS software solution for local governments?  I
>>> suppose if there are more individuals who are willing to share map
>>> templates, customizations of QGIS, workflow processes, etc and if these
>>> were
>>> aggregated in some manner, then perhaps it would be a start.  I suppose
>>> in
>>> the global use of QGIS, what does local government mean and what does it
>>> do?
>>> Solutions might need to be sub-divided by country or region.
>>>
>>> Well, just some more thoughts...
>>>
>>> Steve
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> View this message in context:
>>> http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/Local-Government-for-QGIS-tp5210489p5211542.html
>>> Sent from the Quantum GIS - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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