10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) & OpenSDI Jeroen Ticheler

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Content  What is Software?  What is Free and Open Source Software?  Benefits and constraints of FOSS  OpenSDI  Conclusions

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy What is Software?  Instructions that make hardware work  Programmers write scripts that can be understood by people and by compilers: the source code  Compiled software can not be fixed or adapted to user needs

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy What is Software?  A key property is that it can be infinitely copied without any loss

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Open Source versus Closed Source Software  Most prominent example

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Open Source versus Closed Source Software  Source code is often the most secret property  Open Source software provides access to the source code of an application

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Think of Source Code as LEGO ® Pieces LEGO ® Metaphor as used in “Towards a Free and Open Source Spatial Data Infrastructure.” C. Holmes et. al

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy You Can Build New Constructions

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy These Might Be Simple Constructions

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Or More Complex Ones

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Much depends on the users

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy You can use a solid basis

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy And repaint it, changing the look and feel

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy An Example  OpenOffice* was translated into Swahili in four months in Tanzania.  The project leader said: º "we clearly show that with free and open source software we can do in four months what proprietary software has never done for the Swahili speakers." * A FOSS alternative to Microsoft Office

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Or You Could Go Much Further

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy UNEP’s custom interface on GeoNetwork OpenSource (under development)

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Making Sure The Software Works For Its Users

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Possible Constraints of Open Source  Lack of technical support? º The first support comes from the community º Successful projects usually have companies or developers in their community offering commercial technical  User Oriented Documentation  No Marketing Budget

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Benefits of Open Source Software  Free to use and distribute  Free to choose (no vendor lock-in)

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Benefits of Open Source Software  Software can be developed or changed by everybody  Software is protected by a copyright, often referred to as copyleft, ensuring its freedom

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Benefits of Open Source Software  Ever-increasing Return on Investment º Most improvements come back to the whole community  User feedback º Features that a user may not know º Bug reports

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy An Example

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Benefits of Open Source Software  Strong tendency towards compliancy to international standards

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Building Capacity in Countries  Money otherwise spend on license fees can go exclusively towards developing skills and local capacity

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Some GeoFOSS  235 different projects listed on freegis.net  MapServer - internet map server º Standards:OGC WMS, WCS, WFS  GeoServer - internet feature server º Standards: OGC WFS, WFS-T, WMS  GeoTools - Java toolkit º Standards: OGC WMS  GeoNetwork - metadata and catalog tools º Standards: ISO19115, OGC Catalog  uDig - client toolkit

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Web Mapping Application © OGC 2004

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Internet Map Application

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy uDig Desktop Internet GIS © OGC 2004

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy uDig Desktop Internet GIS Screenshot of uDig © Refractions

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Handheld Map Application © OGC 2004

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Handheld Map Application Image: GRASS on iPAQ/Linux (Photo: Jan Stankovic/MN, ITC-irst)

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Metadata Catalog & Search © OGC 2004

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Metadata Catalog & Search

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Web Map Servers (the Databases) © OGC 2004

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Web Map Servers

10 May 2005UNSDI Workshop - FAO-HQ - Italy Conclusions Enormous potential for developing countries º No need for software piracy º Develop its own software and servicing industry º Currency stays in the country º Freedom to choose º Freedom to distribute