FOSS4G Denver 2011

This year, FOSS4G took place in Denver, Colorado from September 12-16, 2011. With almost 900 registrations, this was the largest FOSS4G conference to date. In addition to workshops and tutorials, 150 high-quality presentations provided information on the development, status, and use of open source software.

Compared to the conferences of previous years, this year featured more presentations with more technically focused content. In addition to new projects, which mainly reported on new WebMapping framework developments such as “MapQuery”, “JQuery Geo” or “GeoMap”, the status of the already “tried and tested” projects was of course also presented.

Interaction of projects

In addition, another trend is emerging: As the projects mature, there is a strong desire to have different projects interact in so-called “stacks” in order to cover a wide range of requirements.

Perhaps the most prominent example of this is the OpenGeo Suite, which consists largely of the components PostGIS, GeoServer, GeoWebCache, OpenLayers and GeoExt. The argument often put forward by proprietary manufacturers that no one is seriously behind open source projects is exemplarily disproved here: The OpenGeo Suite is available both as a community and as a commercial enterprise edition with support, training and bug fix guarantee. As an exclusive partner of OpenGeo for Germany and Austria, you can obtain information about the OpenGeo Suite from terrestris or directly from OpenGeo.

But also in other projects the effort of the cooperation beyond project borders can be seen. The Mapserver Stack is particularly worth mentioning here. The plan is to bring projects such as TinyOWS, MapCache and MapServer together under one roof. With the same configuration, MapServer is thus extended by the WFS-T interface (TinyOWS) and Tile-Caching interface (MapCache). First steps towards realization have already been taken, with a first version expected in early 2012.

QGIS Server

The QGIS Server is certainly a new star in the WMS server sky. Pirmin Kalberer from our partner company SourcePole presented the new functions and the new QGIS extension “QGIS-Cloud”, which allows a simple publishing of geodata by means of QGIS Server over a CLoud server. Furthermore, the seamless cooperation between the meanwhile widely recognized and functionally excellently equipped Desktop-GIS QGIS as configuration interface and QGIS-Server is worth mentioning. A project created in QGIS, including a print layout created interactively via the QGIS Print Composer, can be published 1:1 as an “extended” WMS by simply setting it in the QGIS server. Extended because the Print Composer can also be controlled via an HTTP interface (“GetPrint”). The creation of print templates by means of programming or the editing of configuration files is thus eliminated. QGIS Server thus offers a stable map server with a strong focus on ease of use.

OpenSource goes Mobile

A major focus of the OpenSource community this year was also on the development of mobile clients. In addition to the development of desktop GIS such as gvSIG-Mobile, which function on mobile devices, the focus is in particular on the development of WebGIS clients that can run in mobile browsers. The implementation of touch functionalities in OpenLayers on the occasion of a code sprint in Lausanne in February laid the foundation for further developments. To be mentioned here are developments by camptocamp for the University of Lausanne as well as the client of the Swiss Confederation developed by terrestris and based on GeoExt technology. The source code for this will be included in one of the next GeoExt releases.

PostGIS 2.0

The latest version PostGIS 2.0 is eagerly awaited. Leo Shu and Regina Obe reported in advance at FOSS4G about significant innovations in PostGIS 2.0. The focus of the new version is essentially on 3 points:

1. Increased user-friendliness: In the future, PostGIS will be installed in a database via a simple function call. The well-known metadata table “geometry_columns” becomes a view that is automatically created on the database side. Errors due to forgotten or incorrect entries are thus excluded in the future.
2. PostGIS becomes 3D-capable: New data types and a wealth of new functions have been created for this purpose. The biggest problem at the moment is the clients that can process these data types.
3. However, PostGIS 2.0 probably makes the biggest leap in raster processing. Simple import/export tools, functions for converting vector to raster and vice versa, as well as functions for map algebra and changing the resolution for, for example, aerial photographs are definitely very promising. Further development will show whether large raster data sets are actually stored more effectively in a database. In any case, the management of the data will be significantly simplified.

WMS Shootout

A highlight of the conference was once again the WMS shootout, in which 6 projects took part this year. The aim is to test the performance of different WMS servers under the same conditions. In any case, the winners are all projects as well as the community, as findings in performance gains definitely benefit all projects, because all code improvements must definitely be incorporated into the next releases. It has also been shown that, despite the “competition”, the individual teams have worked closely together by passing on ideas and configuration SLDs. As in the last year, Mapnik and Mapserver are to be mentioned as “winners” in the shootout. In addition to the WMS shootout, a “WPS shootout” also took place for the first time this year, but its presentation was very American and so, from the observer’s point of view, the actual focus was somewhat overshadowed.

Outlook

According to Till Adams, the “maturity” of many projects, which has already been observed in recent years, is being reinforced by the trend of projects working together. It can be stated that OpenSource software has also caught up strongly in the desktop area through projects such as QGIS, gvSIG and OSSIM and can also offer real alternatives here. The increasing presence of companies from the proprietary world at FOSS4G also shows the increasing perception and appreciation of OpenSource. In addition, the merging of the OpenStreetMap community with the FOSS4G community can be observed. The international OpenStreetMap conference “SotM” (State of the Map) also took place in Denver immediately before FOSS4G. Some presentations by activists from one community at the other conference underline this trend.

We very much hope that all trends will be confirmed at the next FOSS4G, which will take place in Beijing.