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Area GIS - BERNHARD REITER
FreeGIS
1.How and why the
FreeGIS project is born?
We wanted to provide an overview of the
available Free Software for GIS.
In 1999 my colleques Frank Koormann and
Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner were researchers at the Institute of Environmental
Systems Research Institute
We worked with GIS and geographic data
for several years then and permanently fought with unsatisfactory
proprietary tools. Even more problematic for Europe was the availability
of geographic data. Allover the Internet we did not find a site dedicated
to freedom concerning GIS and geographic data. Well, so we created one.
October 1999 we founded a Free Software
company called Intevation
(www.intevation.net).
Among other things
Intevation was one of the first companies offering service for Free GIS
Software. We kept maintaining the FreeGIS side on company time since then.
Free Software is about the freedom of the users and we always wanted to be
honest with our fellow researchers, users and our customers.
2. How the FreeGIS can be applicated in
the fields of business and Public Administration, and in which others
fields can it be applicated?
The number of applications for Free
Software in geographic data processing is endless. Basically all GIS needs
could be satisfied using Free Software. Some components already are widely
deployed and other would still need to be developed. There is a lot of
diversity. The FreeGIS website only provides and overview about the
components.
Depending on your needs and expertise,
you can download the software yourself, ask a friend or even contract
professionals to teach you or create a compley solution.
In addition to uses for business and
public administrations, there are private users, education and research.
GIS can be applied almost anyware as 80% of all data is estimated to have a
spatial component.
3. Which developments or possible
applications do you see in the future?
The trend towards Free Software will
hit the GIS market. Research and education might discover FreeGIS first,
but business will follow. Especially when utilising the new standards of
the Open GIS Consortium for web mapping, databases or data transport
formats. Free GIS implementations are leading in this field.
4. Are there similar projects? What can
FreeGIS give more than the others projects?
As far as the overview about Free
Software for geographic processing goes, I believe
www.freegis.org
is
unique. You will find other initiatives in our link collection.
FreeGIS is focussed and most complete.
In addition we have a lot of experience in evaluating projects regarding
their licensing status.
If you find other sites about the topic
or unlisted projects, let us know...
5. Which are the advantages and the
disadvantages of using FreeGIS?
Using Free Software in GIS will give
you the same principal advantages as in other fields. The freedoms you and
society gets when using the software are most important. Software has
become a cultural asset. Secondly studies report a significant lower cost
of operation for IT in the mid term when running Free Software.
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