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Topic 1 - Inside the World of Geospatial Open Source and Its Educational Initiative

target_audience Target Audience: Developers, Users and Decision-Makers

objectives Objective:By the end of this topic, participants will be able to: (1) understand what geospatial open source software is and why it matters and (2) discover the main educational initiatives that promote the adoption and sustainable use of open-source solutions.

I. Introduction

Nowadays an overwhelming amount of services, applications and products have a geospatial component. Whether it is the study of bee health, the consequences of a flood on human settlement or just taking an Uber home, geospatial analysis and visualization is at work. Geospatial technologies have become pervasive in our life and a part of these technologies are open source.

II. But what does Open Source mean?

The word Open used in a geospatial context refers to transparency, collaboration and free access to data, software and/or standards. So, in recent decades, a series of concepts have emerged: open data, open source (software), open standard. Open source refers to software. The Open Source Initiative is the steward of the Open Source Definition, which has played a crucial role in drafting a robust foundation for the open source software ecosystem. They formulated 10 criteria in defining open source:

  1. Free Redistribution;

  2. Source Code (The project must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form);

  3. Derived Works (The licence must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the licence of the original software);

  4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code (The licence may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the licence allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The licence must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The licence may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software);

  5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups;

  6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor;

  7. Distribution of License (The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional licence by those parties);

  8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product (The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s licence, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution);

  9. Licence Must Not Restrict Other Software (The licence must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software);

  10. Licence Must Be Technology-Neutral.

Starting in the 1980s, open source for geospatial has today reached a maturity level, covering all cycles of geospatial data processing and visualization. The time when these solutions were regarded with a skeptical eye has long faded away. For example, in the research and academia environment, the requirement of building products and services using open source or developing under an open source license is becoming a standard practice. Also, in the private sector, new business models have evolved, developing robust links with OS.

III. Why is it important?

  • For Developers, the open source world means being part of a global community, where you can share knowledge, collaborate with others, develop and continually grow your skills, you can gain experience and build a strong portfolio. In a published article, the founder of Microverse details six benefits of open source contributions for developers. Moreover, according to him, developers trained by the company are encouraged to engage in open source from the first day of work. As he pointed out ”contributing to open source is the most effective job-seeking hack you can take advantage of right now”.

  • For Users: Whether you are a student, researcher, freelancer or employee of a company, open source offers freedom, access and flexibility that a proprietary software or solution doesn’t offer. An open source project benefits from an active global community through guidance, tutorials, forums or annual meetings. Any user can contribute to the source code, report and/or fix bugs, documentation and much more.

  • For Decisions-Makers. Regardless of the field in which you operate (business, government, education or research), adopting open source solutions offers, first of all, significant cost savings by eliminating licensing fees and minimizing maintenance. Secondly, it provides scalability in the sense that you can start with a small completely open source project, after which, as financial needs increase, commercial versions or support options can be created. It prevents vendor lock-in and gives you the freedom to customize solutions and switch providers anytime (Krysik, 2023).

IV. Educational Initiative

Education is the key to sustainability and progress in any initiative. The open source for geospatial is no exception, because the efforts are not limited to software development.

Educational materials for the open source geospatial domain includes online courses, documentation, tutorials or books. They are focused, especially, on various aspects, such as open source concept, software usage, spatial data analysis and the integration of open source tools into GIS and Remote Sensing workflows. These educational resources are often developed through global initiative and networks by volunteer communities, academic and research institutions, and even software project developers. Now let’s take a look at some of the educational initiatives for geospatial open source.

  • GeoForAll - is the Open Source Geospatial Foundation’s Committee for Educational outreach and works in close collaboration with ICA, ISPRS, UN-GIS, AGILE, UCGIS, IGU and other partners worldwide in their mission for making geospatial education and opportunities accessible to all. Their mission is based on the belief that knowledge is a public good and the Open Principles in Education will provide opportunities for everyone to contribute to the construction of Open Knowledge for the benefit of the entire society and for future generations. The project provides access to a wide range of open-source training materials, including courses, tutorials, open-source GIS platforms and tools. GeoForAll also offers online training sessions, as well as a network of educators and developers who collaborate to develop educational resources:

    • NCSU GeoForAll Lab is located at the North Carolina State University, Center for Geospatial Analytics in Raleigh, NC, USA. It is part of the worldwide network of GeoForAll research and educational laboratories. Their mission is to develop collaboration opportunities for academic, industrial, and government organizations in free and open source GIS software and data. Through their GIS program they offer interdisciplinary, graduate level courses on geospatial analysis and modeling. Students are taught the fundamentals and methods in a software independent way by using both open source and proprietary tools.

    • Open Source Geospatial Laboratory at ETH Zurich is part of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, chair of Cartography, and of the GIS Competence Center. It aims to provide high-quality educational materials, https://osgl.ethz.ch/training/, consulting expertise, and sample projects using primarily open source technologies. Also, it focuses on open geodata and geospatial research. Among the courses whose educational materials are available online, we mention Interactive Web Maps.

    • GEOG 585: Open Web Mapping is an elective course in Penn State's online geospatial education programs, including the Master of Geographic Information Systems. The main purpose of this course is to familiarize students and anyone interested with the capabilities of FOSS and open standards to designing web maps.

  • FOSS4G Academy is an initiative created and maintained as a stand-alone curriculum by educators (some of them associated with OSGeo and GeoForAll community), dedicated to supporting the latest in FOSS4G training and education. The curriculum consists of five courses, which cover GIS and Remote Sensing topics (from intro to data acquisition and management, analysis and symbolization of geospatial data) using open source tools such as QGIS and Inkscape. It was developed via the National Information, Security and Geospatial Technologies Consortium (NISGTC) and is aligned with the Department of Labors Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM) (Kurt, 2014). The courses are hosted on GitHub and the Spatial Lab at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi continues to develop and update them.

  • CHAOSS Education Project. CHAOSS stands for Community Health Analytics Open Source Software and it is a Linux Foundation project focused on creating metrics, metrics models, and software to help understand and improve the health of open source communities. According to the Linux community, the CHAOSS Education Project is an open source learning initiative designed to provide a quick and easy way to learn about open-source software, CHAOSS, and related topics. The courses can be accessed on the Moodle platform based on a free account. There are short video materials available (about 5-10 minutes), with transcriptions and additional resources, structured in such a way that they are accessible to anyone, from beginners to maintainers or experienced contributors.

  • NASA TOPS - NASA's Transform to Open Science (TOPS) initiative is designed to transform agencies, organizations, and communities to an inclusive culture of open science. The open science curriculum will introduce those beginning their open science journey to important definitions, tools, and resources; and provide participants at all levels recommendations on best practices. The course is structured in 5 modules, each lasting 2.5 hours. It is addressed both to NASA employees who can access it through the internal SATERN platform and to researchers, students and professionals outside NASA, who can register for free on the dedicated website. At the end of course a certificate of participation and a NASA digital badge, recognized in the scientific community, are awarded.

V. Discussion questions:

  1. What is open source software?

  2. Who benefits from open source geospatial tools?

  3. List two examples of educational initiatives for the open source geospatial field and briefly describe it.

  4. If you were to design your open source educational course, what would you include and why?

References