new jersey geographer » open source

Presentation on OS GIS at MAC URISA

John Reiser — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:02:48 +0000

Yesterday, I gave an introduction to open source GIS at MAC URISA. As the meeting was about Internet-enabled GIS, I focused on server-side software. I’ve made the presentation available on SlideShare and available as a download from my website.

Here’s a listing of the programs and standards I reference in the presentation:

Here’s the sites I referenced as examples using open source GIS:

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: open source, Presentation, Web Mapping

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Wired on Open-Source Planning

John Reiser — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:20:23 +0000

Atanas sent me a link to this article on Wired about the Open Planning Project. I think the Open Planning Project is a great group and GeoServer is a cool application, however I think Wired missed the point. They quote Thomas Wright, the head of RPA: “99 percent of planning in the United States is volunteer citizens on Tuesday nights in a high school gym.” This simply is not the case, and it is unfortunate.

Planning should be a stakeholder-driven process. Charrettes and workshops should be conducted for every local “big issue” and Vision Statements and Plans should be formulated for every town. Be it an incorporated municipality or a locality within a township – every “place” should have a vision. In New Jersey, we’re not at that point yet and we need to make a considerable, coordinated effort to see visioning performed in towns with some regularity.

I think the need for “Open-Source Planning” is real. It is attainable with the technology we now have. The Internet helps democratize the planning process by allowing for greater access to information. The Internet is another avenue for gathering public opinion and performing outreach. Unprecedented public involvement is now possible through the Internet. Despite the gains we’ve made through technology, we cannot rely on software alone to make the planning process more open. We need people (and governing bodies and bureacracies) to embrace openness. Only then will we have “open-source planning.”

I realize Wired is going to focus primarily on the technology, however there are considerable efforts being made now in the planning & GIS circles to make these planning efforts more open. These efforts are people-driven, not software-driven. You can put up as many interactive maps as you like, if there aren’t concerned citizens in a town, no one’s going to see them.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Community Visioning, Geoserver, GIS, open source, Planning

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LibLAS 1.0 Beta Released

John Reiser — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:47:22 +0000

LibLAS, an open-source (BSD) licensed software library for reading and writing ASPRS‘s LAS format.

From their website:

libLAS provides excellent coverage of the ASPRS LAS 1.0 and 1.1 specifications, and it provides support for copying variable length records from one file to another. As of 1.0.0-beta-1, support for creating your own variable length records is limited to the C and C++ APIs. libLAS concentrates on reading and writing point data for processing pipelines from C++, C, and Python.

The beta version of 1.0 supports creating any of the vector formats supported by OGR. This makes it all the easier for open source users to handle LiDAR data.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: elevation, lidar, open source

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