Partnerships between Industry and Communities through Open Source OSGIS 2004 & MUM2 David McIlhagga, President DM Solutions Group

Open Source – The Ingredient for Partnership  Communities are guaranteed to be free of barriers for propagation of technology to associated groups  Industry is ensured growth and success through the development of quality technology  Result – Partnership based on trust and shared end goals  Restrictive LICENSING is the barrier to mutual success

Open Source for Communities of all Types and Sizes  Government  Academia  Industry  Non-Government Organizations

Government Community - Enabling a Distributed Infrastructure for the National Forest Information System (NFIS)  Requirement for assisting provinces and territories in Canada to publish data to OGC specifications  Cost of paying for software licenses of existing software supporting OGC and deploying to all provinces -- prohibitive  The cost-effective solution - fund implementation of Web Map Service support in MapServer and deploy with no license restriction  The added bonus - somebody else later funded support for other specifications that NFIS then reaped the benefits from.

Government Community - Publishing point data to OGC specifications within Environment Canada  Problem - Vast majority of spatial data in Environment Canada is NOT in spatial formats. It is held in standard databases or flat files.  Data Providers have a requirement to publish to OGC specifications, but do not want to convert to a spatial format. The capabilities and cost of commercial products are overkill for this requirement.  Solution - Enhance MapServer to support direct read of point data in non-spatial data formats and deploy throughout the organization.  Bonus - Additional support for the Time variable in MapServer currently being funded by another community will in the future be required by Environment Canada.

University Community - Incorporating Open Source into Carleton University’s GIS Curriculum  Problem - Within universities, there is a lack of curriculum for Internet Mapping available and dominance of teaching based on single vendor solutions.  Problem - Students enter the workforce without the skills or more importantly, knowledge that open source exists or is an option.  Solution - DM Solutions and Carleton University develop a short intro to Internet Mapping based on MapServer and Chameleon and make it available as ‘open source’ curriculum.

Industry as Vehicle to Community - MapsOnline - an affordable solution for small communities  Problem - PeopleGIS recognized that commercial licensing of industry software is prohibitive for small communities to afford publishing data within web mapping applications  Solution - PeopleGIS and DM Solutions partner to develop an affordable solution for numerous small communities in New England.

NGO Community – Centre for Sustainable Watersheds requires technology for a Watersheds InfoXchange  Problem - Technology solution is required to better support community collection of sensitive watershed information  Problem - Community groups do not have the funds to purchase commercial solutions to achieve this.  Solution - DM Solutions and CSW jointly solicited funding to support the development of WIX with the full solution to be made freely available.  The Future Result - Affordable solution for similar communities across Canada and around the world and potential for rapid growth in adoption of open source technologies.

NGO Community - Trailpaq – Partnership in Action

NGO Community - Developing a map- based Health Planning tool for CIET Group  Problem - Spatial health planning tool required by community groups to make better policy decisions in health planning around the world.  Problem - Most of the people who need this, don’t have the money for software licensing.  Solution - DM Solutions and CIET partner to develop CIETmap based on OpenEV for free distribution around the world.

Oceanographic Community - Bridging the gap between Land and Water  Problem - GIS has not traditionally met the needs of the oceanographic community  Problem - Software licensing fees for GIS are prohibitive for any single individual group in the community  Solution - Through community funding from the Office of Naval Research and SURA SCOOP Program, MapServer is enhanced to support key components required by the community for the benefit of all community stakeholders.

What do all of these examples have in common?  Licensing fees can be a significant barrier to finding creative partnering solutions between all forms of communities and industry.  Value can be measured in many forms other then license costs.  Collective Value for community identifies the opportunity for collaboration between industry and communities and focuses them as partners on finding a mutually beneficial solution.

Thank you! Contact Information: Dave McIlhagga Phone: x15