Hi Cameron and others,
Cameron has made an excellent suggestion and
summarized what needs to be done.
Our Mandriva FOSS4G Toolkit is not a LiveCD.
The CD and training material can be assessed from.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Educational_Content_Inventory#Training_Notes_on_Spatial_Data_Sharing_using_FOSS
We are now testing and re-building RPM for
Mandriva 2008. I will put all info about this
on wiki and inform on this list.
Kind regards
Venka
Cameron Shorter wrote:
Lorenzo and others, Your LiveCD and the UbuntuGIS, DebianGIS is an
excellent basis for the OSGeo Version Matrix required to seed the
building of an *integrated* OSGeo stack.
The project dependencies I see are:
OSGeo Packages +-OSGeo Matrix Project +-LiveCD +-MandrivaGIS
+-DebianGIS +-UbuntuGIS +-Ubuntu +-WindowsGIS (yet to be started)
+-Other distributions
+-OpenSource Workshops +-Documentation
The effort required to achieve all the above is huge. But there are
already many people working on each of these sections, and by
integrating our efforts we are all going to benefit. I hear your call
for donations and encourage it. Some people give money, others give
time. Lets make it easy for people to give time to this project as
well.
So I suggest the following: 1. Get buy in from the
Ubuntu/Debian/Mandriva GIS linux builders. I've see Venkatesh has
been packaging for Mandriva. Is anyone from Ubuntu/Debian communities
watching this thread? If not, lets email them and get their input.
2. Start an OSGeoVersionMatrix project. It could be the liveCD
project, or start from the versions in the liveCD project. It should
contain: * Web page * Email list * Version dependency matrix (how
should we store this) * Build processes * Test processes * Release
schedule This project would be an excellent candidate for
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/OSGeo_Labs
3. Have projects like UbuntuGIS, DebianGIS, liveCD use the
OSGeoVersionMatrix as the core for building their own distributions,
which in turn will ensure that testing, bug fixes etc all feed back
into the core repository.
--- Do the above steps make sense?
I might be volunteering to help with the initial grunt work.
Lorenzo Becchi wrote:
Cameron analysis is clear and well centered to me. With others,
we've started trying to do something in this direction since one
year ago. it is clear to us that if we base the development of such
a platform on volunteers, we will need a long time to succeed.
loooong time. If we want something for the next year, an investment
in time and money is needed. I know geeks capable to do the
technical part (see: Luca, Jachym and Frankie) but I don't know
who's interested to invest enough money on such a project.
with Luca, as a challenge, we've decided to make a donation program
for our liveCd. In one year we've collected around 500€ (200 are
mine) and we barely pay bandwidth, for the external host. This is
just an example, we are not the only ones, but it's clear that
without investments there will be poor future for such a thing.
from the other side, downloads are growing continuously.
try to search for "GIS live Cd" on google, and try to list projects
that made more then one distro for longer then a year. Please,
don't stop reading google list, go and see those pages, most of
projects barely have a home page or are off since long.
ciao Lorenzo
Cameron Shorter wrote:
Gavin, I think the time is ripe to consolidate upon this goal.
I'd like to expand the goal a bit and then break it down into
achievable steps.
*The goal:* Powerful, Simple, Used, Integrated, Open Source
Geospatial Applications
*Current status* We already have powerful applications, but we
still need geeks if you want to install and then use a full stack
of OSGeo software. Our applications are often easy to install by
themselves, but project release schedules are independent of each
other and it is hard to keep up with which versions of software
work with each other. Documentation and training material is
still in an early phase. This material needs to be cross project,
and matched to the software versions too.
*Key Steps* *Set up project version dependency table* A table
which lists for each project version, the other project versions
it depends upon. This dependency table can be used by UbuntuGIS,
DebianGIS, liveCD, a windows packager etc. For this we should be
able to tap into expertise from liveCD and linux distribution
communities. Once this dependency table exists, the onus on
maintaining it will become the responsibility of projects (and
become an entry criteria for OSGeo projects). For efficiency, it
would probably help to set a release timetable for snap shots of
the dependency list, which should be timed to link with with
other distributions.
*OSGeo Workshops & Tutorials* * I see an immediate opportunity to
present OSGeo Workshops at Geospatial Conferences. Agencies want
to learn about OSGeo, and workshops are a great advertising tool
for companies looking for OSGeo work. * Together we can
collectively build some quality documentation here, and we have
the resources (potential presenters) to develop the
documentation. * These workshops require a stable set of
software, so should be able to seed the dependency table as well.
*Further documentation* Comprehensive documentation which has
already started in the education committee should be able to tap
into and get a boost from the workshops and tutorials. I'll let
others comment on the path this should take.
Gavin Fleming wrote:
While Venka is on the topic of packaging FOSS GIS for Ubuntu,
I'd like to put a niche request / challenge to the community.
High schools in South Africa and elsewhere need a FOSS
alternative to use and teach GIS, which is a compulsory part of
the syllabus from this year. FOSS GIS at present is too
inaccessible. My challenge is to have a packaged CD for Ubuntu
to launch at FOSS4G2008 in Cape Town. This CD (or DVD) would
have:
-one-click installation for Linux, Windows or Mac. -Integrated
software stack so teachers and learners have to launch a
minimal number of applications -Simplified and customised GUIs
to lower the entry threshold. -for teachers to teach curriculum
requirements of GIS -for teachers to use GIS to teach geography
and other subjects -for learners to use for hands-on work
-Free, integrated global and local data package -excellent
documentation -framework for local contributors to structure
and contribute exercises, lessons, etc. -central website for
resources -possible advanced options for network deployment,
more sophisticated users, 'computer studies' learners (i.e.
developers), school web map services, etc.
Any takers?
Gavin
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