I think the key here is to discuss the Extensions to Arcview and Arcmap.
Much of the base functionality can be covered by these FOSS desktop
clients like gvSIG and QGIS and UDIG, but extensions like Spatial
analyst and 3D analyst, for some of us, is where it becomes difficult to
our work done using only FOSS.
Plus simple stuff like spatial joins.
:-)
I teach a class called GIS for the Natural Sciences every year, and
because of industry standards and educational discounts the primary
platform is ESRI. I always mention FOSS alternatives though.
This year, after I gave out the first assignment, I decided to try to do
it myself using only FOSS software.
Fired up QGIS, no spatial join. The only way to move forward was to fire
up PostGIS, command line.
That was the end of the experiment in terms of trying to rewrite the
assignment using opensource desktop gis.
:-(
Percy
Cameron Shorter wrote:
Joanne,
I'm very excited to hear about your experience and am keen to hear more.
My immediate need is to put together a strong argument by mid next week
for a techie to present to upper management.
Longer term, I'd love to see a case study we can add to
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Case_Studies . I expect your case study will
be widely read as this will be a common issue organisations face now
that ESRI have stopped support for Arc View 3.1.
So anything you can quickly flick me would be great. Do you have a user
needs assessment? A feature by feature comparison? Or anything similar
along those lines. A cost, benefit analysis?
How are you planning to address maintenance and support of the Open
Source products?
Longer term, compiling into a case study would be good. I'm happy to
review and provide feedback if that helps.
Joanne Cook wrote:
Hi Cameron,
We (Oxford Archaeology) are going through exactly that process at the
moment, although we are replacing arcgis 9.2 rather than arcview. We
are doing this primarily because changes in the licensing terms meant
that we were no longer eligible for the educational discount, but it's
part of a longer term move towards open source. We have spent some
time investigating alternatives, and have a few contenders, and I'm
sure we would be happy to advise, or provide a case study on this.
Basically we are looking at gvsig and qgis as the main options- gvsig
because it can use cad data, and qgis because we like the grass
integration and it's slightly more user-friendly for english speakers
(the translated version of gvsig still has some spanish bits in it).
With slight changes to our work-flows, we are finding that these two
packages will do almost everything we need a gis to do, with the
exception of producing high-quality illustrations. To achieve this we
are currently looking at export to svg or postscript for final editing
in inkscape, but that's a work in progress.
Contact me (off-list or on) if you would like some more information on
this transition.
All the best
Jo
-----------------------------------------------------
Joanne Cook
Information Systems Coordinator
Oxford Archaeology (North)
01524 880212
http://thehumanjourney.net
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:28:57 +1000
From: Cameron Shorter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Geowanking] ArcView 3.1 replacement
To: Miguel Montesinos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[email protected]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Some Australian organisations are considering replacing their ArcView
3.1 desktops with an Open Source alternative.
Is anyone aware of others who have gone through this process?
If so, who are they?
Do they have a case study?
I'm particularly interested to see a review of ArcView features used
by oganisation users, and compared against Open Source to see if the
Open Source covered their requirements.
I'm aware of this good review of Open Source Desktop clients at:
http://www.spatialserver.net/osgis/
--
David Percy
Geospatial Data Manager
Geology Department
Portland State University
http://gisgeek.pdx.edu
503-725-3373
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