tommy's scratchpad

Mateusz posted a link to an interesting topic on osgeo-discuss. I think it’s a great idea to document the history of geospatial and open source, and I echo Dave’s comments on how Wikipedia would be an ideal home for documentation and maintenance. Perhaps the best way to go about this would be for the various […]

Fuzzy Tolerance reports that FSU is offering courses in open source GIS packages such as uDig and QGIS. I think this is awesome, and that there is not enough on SDI and foss4g at the college/university level. Maybe there is confusion on whether this sort of thing belongs in computer science or geography programs (or […]

I go to my share of conferences, seminars and meetings. I think it’s part of keeping abreast of the community, technology, seeing colleagues, and making new contacts. I always say, if there’s one conference that I make my best effort to attend, it’s the FOSS4G conference. Although the name has gone through a few iterations, […]

Nothing too much to report yet, other than everyone’s pretty much homebound. I’m interested to see who will win the Sol Katz award, as well as the closing panel discussion. James Westervelt’s closing plenary presentation on GRASS and views on FOSS was very interesting in discussing the history of the GRASS project, what made it […]

Today’s keynote was interesting in finding out about FOSS4G activities in Asia. Wow, there is and has been quite a bit happening in that region for years. I gave a talk on ResEau this morning, which was well received. Sitting in Raj Singh‘s presentation on OGC‘s Lightweight Standards Initiatives. Great to see their recognition of […]

It’s a good thing overall. Just sitting here at the lightning talks at the plenary session where camptocamp ran us through conference logistics. The conference is well organized and the EPFL/UNIL campus is a great location. Schuyler Erle’s talk about “Neogeography” was interesting, and so true. Everyone is a mapmaker now, with cheap GPS solutions, […]

(Update on luggage: they found it and hand delivered it to my room) Things are hopping here in Lausanne. The conference registration was today (and yesterday for early birds). The ice-breaker was last night at Taco’s Bar, and was partly sponsored by Autodesk (thanks!). It was great to see the people we constantly communicate with […]

Phew! I’ve finally been approved to attend this FOSS4G2006. Thank goodness. It will be fun to see the open source geo gang for a week of catching up, discussions, and setting the path forward. I’ll be presenting use of foss4g in ResEau, co-presenting “How good does open source talk OpenGIS?” with Bart van den Eijnden […]

Check out this nice writeup by Kevin Flanders. I think Kevin points out some of the numerous contributions by Canadians in geospatial open source. I also think it’s fitting seeing that we’re around the corner from Canada Day 🙂 Furthermore, this article represents how partnerships between industry and government can lead to development of Canadian […]

2023 was a memorable year and quite the ride! Eventful and full swing on so many fronts. Here’s the annual rundown: Saliva Drug Test: Understanding the Basics pygeoapi: two releases, lots of development at code sprints and continuous improvement for the project. Dutch API rules, CRS and increased support for the various standards as they […]