Can a crowdsourced geospatial database be considered authoritative? Indeed can any dataset that describes the real world be considered authoritative, whether crowd sourced or “professionally compiled”? Who determines authority? What constitutes authority in geodata? Does authority matter and if it does, why? What actions or processes might contribute to promoting crowdsourced geodata to a position of authority?
I want to consider the nature of authority in geospatial data and whether it might be possible for a crowdsourced dataset such as OpenStreetMap (although these observations could apply to any crowdsourced geodata) to become authoritative or a primary reference source.
2010 was a big year for the Open Data community, some Ordnance Survey data was made freely available, data.gov.uk launched with a raft of data from across government, government published an open data license and then a new government took over who seem to be equally committed to Open Data. So far we have seen Local Government brought into the Open Data initiative (albeit with a bit of a struggle) and most recently aggregated crime data has been published on police.uk.
- So is everything rosy in the Open Data garden or are there dark clouds looming on the horizon?
- In a geo-context it seems that if we can pin a pair of coordinates to something someone will put it on a map, perhaps we need to pause before we map?
- Is Open Data the same as openness and transparency in a government context?
- What kind of accountability will access to Open Data deliver?
How Ebooks, File Types, and DRM Affect your LibraryBrian Hulsey
As more library patrons are obtaining eReaders, many libraries have questions about why some of the devices work with our services and some don't, and why the books won't work on the different devices. The eReader market is confusing and this session will explain the differences of format, device, and their overall importance to your library and how they affect all facets of service.
With the current advancements in ebook services and the deluge of ebook reading devices into the market, the choices are endless. This session looks at the current state of ebook technology: devices available, vendors, incorporating ebooks into your collection, and considerations when circulating ebook readers. It helps you understand the options and implications for dealing with ebooks in your environment.
This talk is a celebration of the letter F as regards to software formation. From his first feats in forming friction free software, Josh has been fanatically fighting the furious fight for first class software. This talk is a free flowing fantastic flurry of fulmination about being fearful of failure, focusing on the fixed, forcing feedback and much more… So consider yourself forewarned.
This talk was first delivered in Edinburgh at #WhiskyWeb
Can a crowdsourced geospatial database be considered authoritative? Indeed can any dataset that describes the real world be considered authoritative, whether crowd sourced or “professionally compiled”? Who determines authority? What constitutes authority in geodata? Does authority matter and if it does, why? What actions or processes might contribute to promoting crowdsourced geodata to a position of authority?
I want to consider the nature of authority in geospatial data and whether it might be possible for a crowdsourced dataset such as OpenStreetMap (although these observations could apply to any crowdsourced geodata) to become authoritative or a primary reference source.
2010 was a big year for the Open Data community, some Ordnance Survey data was made freely available, data.gov.uk launched with a raft of data from across government, government published an open data license and then a new government took over who seem to be equally committed to Open Data. So far we have seen Local Government brought into the Open Data initiative (albeit with a bit of a struggle) and most recently aggregated crime data has been published on police.uk.
- So is everything rosy in the Open Data garden or are there dark clouds looming on the horizon?
- In a geo-context it seems that if we can pin a pair of coordinates to something someone will put it on a map, perhaps we need to pause before we map?
- Is Open Data the same as openness and transparency in a government context?
- What kind of accountability will access to Open Data deliver?
How Ebooks, File Types, and DRM Affect your LibraryBrian Hulsey
As more library patrons are obtaining eReaders, many libraries have questions about why some of the devices work with our services and some don't, and why the books won't work on the different devices. The eReader market is confusing and this session will explain the differences of format, device, and their overall importance to your library and how they affect all facets of service.
With the current advancements in ebook services and the deluge of ebook reading devices into the market, the choices are endless. This session looks at the current state of ebook technology: devices available, vendors, incorporating ebooks into your collection, and considerations when circulating ebook readers. It helps you understand the options and implications for dealing with ebooks in your environment.
This talk is a celebration of the letter F as regards to software formation. From his first feats in forming friction free software, Josh has been fanatically fighting the furious fight for first class software. This talk is a free flowing fantastic flurry of fulmination about being fearful of failure, focusing on the fixed, forcing feedback and much more… So consider yourself forewarned.
This talk was first delivered in Edinburgh at #WhiskyWeb
Creating an Instructional Podcast. Slides from our talk given at the GALILEO/GOLD library conference in Athens, GA, August 1 2008.
Audio available at: http://jasonpuckett.net/2008/08/04/instructional-podcasting-presentation/
Redesigning Public Services: The 21st Century Library User ExperienceDavid King
People don’t want just goods or services from a business anymore - they want a unique, remarkable experience built around those goods or services. It’s the same for your library. Your patrons are looking for more than a book - they can find that at Walmart, or even in their pocket. They want a unique, useful user experience built around “your stuff.”
User experiences are a strange brew of structure, community, and customers. Today’s savvy librarians need to focus on the full digital and physical experiences patrons have when they make a library visit - so they can quickly find information, make decisions, or participate - creating positive experiences that visitors not only remember but want to share with others. David Lee King explains the customer experience design concept, introduces a range of tools and strategies, and shares experience design best practices.
Pushing, pulling or leaving the door openDale Lane
A talk about mobile apps that rely on data from the Internet, and some of the decisions and choices facing mobile app developers in writing them
SlideShare kinda screws with the speaker's notes, so if you'd like the notes it's probably best to download the presentation file.
Overview of the talk is written up at http://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=1009
A short presentation about the process that Yokohama International School went through to develop our Connected Learning Community (1:1 program) for the Learning 2.014 Africa conference.
Choosing Social Media that Fit Your Worshiping CommunityTech Steward
presented by DJ Chuang at "Worshiping in the Matrix: technology in communication, culture, and the church" conference on November 5, 2011 @ Multnomah Portland
My slides for the talk I was giving for the leadership seminar that I ended up not being able to attend. The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5kVk0wLfL0&feature=youtu.be
Why, When and How? Considering ePortfoliosHazel Owen
This presentation (audio coming soon) aims to provide a:
# clear idea of the types and possible uses of ePortfolios for students and staff in lifelong, lifewide learning
# increased awareness of some key ePortfolios platforms / tools and associated issues
# ideas around alternative assessment
# some strategies for starting your own ePortfolios / scaffolding students to develop their own ePortfololio
The presentation will be useful for the following groups:
Tutors and group leaders who are interested in assisting students to build up a portfolio of assignment and work
IT support/coordinators who might like to learn more about linking to student-driven portfolio systems
Careers advisers who would like to learn more about how students can share details with prospective employers and learning institutions
- Student support who would like to learn how students can share information with their tutors.
Links to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAVvAjCkKE
Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYVRT54CWVE
Creating an Instructional Podcast. Slides from our talk given at the GALILEO/GOLD library conference in Athens, GA, August 1 2008.
Audio available at: http://jasonpuckett.net/2008/08/04/instructional-podcasting-presentation/
Redesigning Public Services: The 21st Century Library User ExperienceDavid King
People don’t want just goods or services from a business anymore - they want a unique, remarkable experience built around those goods or services. It’s the same for your library. Your patrons are looking for more than a book - they can find that at Walmart, or even in their pocket. They want a unique, useful user experience built around “your stuff.”
User experiences are a strange brew of structure, community, and customers. Today’s savvy librarians need to focus on the full digital and physical experiences patrons have when they make a library visit - so they can quickly find information, make decisions, or participate - creating positive experiences that visitors not only remember but want to share with others. David Lee King explains the customer experience design concept, introduces a range of tools and strategies, and shares experience design best practices.
Pushing, pulling or leaving the door openDale Lane
A talk about mobile apps that rely on data from the Internet, and some of the decisions and choices facing mobile app developers in writing them
SlideShare kinda screws with the speaker's notes, so if you'd like the notes it's probably best to download the presentation file.
Overview of the talk is written up at http://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=1009
A short presentation about the process that Yokohama International School went through to develop our Connected Learning Community (1:1 program) for the Learning 2.014 Africa conference.
Choosing Social Media that Fit Your Worshiping CommunityTech Steward
presented by DJ Chuang at "Worshiping in the Matrix: technology in communication, culture, and the church" conference on November 5, 2011 @ Multnomah Portland
My slides for the talk I was giving for the leadership seminar that I ended up not being able to attend. The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5kVk0wLfL0&feature=youtu.be
Why, When and How? Considering ePortfoliosHazel Owen
This presentation (audio coming soon) aims to provide a:
# clear idea of the types and possible uses of ePortfolios for students and staff in lifelong, lifewide learning
# increased awareness of some key ePortfolios platforms / tools and associated issues
# ideas around alternative assessment
# some strategies for starting your own ePortfolios / scaffolding students to develop their own ePortfololio
The presentation will be useful for the following groups:
Tutors and group leaders who are interested in assisting students to build up a portfolio of assignment and work
IT support/coordinators who might like to learn more about linking to student-driven portfolio systems
Careers advisers who would like to learn more about how students can share details with prospective employers and learning institutions
- Student support who would like to learn how students can share information with their tutors.
Links to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAVvAjCkKE
Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYVRT54CWVE
Presentation at Oklahoma's 4-H Roundup. Topics covered include the Cooperative Alliances, the reasons to transition to higher education and degree completion.
A presentation for the CoETaIL course 3: http://www.coetail.asia/page/Course+3
A combination of 2 previous presentations (Designing Compelling Presentations & Making a Lasting Impression) used for the Flat Classroom Workshop at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong, September 2009.
The gap between physical and digital has blurred: we use Wiis to get in shape, computers to order a pizza, or our smartphone’s GPS to find hot dates. People want to interact with products and services when they want to and how they want to – and that’s not always on the web.
The future of design is everywhere the customer touches our product or service - digital or physical. User experience practitioners must move beyond the screen to designing a holistic customer experience that is seamless across channels and devices.
Here we talk about designing across, and for, multiple touchscreen platforms (Nokia, iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone 7) using Ribot’s recent suite of Tesco apps as a case study.
How do different form factors, operating systems, and interaction paradigms inform the design of real I-want-to-use-it-every-day apps?
How do you take the constraints (and opportunities) of differing mobile devices and design interfaces that, for the user, feel like they belong on the device and as part of their life?
(Download the presentation for full transcript)
This presentations contains 5 trends for mobile at meetings as well as a framework for how to consider mobile as a strategic advantage within associations and organizations.
Short presentation to Arup on how consumer mobile applications might influence the design and uptake of mobile workflows within the enterprise.
The secret sauce is context (location, direction, time and schedule)
Short presentation on quality assurance and improvement of OpenStreetMap for @Geomob London on 24-11-2012
Can a quality assured product increase user confidence within the "professional" community and encourage increased contribution to fill in the gaps.
UK Government is consulting on Principles of Open Data, opportunities and challenges as well as charging and licensing for Public Data Corporation.
A brief summary of the key topics to facilitate discussion
A lecture that I gave on 17th March 2010 at the University of Nottingham on the History of Web Mapping.
Starts with some early history and then tracks the interplay of technology, business and usage in the development of web mapping over the last 2 decades.
Based on a series of interviews with key players in the UK and US, this is a work in progress. There is still quite a lot more needed to complete this.
Some useful resources are linked to in the penultimate slide. The mind map that I used to build this talk is at http://bit.ly/HistoryWebMap
Cocktails on the Titanic - AGI GeoCommunity '10Steven Feldman
Presentation at GeoCommunity in Stratford on Avon 29/09/2010
Mindmap with some notes is at http://www.mindmeister.com/61496552/cocktails-on-the-titanic
Just because you can put something on a map ...Steven Feldman
Presentation at W3G conference in Stratford on Avon 28/09/2010
The notes to this deck are at http://www.mindmeister.com/61955413/just-because-you-can-put-something-on-a-map
A short presentation to the Society for Location Analysis in London, 15/7/2010
The mindmap which contains the key points and storyline for the presentation (which you can edit) is at http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/56029374/the-cloud-the-crowd-the-iphone
A presentation and intro to a panel session on day 1 of State of the Map in Girona. Leads into an elevator pitch from 5 startups (winner was GeoFabrik)
Just pretty pictures really, you had to be there to get the drift of the session
Presentation at Exor Knowledge Days, 2010
Realising the benefits of mobile working in highways maintenance requires process changes more than technology. This presentation explores some of the challenges and opportunities.
More on Exor at http://www.exorcorp.com
Without a business model we are all FCUK'dSteven Feldman
A few things you might want to ask yourself before you pack in the day job to build your startup.
* Who are my customers?
* What are they buying from me?
* How much will they pay? How much will it cost me to supply them and how many might buy?
* Why will they buy from me and not someone else?
If you can't answer WWHW in 1 minute perhaps you should re-evaluate your business model.
Is Volunteered Geographic Information sustainable?
What is a sustainable map?
Why do people contribute to open projects and in particular OpenStreetMap?
How can OSM build and sustain its community?
Location Based Social Networks - Killer App or Blind Alley?Steven Feldman
Luke Razzell and I ran this as a guided discussion at the British Computer Society on 5th March 2009. Then I tried to run through it in 6 minutes at Mashup* Events Being Location Aware on 19th March 2009
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
19. 17th – 21st September
www.foss4g.org
Open is the freedom to …
Editor's Notes
Weaving a personal journey into my view of the development of the Open Source Geo business models and their changing competitive position vis a vis proprietary software
Many of you here will be academics or technical people, I am neither (although I am an Ext Lecturer at Nottingham Uni) my perspectives are those of a business person and perhaps of an activist and idealist.
Back to 1968
Economics student at Kings
In the late 60’s I wanted to change the world
Somehow I ended up working for Pilkington making mirrors and then got into GI and finished up selling a GI business to Mapinfo and then running their UK business
It’s that experience that I want to reflect on in talking about open source
My heroes were Radical and Disruptive or at least I thought so
Click
See how many you can recognise, prizes later
20 years Building materials – learnt manufacturing economics and business models= to make more cost more materials and labour
Environmental Technology Click
GDC = re-learnt software economics = once you’ve made it it costs nothing to ship more of it, for a while I thought this was the gift that kept on giving butthen I learnt that you have to keep remaking it
MD MapInfo UK Click
OSM Contributor, Open Source Advocate, Geohippy
Enough about me for the moment, let’s look at how I got to where I find myself today
3 perspectives that I want to explore with you that may have influenced the growth of Open Source Geospatial and Open Source in general. I want to share some of the business thinking around OSS particularly from outside of the community and what helped to change my views.
Apologies if some of this sounds like standard evangelism for OSGeo but hopefully along the way I will be able to illustrate how the positioning of OSS business models has changed and I will reflect on how some of the counter arguments that my staff at MapInfo for example would have used a few years ago no longer stand up to scrutiny.
3 perspectives
What influences customer choice
Ethics
Business response
Quite general stuff – applies to most software bought by businesses
I want to go through this check list and give a view of how OSGeo stacks up against the proprietary alternatives.
Proprietary not commercial because I believe that OSS must be seen as a commercial business model – it just isn’t the same business model as proprietary licensing models
Check list = Functionality, Robustness & Support, Feature enhancement, Scalability and of course cost
Functionality = 1st consideration of a potential customer
You need enough and a little bit more – most software vendors with mature products have reached feature bloat stage, they are moving from 80/20 to 90/10
If I put on my ex software vendor’s hat there is little that our software could do that customers needed that cannot be achieved using OSS. This is particularly true of the web and the database where prebuilt glitzy interfaces are not needed. In the past OSS was not noted for it’s elegant or intuitive interface designs but recent releases of QGIS are challenging that perception on the desktop where interface is perhaps most important.
In the areas of support for OGC standards which are growing in importance particularly as we step up implementation of INSPIRE in Europe OSGeo probably exceeds the compliance and interoperability of much proprietary software
IMO as software product specs mature there is less radical or dramatic innovation in features and the space starts to attract development focussed on better implementations rather than on new features. Enter OSS
For the vast majority of applications OSGeo ticks the box on functionality
Remember that in most geospatial implementations the software is not used raw out of the box it is part of a solution and the bigger question for a buyer is whether the solutions provider has understood and can deliver their requirements not the functionality of the underlying components which will be selected by the solution provider
Does it keep working?
So the software does what you need it to do, but will it keep on doing it? And if it doesn’t will there be someone there to fix it or support you?
Everyone will say that there software is robust and just keeps running and it probably does, there is little basis to suggest that proprietary software is more reliable and robust than OSS, if we consider operating systems or web servers the majority of the internet runs on OSS and appears to be pretty robust.
But inevitably stuff does goes wrong – it may not be the software per se it may be the environment or integration issues that are causing a problem, or it could be that you want to make some changes to a system and aren’t quite sure how. In those cases you will need support and even possibly a bug fix. This is often cited as the weakness of OSS whereas actually it is at the heart of the OSS business model OSS businesses make their livings from providing services and support, there is every reason to expect that if you have chosen carefully you will get as good or better support from an OSS vendor.
Now bugs are another matter. Have you ever reported a bug to your proprietary vendor? Typically there are 2 responses
“We don’t recognise that as a bug, it’s a feature that works differently to your expectation”” or “no one else has reported that” or “we can’t you replicate that” – these are all variants of the stall for time technique
“We already have that logged as a known issue and it is scheduled for fixing in the next release due (fill in some date about a year away)” or “Yes that does appear to be a bug, I will log it with our development team and hopefully we can get a fix included in the next release”
I apologise for stereotyping and to be fair to the support staff they are usually battling with the dev team to get any idea of when fixes will be released. One of the strengths of the OS community is that there are often more people committing code to a project than are tasked with maintaining the proprietary equivalent. So when a user or their support provider reaches out to the community for a work round or a fix there are potentially more people to pitch in and help.
Of course as a last resort, if no one steps up to help fix your problem, because the source code is open you could even hire someone to fix a problem and then contribute the fix back to the project for the benefit of other users.
And that is also often how a user gets to prioritise a new feature that they need for a project or application, they can sponsor its development for the benefit of all users
Collaboration seems to work
There are 2 aspects to scalability - technical and commercial
Enterprise sales forces will focus on technical scalability - How do you deal with more usage? – users, hits, processing, larger data sets etc.
I want to let the less technical of you into a secret, the smarter bit of software code will make a modest difference to performance, however most of it is down to increasing processing power, more CPU’s means mean more users, more outputs or faster queries. Of course it needs some smart stuff to ensure that lots of servers are all doing the right bits at the right time but largely people have worked out how to coordinate all of this – think mid tier or grid. No doubt some deep techs will want to dispute some of this with me.
So if scaling comes down to servers and racks or VM’s in the cloud there isn’t a problem? Even though there is no marginal cost for the software code you need to deploy across a larger infrastructure the licensing model means you will have to pay. Mike Saunt and I coined the phrase the “Software Tax” to describe this model - that’s the price you pay for software licenses as your application grows in usage or success.
As one user said to me “the thing about the internet is that it makes demand and planning so unpredictable, that’s why we need to use open source software”
So let’s talk pricing for a moment and this free stuff
There’s
CLICK
Costs nothing but there’s no such thing as a free lunch or free software, there’s always a catch
And there’s
CLICK
Free as in speech or in the open source context
CLICK
Use how you want, adapt, deploy, scale without constraint
I wish we could get rid of the Free bit in CLICK FOSS4G Click
OSS is not free (well at least not for the enterprise) – it’s a different model
Proprietary = License fee (big upfront) + implementation services + maintenance for new features which you may or may not want + support
OSS = Zero license fee + implementation services + perhaps a cost to fund new features which you do want + support
No software tax for scaling
The advantage that OSS brings is that it creates a level playing field for service providers to compete on quality and price of the service package
Why is this important? Large buyers of geo solutions (particularly Public Sector) find themselves locked into a very small number of solutions, some have recognised this and are keen to see a competitive alternative
I said that as a young man I was an idealist and you may think that ethics have little to do with the running of a software business but I would contend that they do, particularly in the geospace where a large portion of our income comes from the public purse and where many of us who “get” digital geography or whatever we call it are such strong advocates of the power of GI or geography to make a difference to some of the environmental and social challenges the world is facing.
So this is a little rant from me:
Public sector funded software development that is paid for again and again
Canadians showed how to do it differently
More recently the UK and French govts have funded extensions to OSGeo products as components of an OS INSPIRE solution that will benefit all users
Pay once use many times rather than write once and sell many times
World bank and other NGO funded projects that push over-specified proprietary software solutions to the developing world rather than seeking to encourage the use of appropriate levels of functionality based on OSS
Cadastral systems in developing world
Emergency response systems
Acknowledge that some vendors are donating software but question their motivation
If Proudhon had still been alive today I wonder what he would have had to say about intellectual property CLICK
Principal players in geospatial market = vendors and SI’s
Software companies move into services
SI’s adopting OSS
Everyone wants to get an Open badge
They are even going Open Source CLICK
We’ve been talking about the vision of spatial going mainstream.
Well it is now – the Big boys joining in
Watch out for the IBM’s and SAP’s who are already big supporters of Eclipse and look like joining the spatial crowd and embedding those capabilities within their enterprise platforms
Think - IBM, Oracle, Autodesk, Nokia, Google, SAP, Airbus, BMW, Bosch, Continental, Thales, Hitachi, Siemens, RIM, all of whom are allegedly looking at incorporating spatial.
Heroes dead or middle aged but still want to be disruptive and to make a difference
Advocate for OpenStreetMap and OSS
Initiated OSM-GB project here at Nottingham
Chairman mentor to Taarifa
Working with Astun the open source geo people in the uk
Chairing FOSS4G2013 – more on that in a minute
Heroes dead or middle aged but I still want to be disruptive and to make a difference
Advocate for OpenStreetMap and OSS
Initiated OSM-GB project here at Nottingham
Chairman mentor to Taarifa
Working with Astun the open source geo people in the uk
Chairing FOSS4G2013 – more on that in a minute
That’s quite a journey from running a subsidiary of a US software business 5 years ago!
In the words of the song Lately it occurs to me what a long strange trip it’s been”
CLICK
I suppose I am the archetypal Gamekeeper turned Poacher
But open source is only one of the opens of geo CLICK
Yup we won the competition to host FOSS4G in the Robin Hood City, the Lace capital of the Britain, right here in Nottingham
These are the 4 opens of geo that I was going to talk about before everyone else covered most of my topics
Why do I think this stuff is so important?
Well like Sir TBL tweeted at the Olympic opening ceremony – this is for everyone
If we believe that geography is a powerful tool for insight and action then it needs to be widely available
The 4 or maybe 5 Open’s of Geo make geography, analysis and action available to everyone
Open Source gives us the freedom to process and manipulate spatial data at whatever scale we need without paying a license tax
Open Standards give us the freedom to find and connect to distributed data sources scattered around the world
OpenStreetMap gives us the freedom of a royalty free global map that we can add to, reuse and reprocess
OS OpenData gives us authoritative street data, boundaries and postcodes
OpenData gives us the freedom to see what government are doing and potentially hold them to account
And if you want a lot more Open then you should plan to come to CLICK FOSS4G next year in Nottingham running back to back with GeoCommunity
And if you can’t wait till then then come and talk to me and the guys at Astun who do lots of nice open things