[GRASS-user] UN's program..: ESRI and cities mapping

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Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:03:29 +0200
From: Jeroen Ticheler <Jeroen.Ticheler@fao.org>
Subject: [GRASS-user] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] UN's program..: ESRI and
  cities mapping
To: OSGeo Discussions <discuss@lists.osgeo.org>
Cc: grassuser@grass.itc.it, jump-users@lists.jump-project.org
Message-ID: <6C2900A9-46DE-419F-AF90-92F5673544CF@fao.org>
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Hi Ravi,
As a UN employee I guess I have to react on your statement :slight_smile: As UN we are trying to provide and use quite a bit of open source technologies. The OSGeo GeoNetwork opensource that I work on is an example of that and there are a number of other activities existing or starting up. take a look at the UN produced DVD "GeoNetwork opensource" that contains nothing but geospatial open source software and is distributed for free to many people all over the world.
It remains a fact that many applications are (still?) build on proprietary applications and there is not much wrong with that happening also. At present I bet there are more developers that work on proprietary systems and have no interest or knowledge to develop using open source software and sometimes applications are simply not there yet in open source. Mind you, I'm saying this as a profound open source advocate :slight_smile: As said, there are multiple initiatives that support open source, but the world does not change in a day while many existing problems need to be addressed immediately.
Ciao,
Jeroen

On Sep 25, 2007, at 3:00 PM, RAVI KUMAR wrote:

> > Hi all,
> > It is unfortunate that United Nations nearly advocates Proprietory > > GIS.
> > Time we react to this. The developing world is already throwing > > billions into
> > un-sustainable Proprietory GIS for various GIS jobs.
> >
> > Fope the FOSS4G will discuss this and send a memorandum to UN..
> >
> > ww2.unhttp://habitat.org/guonet/gis.asp
> > Cheers
> > Ravi Kuma

Ravi, I think many assume ESRI products to represent the de facto GIS standards. As an example I include below a portion of a Terms of Reference for a development project in Lesotho. The list members may be interested to know that USACE (US Army Corps of Engineers) had input on this section of the ToR.

"All GIS (Geographic Information System) files used in developing maps and figures for this TOR shall be submitted and comply with the following:
i. All GIS files shall be delivered and viewable in Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) format.
a. All ESRI project files shall be delivered in MXD format. The MXD files will be set to store layers as relative path.
b. Interim vector data may be delivered in either shapefile (.shp) or personal geodatabase (Version 9) feature class format (.mdb).
c. Final data shall be delivered in personal geodatabase (Version 9.1 or 9.2) feature class format (.mdb).
ii. All GIS and GPS (Global Positioning System) files will be delivered in the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84) horizontal datum, Mean Sea Level (MSL) vertical datum, and the Universal Transverse Mercator, Zone 35 South [meters] projection.
iii. All interim and final GIS files shall include Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) compliant metadata per Executive Order 12906 (April, 1994), as amended by Executive Order 13286 (March, 2003). The metadata will be delivered in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format. XML format metadata can be created using ArcGIS’ ArcCatalog software. ArcGIS’ ArcCatalog software, FGDC-compliant metadata may be created using the free CorpsMet software, which can be downloaded at http://corpsgeo1.usace.army.mil/. Additional tutorials on metadata are available at http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata.
iv. All maps exported from GIS software shall be provided in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf)."

Regards

Craig Leat.