Hi, Welcome to the group, introduce yourself!

[Donnie_Marino]

Post up your introductions here so we can all know you. I'll start.

Donnie Marino
Longmont

I used a lot of different Geospatial Open Source whilst working at
Digitalglobe in Longmont.
Since Januaury I have been working independently for a variety of
clients. I am currently working on a mapping website that will launch
in the next few weeks. Stay tuned....

Donnie

[br...@thetimoneygroup.com]

Brian Timoney
Denver

One of the great things about the Front Range is the wealth of
geospatial know-how coming from both the private and public sectors.
In talking about getting this list going, I was convinced that having
an outlet to exchange tips and real-world experiences with folks in the
local area would be a great complement to the technical lists run by
the individual platforms/packages.

Another trend in the geospatial realm that's driving the need for a
forum community such as this one is that GIS has so many different
facets: backend data storage, geo-servers, traditional desktop GIS,
web portals and virtual globes, etc. We're no longer in the era where
one program does absolutely everything, and organizations are starting
to mix and match back-ends and front-ends depending of user needs,
budget, etc. And open source needs to be part of the conversation in
how to take advantage of the exciting changes in our industry. Let's
be clear: it's not an either/or, take-it-or-leave-it choice between
proprietary software and open source--but rather thinking about what is
the most effective mix of resources to accomplish your organization's
goals.

But there are no Sales Teams working on commission or glossy quarterly
magazines created to tell the stories of accomplishing real
organizational goals with software that even people in the industry are
only vaguely aware of. That's where we need you to step up and share
what you've done, tell us where you plan to go next, and offer the
occasional tip to those who want to follow in your steps.

Finally, another explicit goal of the group is to engage the education
community in the area. We want those enrolled in the university
programs to have a resource to plug into when they have an idea they
want to build on that strays from the rote
how-to-use-a-particular-vendor's-software drill that we all have
suffered through at one time or another. And for those educators
looking to engage students through the wonderful new technologies, we
have plenty of ideas of how to capitalize on the enthusiasm of you and
your students that don't include months-long petitioning to
administrators for a new chunk of budget.

I look forward to not only a lively news-and-idea exchange on this list
but also periodically meeting up, laptops in hand, and sharing the
fruits of our labors.

BT

[CWHelm]

Name: Christopher W. Helm
Occupation: Starving Graduate Student

Hi Guys,
I'd like to say thanks to Sean and Donnie for taking the first steps
towards getting us organized and giving us a place to share our
thoughts and innovations. I am currently a grad-student in the
Geography department in Boulder, working on open-source mapping at the
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Im working on a global glacier mapping effort called GLIMS
(http://glims.colorado.edu/glacierdata) where we've set-up a massive
postgresql-postgis database to serve glacier related data via mapserver
and OGC protocols..

I hope we all enjoy a long future of sharing ideas!

Brian, looking forward to your talk next week!

[Bruce]

Hi all,

I am Bruce Raup, also at National Snow and Ice Data Center, where I'm
the technical lead for the GLIMS project that Chris Helm just
mentioned. As Chris said, we are using PostgreSQL/PostGIS, MapServer,
GDAL tools, etc. for the web interface to our GLIMS Glacier Database.
In addition, I make frequent use of QGIS, heavy use of GMT, and
occasional use of GRASS. I've written a few utilities to convert
between GMT and shapefile formats, and one of these days I'll make them
widely available.

It's great to have this group, and I'd also like to see more
face-to-face gatherings -- maybe a quarterly meeting.

Cheers,
Bruce

[John Cartwright]

Hello All,

great idea, thanks to all who had a hand in organizing this forum.

I work for NOAA at the National Geophysical Data Center, and while
we're largely an ArcIMS/Oracle Spatial shop, we still do a lot of open
source development especially w/ OGC-compliant servers. My personal
GIS background extends back to the days of MOSS and through a period of
GRASS development, but now I'm mostly into web-based mapping/GIS
clients and spatial databases. I do most of my server-side development
in java, but lately have been doing a fair amount of AJAX client work
as well. I've found the mapserver and gdal software families very
useful - mapserver as a testbed for OGC support, and the python/gdal
for all sorts of "geo-utiity" programming. Like some others here, I'm
having good results (and a great time!) combining GoogleEarth w/
spatial databases.

I look forward to the exchanges and new ideas...

-- john

[Jan]

Hello,

Jan Van Sickle here.

I think an open source group is a great idea.

Jan

[sean.g...@gmail.com]

Hi, I'm Sean Gillies. I'm a committer to the MapServer
(http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu) and PostGIS
(http://postgis.refractions.net) projects, and also to a couple
geospatial Python and Plone projects. I'm employed by the Ancient World
Mapping Center at UNC-Chapel Hill to develop a web application
(Pleiades: http://www.unc.edu/awmc/pleiades.html) for updating the
Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
(http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/6773.html). Anybody else
telecommuting from Fort Collins? Send me a note and we could get
together for lunch or an FAC this summer.

[Rich]

Greetings...

I've only recently heard of open source in GIS, but can't really put my
fingure on what the advantages/ disadvantages are. I look forward to
hearing what folks are doing in the hopes of understanding it better.

I wouldn't object to someone provindig a big picture overview of open
source.

Thanks,

Rich

[Yusuf]

Hello--

My name is Yusuf and I've worked with i-cubed in Fort Collins for 10+
years. We use a lot of open source GIS stuff, including PostGIS,
Mapserver, and GDAL. Thanks to Sean and whoever else is responsible
for starting this group--great idea.

Yusuf Siddiqui
ysid...@i3.com
i-cubed
http://www.i3.com

[MESteinway]

Hello All,

My name is Megan Eastment and I currently work for AlphaTRAC, a company
that contracts to different DOE facilities for atmospheric modeling in
the hazards assessment arena. While my official job title is Assistant
Consequence Assessor, I get to be involved in many aspects of the
company, including mapping.

In college while obtaining my degree in environmental science, I was a
student assistant at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in
the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, (now ISSE) which is where
I was first introduced to GIS.

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning and working with GIS and I try to
incorporate it into my work wherever possible. I hope to continue my
education in the GIS field and introduce its use more into my direct
line of work.

I look forward to begin networking with other GIS people around the
front range area. There are so many great opportunities out there for
this arena, and I am very excited to be a part of it!

[randy]

Randy George
Monument

Great idea! I look forward to seeing what's going on here in the Front
Range.

I've been working with developing SVG clients for awhile now, and in
the last year or so, using SVG as a client interface for public OWS
sites like JPL, TerraServer, USGS Atlas ... I have also been having a
great time with GeoServer and now KML/KMZ. The latest GeoServer release
includes KML/KMZ as an export service which is a nice bridge between
PostGIS and GE.

My current project in progress is a Census demographic interface
showing thematics over user selectable OWS backgrounds.

Thanks
Randy

[gregory...@gmail.com]

Dear FRUGOS,

Thanks to Donnie, Brian, and any other organizers; this is indeed a
good idea.

I currently work at the CU Museum of Natural History. I use open source
applications that include deegree (deegree.org), zk
(zk1.sourceforge.net/), jsf
(java.sun.com/javaee/javaserverfaces/1.0/docs/tlddocs/index.html),
struts (struts.apache.org), postgis (postgis.refractions.net), document
object model tooltips
(http://www.mojavelinux.com/projects/domtooltip/), and, last, possibly
least but maybe not, ditchnet tabs (http://209.61.157.8:8080/taglibs/).
In other words, I use all kinds of open source stuff. I also develop
open source systematics/gis/biology apps based on the above, that
mostly run at http://biogeobox.colorado.edu:8080 or 8084. You need a
login, so e-mail me at gregory...@gmail.com if interested in
viewing.
Regards, Greg

[EODMaps]

Howdy All --

Dan Huber
Woodland Park, CO

Just getting started in the world of open source GIS. Interested
primarily in spatial data storage and access, so I'm looking at PostGIS
and MySQL spatial.

Looking forward to the discussion on this lis, and thanks for starting
it.

[Bruce]

Bruce Rindahl
Denver

I am with Leonard Rice Engineers and have been developing
PostGIS/Mapserver/SVG web interfaces for the UDFCD for a few years now.
The UDFCD this year published a floodplain mapping interface this year
that I developed. We are also expanding our WMS data sets via
MapServer. Looking forward to hearing what others are doing.
Bruce

[Randy George]

Hi Bruce,

Nice use of the carto.net interface. I see you're using the
TerraServer WMS. Have you explored some of the other public OWS services?

I know FEMA has some of their data available at:
http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/flood?Service=WMS&
Request=GetCapabilities&ServiceName=WMS

http://hazards.fema.gov/wmsconnector/wmsconnector/Servlet/flood?styles=&vers
ion=1.1.1&request=GetMap&layers=HDM:Q3_COUNTYMAP,Hydrography_Polygon,PLSS_To
wnship_Range_Lines,Coastal_Transect_Lines,Cross_Section_Lines,Political_Juri
sdictions,USGS_Quads,PLSS_Sections,Coastal_Barrier_RS_Protected_Areas,River_
Distance_Markers,Rivers,DFIRM_Streets,Floodways,Flood_Hazard_Zone_Boundaries
,Flood_Hazard_Zones,Political_Boundaries,General_Structures,Base_Flood_Eleva
tion,Bench_Marks,Panels,S_LOMR,HDM:Q3_FLOOD&format=image/png&transparent=TRU
E&srs=EPSG:4326&bbox=-105.18515091389417,39.83975631755311,-105.178660254459
83,39.84587908547837&WIDTH=1000&HEIGHT=943

The great thing about SVG is that you can stack multiple OWS services on top
of each other with a Transparent setting. You can also add SVG elements to
the top of the stack from a WFS source for more interactive controls, like
rollover and click events.

Another nice service that could work for a flood map interface is the USGS
NED Soap interface that lets you grab an elevation for any lat,long.

Thanks
Randy
www.web-demographics.com

[kd]

Greg,
Hi, my name is Kit and I'm new to open source GIS. I have been working
at various bureaus within the US Department of the Interior for the
past 7 years, where they must use only ESRI products. I found your
email on the frugos group.
I have a degree in biology with a minor in GIS applications and would
like to see what things you are working in that combine biology and
GIS. I clicked on your link in the message
http://biogeobox.colorado.edu:8080 but all I got was a page about
apache tomcat. Is that the expected result?

Thanks,

Kit

[Scott DiGiacinto]

Hello, My Name is Scott DiGiacinto, In the past I have worked for a traditional ESRI/MapInfo VAR. I have recently moved to the Denver area where I work for a VAR that embraces Open Source Technology as well as the more traditional ones. I am very excited about the Open Source products available and look forward to a great learning experience with this group

Thanks

Scott

Scott DiGiacinto

Primus Geographics, Inc.
7000 East Belleview Avenue
Suite 260
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
-------------------------------
Phone: 720.200.4488

Mobile: 303.653.7637
FAX: 720.200.4323
-------------------------------
email: sdigi...@primusgeo.com
web: www.primusgeo.com
-------------------------------
Business Intelligence Through Geography (tm)

[Bruce]

Thanks for the link! I was aware of some of the FEMA data but didn't
know about the WMS. I may set up mapserver to ingest this so I can
reproject it on top of aerial photos.
Also, I have been working with the state on a SVG interface. As part
of this, we loaded the 2005 NAIP color photos in a WMS. Capabilites
link is:
http://www.lrcwe-data.com/WMS/naip.xml

Bruce Rindahl

[Bryan Keith]

Hello,

I've been using ESRI products for about 13 years. In the last year or
two I've started to use ogr and gdal with Python for the majority of my
geodata processing. I still maintain, use, and update plenty of AML,
Avenue, ArcObjects (with VB6 and C#) projects.

Lately I've spent a little time with MapServer in an effort to enhance
and replace a desktop GIS app that I developed years ago using VB6 and
MapObjects. It's used internally by our scientists to query
environmental data without needing to know SQL/RDBMSs or a (more
complicated) GIS package. I'm still very much a beginner with
MapServer. It seems like the documentation and tutorials are geared
toward someone who understands web programming but has little
familiarity with GIS. I'm in the opposite situation and find the web
stuff confusing.

Currently I have a client who'd be quite interested in a Google Earth
mashup (although he doesn't know it yet) (I realize GE isn't open
source, but it's certainly introduced many people to GIS). I doubt it'd
be a complicated or time-consuming thing to put together if only I had a
little more time...

Bryan

Bryan Keith
GIS Specialist
Geomega, Inc.
Boulder, CO, USA