In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Modelling our world in 3D gets more and more important within the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. There are several people in the community trying to push forward this development. A major problem is that OSM was not really designed for complex 3D modelling. The node/way/relation + tags based data model does not allow for complicated 3D modelling. Therefore, the community agreed to make use of external repositories containing more complex data which can be linked to OSM.

OpenBuildingModels is such a repository for complex architectural 3D building models. It is free-to-use and aims to improve crowdsourced 3D city models. Anyone can up- or download the models. They can be referenced in OSM and appear on the OSM-3D globe. A first beta version of the web platform is now online and models can be uploaded.

More info:
http://openbuildingmodels.uni-hd.de
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenBuildingModels
http://www.osm-3d.org

We mentioned several times the beautiful maps from Stamen Design, and you can now use them directly in QGIS.

From the entry: "Stamen’s maps are amongst the most creative and beautiful OpenStreetMap visualizations and it would be great to have them as base maps in QGIS. No problem! Nathaniel Kelso has already done all the work for us [...] It adds the possibility to load Stamen’s Watercolor, Toner and Terrain tiles into the QGIS project"

I'm on holiday, but I saw this discussion over Slashdot named Great Open Source Map Tools For Web Developers.

Their summary: "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner surveys the rich ecosystem of free maps, free data, and free libraries that give developers excellent alternatives to Google Maps. 'The options are expanding quickly as companies are building their own databases for holding geographical data, their own rendering tools for building maps, and their own software for embedding the maps in websites. ... Working with these tools can be a bit more complex than working with a big provider like Google. Some of these companies make JavaScript tools for displaying the maps, and others just deliver the raw tiles that the browsers use to assemble the maps. Working with the code means making decisions about how you want to assemble the pieces — now within your control. You can stick with one simple library or combine someone else's library with tiles you produce yourself.'"

Like APB pointed out, the linked article got a few things wrong, like "OSGeo is a collection of open source packages for creating maps and displaying them in browsers."

While we mentioned it in a PR, it's via Perrygeo that I learned more about the open source Madrona software framework for effective place-based decision making.

What it is? "Madrona offers a flexible set of software building blocks and design patterns that allow you to create cutting-edge tools for decision support and spatial planning at any scale, along with step-by-step tutorials, an open community to assist you along the way, and a full range of support services to help ensure a successful outcome."

Its building blocks: "Madrona is built on libraries such as Django, PostGIS, JQuery, OpenLayers and Google Earth, which provide all of the essential building blocks for developing modern spatial web applications. [...] Madrona builds on these core building blocks to create new ones that are designed specifically for planning and decision support. Mix and match them to meet your specific needs."

A critical need among map users is usually due to annotations and redlining. People want to take notes and share maps easily. This is more and more a need in a social network driven timeframe.

Notemap.it has been developed aiming at this. It is a small webGIS designed to draw lines and polygons on the map, with customized style. It also let the user to add markers, notes, icons and more. Once the maps has been saved a sharable personal URL is given back to the user. Notemap is built upon OpenStreetMap, OpenLayers and Dojo.

Notemap.it: http://www.notemap.it
A brief explanation of the concept can be found at: http://www.notemap.it/free-redlining/

Just announced, the popular open source library OpenLayers version 2.12 has been released.

From the announcement: "OpenLayers 2.12 offers great new features and improvements in various areas:

• A new CSS-customizable zoom control
• Sensible projection defaults to ease the creation and configuration of maps
• Tile caching for offline use
• CSS-based tile animation
• UTFGrid support
• Improved image request management (tile queue)
• Fractional zooming for tiled layers (a.k.a. client zoom)"

A lot of geoblogs mentioned the release of Quantum GiS 1.8.0. QGIS is one of the most mature and widely used open source desktop GIS software, with tons of useful community-contributed plugins. Version 1.8.0 is clearly a major update of this already excellent GIS software.

The list of new features is quite long, here's a few of them:

• QGIS Browser: a stand alone app and a new panel in QGIS. The browser lets you easily navigate your file system and connection based (PostGIS, WFS etc.) datasets, preview them and drag and drop items into the canvas.
• DB Manager: the DB manager is now officially part of QGIS core. You can drag layers from the QGIS Browser into DB Manager and it will import your layer into your spatial database.
• New symbol layer types: Line Pattern Fill, Point Pattern Fill.
• Terrain Analysis Plugin: a new core plugin was added for doing terrain analysis - and it can make really good looking colored relief maps.
• Ellipse renderer: a new symbol layer type to render ellipse shapes (and also rectangles, triangles, crosses) by specifying width and height.
• Support for nesting projects within other projects: embed content from other project files.
• Layer grouping: Option to add layers to selected or active group.
• Customization: Allows setting up simplified QGIS interface by hiding various components of main window and widgets in dialogs.
• Action Tool: accessible from the map tools toolbar. It allows you to click on a vector feature and execute an action.
• Pan To Selected tool: Pans the map to selected feature(s); does not change the zoom level.
• Updated CRS selector dialog
• Legend-independent drawing order: The order seen in the legend can be different from the display order.
• Other features include: MSSQL Spatial Support, Expression based labelling, Heatmap tool, WFS support in QGIS Server, and much more

Head to the release notes (link above) to learn more and see screenshots.

Via the OSGeo Discuss list I learned about OpenPerception.org, an independent non-profit foundation, focused on advancing the development and adoption of open source software for 2D and 3D processing of sensory data. Currently the main output of the foundation is the open source Point Cloud Library.

On the Point Cloud Library: "The Point Cloud Library (PCL) is a standalone, large scale, open project for 3D point cloud processing. The PCL framework contains numerous state-of-the art algorithms including filtering, feature estimation, surface reconstruction, registration, model fitting and segmentation, as well as higher level tools for performing mapping and object recognition."

On Open Perception itself: "We are an independent organization created with the purpose of supporting the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for 2D/3D processing of sensory data, with applications in research, education, and product development."

It's been over two years since we mentioned the open source GeoMOOSE project, which just announced the release of version 2.6.

From the Why GeoMOOSE page: "GeoMOOSE excels at creating a useful web-based GIS environment for those who need something that works from the first download. The GeoMOOSE demo contains a fully operating web-based parcel application. It can render, investigate, and even edit layers without the need to write a single line of code. [...]

Beyond rendering, gaining information on a dataset is an important every day use of a Web GIS. GeoMOOSE includes all of the basic tools for traditional selection, identification, and searching on a dataset. However, GeoMOOSE’s functionality is not limited by those services. To power that functionality we have developed a power service-based architecture that users can use to create their own custom scripts in any language.

As of the 2.6 version, GeoMOOSE includes new powerful vector capabilities. While not seen in the default demo, GeoMOOSE can work with a WFS-T server to create, edit, and delete features in a dataset. The styling is defined in the GeoMOOSE mapbook and the layers can even be printed to a PDF!"

Here's the recent open source-related geonews in batch mode.

In software updates:

• GeoServer 2.1.4 had been released
• And so was GeoTools 2.7.5 released

• Geopaparazzi 3 has been released too, more here
• And as an indirect user of it, I'm happy that GEOS 3.3.4 was released too
• The OpenGeo Suite 2.5 was released, with updated Linux packages

In other news:

• If you missed it, see this informative comment from the DB4GeO developers, including comparing it to PostGIS 2.0 3D capabilities
• Regarding QGIS, here's fixing invalid geometries with Quantum GIS, another entry named SLD Support and other QGIS 1.8 Style Features
• For GeoServer, Accurate datum shift and full transformation control in GeoServer
• Here,s a summary of the FOSS4G-CEE Conference in Prague

• Here's an entry named GeoWebCache Tweaks Checklist

• And we haven't mentioned OpenStreetMap yet, improving the OpenStreetMap Profile Page for more Social Interaction