[Freegis-list] relationship between Open Source GIS and open standards

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 20:35:44 +0100, Bart van den Eijnden
<bartvde at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> I was wondering why there is such a strong link between Open Source GIS
> and open standards, such as the OGC standards. Some of the reasons I could
> think of are:

Bart,

A good question.  I'm not sure that there is a super-strong connection 
but there does seem to be some correlation.
 
> -OGC often uses Open Source projects as their reference implementation
> (Deegree for WMS, Geoserver for WFS, Deegree for CS-W)

I think the concept of OGC providing reference implementations of
standards as open source is relatively new, and still has not permiated
OGC or the standards processs in general.  
 
> -Open Source projects sometimes start without having a native interface,
> so when they are in search of an interface they are more likely to end up
> implementing open standard interfaces

I would say lots of new commercial software starts up and is in this
same situation, so it isn't particularly true of open source.   Furthermore, 
some of the packages that have implemented "open" interfaces have done
so after being fairly closely wedded to proprietary interfaces, such as 
MapServer for instance. 

> I am interested to see if I am missing some viewpoints on this issue.

In some cases open source packages are released in an effort to
help popularize and "seed" use of open standards.  This has been
the case with some GML software from Galdos, and the Geoserver/Degree
reference implementation work for instance.  Also, somewhat less 
successfully with stuff like the the early sf4java library. 

Also, I think that those most interested in open standards are often
those who want to avoid "vendor lockin".  Open formats and interfaces
are a big step in that direction, but open source software is also very
helpful at avoiding vendor lockin.  Sort of the ultimate manifestation of
the concern. 

I too would be interested in hearing other opinions on whether there is
a special affinity between open standards and open source. 

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent