In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

New York, NY, May 15, 2013 — OpenGeo, the creators of the OpenGeo Suite, the world’s leading open source geospatial software platform, announced a $3 million Series A investment from Vanedge Capital of Vancouver, British Columbia. Simultaneous with the funding event, the company has spun out from its incubator parent, OpenPlans, and is boosting OpenGeo’s product and customer-support initiatives.

"We are thrilled to be working with Vanedge.” said Eddie Pickle, OpenGeo CEO. “The Vanedge team understands the huge opportunity in the geospatial software space. Their investment is very timely given the tremendous demand for open source, Spatial IT solutions among government and commercial enterprises worldwide."

The OpenGeo Suite is widely used for managing and sharing spatial data. OpenGeo has led the industry shift toward flexible, interoperable geospatial software infrastructures and will use this Series A funding to further enhance its industry-leading product and training offerings and reach a broader array of customers.

Moe Kermani, partner at Vanedge Capital, noted, "OpenGeo has developed an impressive customer roster who are using its product offerings in mission-critical software applications. The paradigm shift toward web and mobile geospatial services is well underway and is permanently altering the Spatial IT landscape. We believe this shift heavily favors open source and the OpenGeo Suite, which is ideally situated to become the de facto geospatial platform."

The Vanedge-led investment enables OpenGeo to complete its separation from tech incubator OpenPlans, which founded OpenGeo in 2002. "We are proud that our incubation with OpenPlans has been so successful," noted Chris Holmes, OpenGeo’s founder. "We look forward to growing our contributions to open source communities as a dedicated open source geospatial software company."

About Vanedge Capital

Vanedge Capital is a Vancouver, B.C. based venture capital fund focused on investments in interactive entertainment and digital media businesses. The fund managers have extensive experience and relationships in this sector and have built and led world-class companies in video games, computer animation and enterprise software, among others. For more information, visit www.vanedgecapital.com.

About OpenGeo

OpenGeo is the world leader for commercial open source geospatial software. Our global customer base uses the OpenGeo Suite, a complete open source geospatial web services stack, to deploy solutions for web mapping, transportation, telecommunications, open government and a huge range of other solutions. The OpenGeo Suite provides the best, continually updated geo web services platform along with maintenance agreements that include support and training. These agreements provide our customers with superior value and the growing functionality of continually enhanced open source geospatial software.

OpenGeo supports open source communities by employing key developers of PostGIS, GeoServer, and OpenLayers. We are committed to the ideals of open source and aim to bring the best practices of open source software to organizations around the world.

Media Contact

David Dubovsky
OpenGeo
+1 917-388-9077
[email protected]

Chris Holmes shares a pretty insightful and informative letter in an entry named 'Opening Esri'. Esri's closer relationship with open source started with providing code on GitHub last September and even up to last February's official entry named going open source with Esri.

From the Chris Holmes entry: "So I wanted to give to Esri a measurable roadmap of actions to take that would signal to me a real commitment to ‘open’. [...] Each piece of Esri technology ideally could be used stand alone with other pieces. Stated another way, there should be no lock-in of anything that users create – even their cartography rules. [...] it is a business risk, since it opens up more potential competition. But it’s also a big business opportunity if done right. And reaches beyond mere business to being a real force for good in the world, becoming a truly loved company, with lots of friends."

MapBox announced their open source iOS virtual globe named MapBox Earth.

From the announcement: "We just launched MapBox Earth, a free and open source iOS app that combines the power of a 3D globe with MapBox’s beautiful maps. It’s also a great starting point to build your own 3D mapping app - we’re cracking the 3D globe software market wide open by releasing the source code and building in the open. MapBox Earth is a universal app optimized for iPhone and iPad and it includes beautiful preloaded layers based off of MapBox Streets, MapBox Terrain, and MapBox Satellite. You can switch the map layer with a single tap and feel the maps right in your hands, in gorgeous and fast 3D."

We did mention some other open source virtual globes in the past months / years, such as Glob3 Mobile, the Godzi WebGL Globe, OpenWebGlobe, WebGL Earth, and there's even the Google open source 'WebGL Globe'.

Two days ago the new open source iD editor we mentioned a few times has been officially launched, here's the official announcement OpenStreetMap launches all-new easy map editor and announces funding appeal.

From the announcement: "The new editor, codenamed ‘iD’, boasts an intuitive interface and clear walk-throughs that make editing much easier for new mappers. By lowering the barrier to contributions, we believe that more people can contribute their local knowledge to the map – the crucial factor that sets OSM apart from closed-source commercial maps. [...] The new iD editor is a pure HTML5 experience, using the cutting-edge D3 visualisation library. Behind the clear design and intuitive interface is a sophisticated back-end that automatically recommends the most popular ‘tagging’ conventions used by the OSM community."

Numerous sources discussed the new iD editor, you'll find more technical details on iD on the MapBox blog, MapBox built iD, including multiple links to media coverage. Slashdot also discussed two stories, OpenStreetMap Launches a New Easy To Use HTML5 Editor and OpenStreetMap Adds Easier Reporting of Map Problems.

I was abroad last week. I'll catch up the recent geonews in the coming days.

The open source library at the core of most open source geospatial software and numerous commercial geospatial software just got better, version 1.10.0 of GDAL/OGR has been released a week ago. The previous major version 1.9.0 was released about 16 months ago.

From the release notes: "

• New GDAL drivers:
  • ARG: read/write support for ARG datasets (#4591)
  • CTable2: read/write support for CTable2 datum grid shift format
  • DDS: write-only support for DirectDraw Surface format (#5017)
  • IRIS: read support for products generated by the IRIS weather radar software (#4854)
  • MAP: read OziExplorer .map files (#3380)
  • MBTiles: read-only support for MBTiles rasters (needs libsqlite3)
• New OGR drivers:
  • ElasticSearch: write-only support to write into ElasticSearch databases (needs libcurl)
  • ODS : read/write support for OpenOffice .ods (Open Document Spreadsheets) (needs libexpat)
  • OSM : read-only support for .osm / .pbf OpenStreetMap files
  • PDF: read/write support for vector/structured PDF files
  • XLSX: read/write support for MS Excel 2007 and later Open Office XML .xlsx spreadsheets (needs libexpat)
• RFC 39: OGR Layer algebra methods : http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/rfc39_ogr_layer_algebra
• Add a SQL SQLite dialect :  http://gdal.org/ogr/ogr_sql_sqlite.html
• Make GDAL loadable as a SQLite3 extension (named VirtualOGR) (#4782)
• /vsicurl_streaming/: new virtual file system handler designed to read in streaming mode dynamically generated files
• GDAL API_PROXY mechanism to run GDAL drivers in a separate process:  http://gdal.org/gdal_api_proxy.html
• Significantly improved drivers : PDF, SQLite, JP2OpenJPEG
• Add a geocoding client :  http://gdal.org/ogr/ogr__geocoding_8h.html
• Upgrade to EPSG 8.0 database"

Don't wait, sign up, now

Hosted by the Portland Open Source GIS Users Group, this "unconference" will follow a 2-day traditional GIS conference, GIS In Action, which includes an open source track on Wednesday May 1st. GIA has a single day rate for those who only want to attend Wednesday.

This Thursday event will take place at PSU Smith Memorial Student Union. In rooms 298, 329, and 323.

This is a participant-driven event! If you've never been to an unconference before, the format and sessions are determined on the day of the event by the people attending. No idea is too big or too small. Everyone gathers in the morning and decides how to organize it. If you want to present, you throw your idea up on the board, sessions get arranged and rearranged and rooms assigned by the crowd and it just sort of all happens. You have to experience it to understand how well this can work.
 

Schedule

9am - Registration

9:30 - Put sessions in rooms based on votes

10:00 - Sessions start

12:00 - Lunch on your own

5:00 - Adjorn for Geo-beers.

About PDX-OSGIS

PDX-OSGIS is a chapter of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO). All are welcome- our group ranges from the geo-curious to the überhackers. We now meet on the 3th Wednesday of every month from 6:00-7:30 PM at various locations.

Check out our Google group here: http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-osgeo

The OSGeo Board is pleased to announce that it has approved the application by the pycsw project to enter the incubation process. Incubation is a stepping stone to becoming a full fledged OSGeo project.

pycsw is an OGC CSW server implementation written in Python.

pycsw fully implements the OpenGIS Catalogue Service Implementation Specification [Catalogue Service for the Web]. Initial development started in 2010 (more formally announced in 2011). The project is certified OGC Compliant, and is an OGC Reference Implementation.

pycsw allows for the publishing and discovery of geospatial metadata. Existing repositories of geospatial metadata can also be exposed via OGC:CSW 2.0.2, providing a standards-based metadata and catalogue component of spatial data infrastructures.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the open source front:

• Both Leaflet and MapBox are current hot topics, today you get both in the same announcement: Announcing MapBox.js 1.0 with Leaflet
• With open data, there's no limit to new services... here's OpenSnowMap.org, leveraging OpenStreetMap and MODIS snow cover data (via OGD)
• GeoTools 9.1 has been released
• And GeoServer 2.3.1 too
• Here's the open source OSCAR-js javascript map API, which "extends OpenLayers and uses popular UI libraries (jQuery UI and YUI)"
• The FOSS4G CEE 2013 conference completed their Keynote Speakers lineup

On the Google front:

• The GEB informs us that Google Earth 7.1 has been released, with enhancements mostly for the Google Earth Pro 7.1 version
• Google is Celebrating the 50th country on Street View, with Hungary and Lesotho being the latest additions, with expansions in Poland and Romania
• For those interested, The Boston Marathon Manhunt in Google Earth
• If you prefer Ice Hockey, here's The world of Hockey in Google Earth
• Canadian Public Alerts are now included in Google Now, Google Search and Google Maps

In the everything-else category:

• Here's the U.S. New Strategy for Earth Observations, directly from the White House: "The new Strategy outlines a process for evaluating and prioritizing Earth-observation investments according to their value to society in critical areas such as agriculture, global change, disasters, water resources, and weather."
• The Spatial Law blog offers a summary on Privacy of geolocation: the new European and American law
• Indications that Facebook and Google Would Like Apple to Feature Them More Prominently on iOS
• An interesting entry on crisis cartography
• Discussed over Slashdot, Should California Have Banned Checking Smartphone Maps While Driving?
• Also discussed by the same site, Why Local Is So Damn Hard For Startups: Foursquare Borrows $41M To Try Again
• On standards, interesting read the consequences of the GeoJSON 1.0 axis order policy (via James)
• Also on standards, in this OGC blog entry, you'll learn about the efforts related OGC OpenPOIs Registry: "A database of points of interest information containing names and point locations for millions of businesses and civic places across the globe"
• The GEB tells us about the new Geo3D Market website, a place to buy and sell 3D models
• APB informs us that Microsoft Updates Maps App in Windows 8
• From the same source, a definition of geoblocking: "Geoblocking is the system used to limit your access to the internet, based on your geographic location."

In the maps category:

• APB links to a Greenpeace Map of the Arctic, nicely wrapped I must admit
• In Vietnam, you may get a 2,400$ fine for National Map violations
• A New chart shows the entire topography of the Antarctic seafloor in detail for the first time
• Via APB, an article named Can quality of life be mapped?

Open Jump 1.6.1 released on 12 April 2013!!!

Great lightweight PostGIS geom viewer. Now can write back to PostGIS too!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jump-pilot/files/OpenJUMP/1.6.1/

Version 1.6.0 New Features

• adding support for GeoTIFF with transformation matrix georeferencing courtesy of Nicolas Ribot
• add arrange view horizontally and vertically to the view menu
• add a PostGIS writer including 5 options to create a PostGIS table, to insert rows or to update an existing table.
• add a "selection" parameter option to RunDataStoreQueryPlugIn
• add Dynamic Attributes based on beanshell snippets + persistence in openjump project files.
• add Tools > Generate > Create Point Layer from Attribute Table
• add Tools > Edit Attributes > Join Table... to attach attributes from an one layer to another layer based on a unique ID field
• add 6 plugins derived from Noder plugin available in LayerView context menu
• add Merge selected features in place in LayerView context menu (FR 3506380)
• add Offset curve plugin
• add View > Map decoration > NorthArrow plugin
• add densifier function in Tools > Analysis > Geometry functions (FR 3516240)
• add Tools > Edit Attributes > Add 3D Geometry Attributes plugin
• add Tools > Edit Attributes > Add Geometry Attributes plugin

[....]

Jump, jump everybody jump.

The gvSIG Association announces the publishing of the gvSIG 2.0 final version [1]. The main novelty of this version is its new architecture. The way gvSIG manage the data sources has been redesigned with the objective of improving the reliability as well as the modularity, benefiting the users as well as the developers. Besides it permits an easier maintenance and evolution of the technology. Therefore it has been an investment in the future with the aim of not limiting the technological evolution and establish the bases for a quick evolution.

However this new gvSIG Desktop version includes a series of new features:

• New installer that supports typical and custom installation.
• Add-ons manager that allows to install new extensions and customize gvSIG from the same application.
• Some changes in the interface of data management tools like:
  • File import/export
  • Table operations
  • New layer
• Layer load improved
• WMTS (Web Map Tiled Service) support
• Raster data cache
• Unified geoprocessing interface
• Import symbols, making the creation of symbols libraries easy.
• Export symbols, that allows to share complete symbols libraries with other users easily.
• Scripting framework (languages: Jython, Groovy and Javascript).

Nevertheless it's the last version of gvSIG, it has to be taken into account that it's really a new gvSIG, so you will find that some of the gvSIG 1.12 functionalities are not included. These functionalities will be included in following and continuous updates according to their migration to the new architecture. The main functionalities that are not included are the following:

• Georeferencing
• Legend by proportional symbols, graduated ones, dot density, quantities by categories and by expressions.
• Extensions: Network analysis and 3D

In the same way, there are several projects based on this new architecture that will allow to include new functionalities and improvements directly in gvSIG 2.0 in the next months.

Also it has to be taken into account that the level of stability of this new version is not as high as we would have wished, considering it a final version in order to be used by the community in an official way, and mainly to tackle the new developments on it.

For that, we encourage you to test it and send us any errors in order to fix them in the following updates. The known errors of this version can be consulted in [2].

From this version, several mirrors are now available to download the packages from gvSIG. These mirrors will be available within a few days.  

We hope you enjoy the new features of this version and you help us to improve it.

[1] http://www.gvsig.org/web/projects/gvsig-desktop/official/gvsig-2.0/downloads
[2] http://gvsig.org/r?r=bugs200