(by Marc Jansen)
Exactly one week ago, the 9th FOSSGIS conference, which took place this year at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, came to an end. For our team at terrestris, FOSSGIS is a cherished tradition, as we consider it the most important conference in the German-speaking area on our core topics – Free Open Source Software and Free Data in the geospatial sector.
This year’s FOSSGIS attracted an incredible 540 participants to the capital, who were shown the latest trends and techniques in the Open Source GIS world in a jam-packed program with numerous lectures and workshops. No FOSSGIS has ever had more participants.
Even before the official opening of the conference on Wednesday morning, a separate block was dedicated to newcomers to the OS-GIS world for the first time. Introductory lectures (including one by Till Adams) clarified basic questions about open source, standards, and well-known tools, libraries, and software packages. As part of the opening, excellent keynotes followed (“Quo vadis Open Source? Problematic developments in FOSSGIS projects”, Benjamin Ducke and “OSM in Jerusalem: Geodata and socio-spatial structures”, Christian Bittner), followed by stimulating lightning talks and the actual main blocks with lectures on everything your heart desires. It is, of course, always difficult to single out individual lectures, but here is a naturally subjective selection of inspiring contributions:
GRASS GIS 7” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>From laptop to mainframe: What’s new in GRASS GIS 7
OSM Buildings” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>OSM Buildings
What’s new in QGIS” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>What’s new in QGIS & gvSIG CE” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>gvSIG CEGeoKettle” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>
GeoKettle – FME for misers?
OpenLayers 3” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>OpenLayers 3
GeoExt2” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>GeoExt2
Mapbender 3” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Mapbender 3
Client Side Map Rendering” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Client Side Map Rendering
3D Webservices” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>3D Webservices & Webclients” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Webclients
and many more on OpenStreetMap, OpenSeaMap, etc. OpenData” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>OpenData
In a total of 17 practical workshops, numerous participants were also able to try out the programs and tools themselves, going beyond the pure theory. Here, participants had the chance to gain deeper insights into the use / further development of a software directly from experts (some of whom were core developers).
On Thursday, the developers of the unfortunately still too little known middleware SHOGun, for which J. Weskamm had previously presented an Application example SHOGun” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>application example, invited to the so-called BOF (Birds-of-a-feather” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Birds Of a Feather). In a relaxed atmosphere, the status and future direction of SHOGun were discussed here. As terrestris is the main developer of the software, a separate announcement on this page regarding the content and results of this BOF will follow shortly.
In the closing event, Daniel Morissette (MapGears, Canada) – a core developer and PSC member of such well-known OSS as Mapserver and others – dedicated himself to the history of the Mapserver project. His conclusion: “It’s all about community”.
However, a conference is more than the sum of its lectures, exhibitors and workshops. The so-called networking was also of great importance. As always, FOSSGIS offered an excellent setting for this, be it during the very successful evening event or in the breaks between lecture blocks. This aspect alone justifies participation in the conference every year.
The organization of the entire event – Katja Haferkorn from FOSSGIS e.V., the video team and Prof. Dr. Möller with the Local Team are mentioned here as representatives – was excellently done (keyword WLAN), so that the bar for 2015 is set high.
The upcoming FOSSGIS will take place in Münster from March 11 to March 13, 2015. For us, this conference is once again a beloved date and we will try to actively help shape it as in previous years.
Team terrestris at FOSSGIS 2014:
Lightning Talk
- “Join in!”, Marc Jansen
Slides (PDF):
Live Slides (HTML)
Video recording
Lectures
- “Well-known applications, libraries and tools for Geo and GIS and Open Street Map”, Dominik Helle (Omniscale) and Till Adams
- “The future of WebGIS – 2D, 3D, mobile, animation or rendering in the client”
- “GDA Wasser – a practical example for the complex SHOGun-WebGIS Framework”, Johannes Weskamm
- “OpenLayers 3 – Introduction, Usage Examples and Technical Highlights”, Marc Jansen & Andreas Hocevar (Boundless)
- “GeoExt2 – What’s new and what does the future bring?”, Christian Mayer (ISB AG) & Marc Jansen
- “Brandenburg 3D – Geological 3D Subsurface Models in the Browser”, Daniel Koch
- “Open Geodata for Ulm – an approach for crowdsourcing geodata also for non-OSM’ler”, Anna Rieger
Slides (PDF)
Live Slides (HTML)
Video recording
Slides
Video recording
Workshops
- “Agile Project Management – Using Scrum for Open Source Geospatial Projects”, Arnulf Christl (Metaspatial) & Till Adams
- “Introductory Workshop OpenLayers 3: First Steps with OpenLayers 3”, Marc Jansen, Daniel Koch and Andreas Hocevar (Boundless)
- “GeoExt 2.0 Workshop”, Johannes Weskamm & Marc Jansen
- “Introduction to the WebGIS-3D World”, Daniel Koch & Till Adams
SHOGun BOF
