tommy's scratchpad

Since I did this last year, I thought I’d try this again for 2008. Here’s the lowdown for my 2008:

• Geospatial Catalogues: the saga continues.  I have dug deeper into this area this year as part of my day-job, and find that interoperability is difficult to achieve in the OGC Catalogue space.  Clearly there is a balance between abstraction/flexibility and ease of integration.  And the two step approach to discovering, say, OGC WMS layers (invoke GetRecords, then chain to GetRecordById) is cumbersome, IMHO.  At the end of the day, the most common use cases (that I have seen) are publishing data and services, and being able to query for them (data, service endpoints, service resources [layers/feature types/coverages]) with spatial, temporal or aspatial predicates.  And have the content come back in some usable format for display or binding.  Seems easy, eh?
• Publications: glad to see “Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling” was finally published.  Alot of the well known folks in the foss4g community contributed to this.  At the same time, the release took so long (like many publishing processes) that some items ended up dated.  Overall, I think the book gives a good viewpoint into foss4g at this time, and makes me think about how far we’ve come.  It’s good for the community to be published in this format / manner
• JavaScript frameworks: they are everywhere.  Late this year I started delving back into the application space, and find these challenging, compared to the days of doing things by hand anyway.   2009 should shake off alot of rust I think
• MapServer:  We just launched a new website.  Beers for hobu!  Also, lots of OGC CITE fixes and improvements, and next generation of OGC standards, adding updateSequence to OWS support
• Python fun again: it’s been fun contributing to owslib for SOS, OWS and Filter support.  OWS Common presents a huge opportunity to abstract codebase when it comes to next generation OGC standards.  As well, I’ve been using Python for day-to-day scripts.  Not bad!
• kralidis.ca turns 10: from humble beginnings, alot less done by hand now, and easier to manage (thanks WordPress!).

Other stuff:

• Basement renovation: this took up most of my time this past year.  Frustrating, expensive (I should have been a plumber or electrician!), but gratifying.  Took a bit longer than expected, and still not 100% finished, but the major work is done.  I think this needed to happen for the property overall, even if it means I have more space than I could possibly need :).  N.B. if you ever want to lose weight, do a home reno;  I shed 20lbs!

• New job: I started a new job in the fall, which promises to be very exciting and satisfying, especially given the state of the geospatial web.  The new gig will give me more opportunity for discovery and SensorWeb information management spaces.  So I’m grateful for the opportunity.  I’ve also been having fun 1/2 time with the GeoConnections program again, so it’s fun to work with some previous colleagues and getting acquianted with new faces who are helping to shape and evolve our national infrastructure.  So thanks again to those for helping me along a tough road and getting me here; I owe you big time 🙂

For 2009:

• Work:  January 11 will mark 10 years of civil service for yours truly
• Data dissemination: this is my key function in my day job for the months to come.  I look forward to evolving what started off as a very high level strategy into an architecture all the way to implementation.  This will be fun!
• Standing up usable catalogues: you’ll see a few OGC Cat2.0 instances this year.
• MapServer: more CITE fixes for SOS and O&M.  One thing I’d really like to see for 2009 is official compliance for OGC standards in MapServer
• T.O. Code Sprint in March: this event is going to be fun.  What could be better than foss4g and beers, all in the centre of the universe 🙂
• Renovations: I think that is it, for this place, for now.  Almost three years and it’s time for a rest in this space
• Property: I think it will be a good time to buy in 2009.  The question (for me) is where.  Locally, or down south?

All the best for 2009 for you and your loved ones!