The document discusses the pros and cons of proprietary versus free and open-source software (FOSS) in geospatial applications, highlighting the robust support for proprietary software alongside community-driven advantages of FOSS. It emphasizes the importance of understanding data licenses, detailing how they dictate ownership, usage, and distribution rights, particularly for satellite imagery. The DART project is mentioned as an initiative to promote open data accessibility for public benefit and education, reinforcing the need for proper licensing in data use.

1. Software, licences and other usage
issues
Anthony (Ant) Beck
Twitter: AntArch
Potential of satellite images and hyper/multi-spectral
recording in archaeology
Poznan – 31st June 2012
School of Computing
Faculty of Engineering

2. Software - Proprietary
Examples
•Erdas Imagine
•ENVI
•ArcGIS

3. Software - Proprietary
Pros
•Well supported in universities
•Expected by employers
•Tight integration with sensors (ENVI in particular)
•Generic
•Robust?

4. Software - Proprietary
Cons
•Requires dedicated machines (normally a lab)
•Expensive
•Black-box

5. Software - FOSS
Examples
•GRASS – The daddy of them all
•Opticks
•Q-GIS
•U-DIG
•Whitebox
•SAGA
•ILWIS
•MapWindow
•Etc.

6. Software - FOSS
Pros
•Well supported by the community
•Allows development on any machine
• You can develop a portfolio of work that stays with you
• Generally cross platform
•Transparent processing
• White box (VERY important)
•Open processes are more in-line with CLOUD processing
• Workflow orchestration
•Robust
•Extendable by individuals

7. Software - Proprietary
Cons
•Some interface issues
•There is a perception that FOSS is not as good as proprietary
•Bleeding edge 3d does not always compete with the
commercial

8. Software – Open Source Geospatial foundation
OSGeo: http://www.osgeo.org/
• To provide resources for foundation projects -
• To promote freely available geodata
• To promote the use of open source software in the geospatial industry
(not just foundation software) - eg. PR, training, outreach.
• To encourage the implementation of open standards and standards-
based interoperability in foundation projects.
• To provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via
curriculum development, outreach, and support.
• To support use and contribution to foundation projects from the
worldwide community through internationalization of software and
community outreach.
• To operate an annual OSGeo Conference,

10. Software – Open Source Geospatial foundation
OSGeo: http://www.osgeo.org/
• Live DVD: http://live.osgeo.org/
• A pre-configured XUBUNTU O/S with a range of applications installed
and pre-configured (this is excellent  )
• OSGeo4W: https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/
• A pre-compiled binary install of different OSGeo approved packages
for windows.
• Both the above deal with some of the more complex bindings between
applications.

11. The Future – collaborative computing

12. Licences - Why are they an issue?
Data is rarely in the „public domain‟
• It is normally available under a licence.
Licences dictate:
• Who owns the data
• How you can use data
• How you reference the data
• How you can share/redistribute the data (and any derivatives)
LICENCES ARE REALLY IMPORTANT

13. Licences – examples: Commercial high resolution
satellite
Under a strict license that dictates:
• Who can use the data (normally a single organisation)
• Sometimes for how long
• What happens with the derivatives
The license protects their data which protects their income
stream
A user does not „own‟ this data
• They use it under licence

14. Licences – examples: GovernmentResearch satellite
data
The licences vary:
• Military
• Research grade
• Archive
Much of this data is released to the academic community
• Community science (?) initiatives
• The collecting body does not have the resources to analyse the data
• The collecting body captures data on behalf of a broad community
• The data is no longer sensitive or relevant
Examples: Landsat, ASTER, Corona

15. Licences – examples Landsat 8
Australia will publish images captured by soon-to-launch
satellite Landsat 8 online, in close to real time, for free under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.
“We want to make as much data freely available as possible,”
says Jeff Kingwell, the Section Leader of GA‟s National Earth
Observation Group. “We will move towards a system where
we are taking Landsat data in, in near real time.” Data will be
corrected to make it usable, then published, all in as close to
real time as is practical.
How COOL is that 

16. Licences – examples: Data you OWN
It‟s yours! What do you want to do with it?

17. Licences – Take Home Points
Prior to using data find out the licensing constraints
• Licence holders ARE litigious – they have every right to sue you if you
infringe their licence
If you buy data – ensure you licence this for as broad a re-use
base as possible (NEVER licence to an individual)
If you own data – always provide it to others with a CLEAR re-
use licence
• If you want credit include an attribution clause
DO NOT derive maps etc. from Google Earth data – it is illegal

18. Licences – DART (www.dartproject.info)
DART does the following:
• For data under licences:
• Ensures broad access
• Opens data where possible (NERC ARSF)
• Encourages re-use
• For data it owns: gives it away
• Data: Open Data Commons By Attribution licences
(http://opendefinition.org/licenses/odc-by/)
• Everything else: Creative Commons By Attribution licences (CC-By:
http://opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by/)
• Why
• Open Science

19. Open Data: Server (in the near future)
The full project archive will be available from the server
Raw Data
Processed Data
Web Services
Will also include
TDR data
Weather data
Subsurface temperature data
Soil analyses
spectro-radiometry transects
Crop analyses
Excavation data
In-situ photos ETC.

20. Why are we doing this – spreading the love

21. Why are we doing this – it‟s the right thing to do
DART is a publically funded project
Publically funded data should provide benefit to the public

22. Why are we doing this – IMPACT/unlocking potential
More people use the data then there is improved impact
Better financial and intellectual return for the investors

23. Why are we doing this – innovation
Reducing barriers to data and knowledge can improve
innovation

24. Why are we doing this – education
To provide baseline exemplar data for teaching and learning

25. Why are we doing this – building our network
Find new ways to exploit our data
Develop contacts
Write more grant applications

26. School of Computing
Faculty of Engineering