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open source
The Shapefile 2.0 manifesto
Mar 1st
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are by their nature data driven. The data comes in a wide variety of raster and vector formats. Rasters hold raw, continuous data recorded striaght from the real world. An example is Satellite/aerial imagery, this is a commonly held in an open format with broad support, such as GeoTIFF or GeoJPEG.
Vector formats hold refined, discrete data, which has been manually traced or otherwise derived other data sources. Examples include building outlines, contours, road routes, pipe networks land land parcels and locations. Vector data is usually traced or derived, at great expense from raster data, to encode business information – as a result it’s usually highly valuable.
Unfortunately, there are many GIS vector file formats, and most are proprietary. They can only be used to their full in their native software. Three of the biggest are AutoCAD DXF, MapInfo TAB and ArcGIS Personal Geodatabase. One vector format is unique – both an open standard, and in wide use: Shapefile
Shapefile is publicly documented in ESRI Shapefile Technical Description by ESRI Inc., it’s creator. Any GIS software worth it’s salt can read and write to the format, so it’s become the least common denominator. It is the format for storing and exchanging vector data between teams, departments, businesses and government. In my opinion this makes Shapefile the best thing ever to happen to GIS, without it the GIS market would be a fraction of it’s current size. More >
Barriers to year of linux on the desktop
Oct 31st
This post is a tribute to Linux Hater who sadly has retired. He was insightful and right about many things, although sometimes a bit too whiny.
Linux currently holds about 1% market share on the desktop. It has gained 0.5% in 2 years, whilst Mac OS X has gained 3%, and MS Windows has lost 4%. In the browser market Firefox is now nudging 20% market share. Can Linux ever achieve that?
A single ‘Year of Linux on the desktop‘ is unlikely, but it’s a popular meme, so lets to play.
It’s some number of years in the future. Ubuntu ‘Satisfied Squirrel’ has built on slow, steady growth. Linux desktop share now nudges 20%. What might this future Linux desktop be like, compared to now?
Fitts’ Law and Minimalism vs GTK+ and Qt
Sep 18th
It all started with the Pidgin chat window, which is surrounded by several pixels of padding. To my eyes the padding doesn’t achieve anything, it just wastes space and detracts from the clean, minimalist lines of the Buddy List. After much fumbling, I managed to change it in the Pidgin source code . Bug 6987 with patch was duly filed.
Now I’ve become obsessed, I’m spotting extra borders and pixels in nearly every application on my desktop.
Free/Open Source Government: part 2
Jul 7th
On 31st March the British Standards Institute (BSI) submitted an updated vote of approval, on ISO 29500 (MS OOXML). The move surprised many, myself included.
In September 2007 the BSI had voted ‘No – with comments’, attaching a long list of reasons. The response had been prepared in the open over the web, using the BSI OOXML Wiki. It was applauded by many, including members of other national standards bodies, a BSI report to the All Party Internet Group (APIG) stated:
BSI has been making its scrutiny process transparent by assembling comments on the Web in public view, and is recognised as leading the international scrutiny effort. The German standards body DIN are adopting a similar process, and one US standards committee member has written “when I compare [our process] to the BSI’s excellent work developing detailed comments on a publicly-readable Wiki, I think we in the US should be ashamed …”
The wiki hasn’t been substantively updated since October 2007. I’ve been unable to find any stated reasons from the BSI for the reversal of their position or in fact any announcement by BSI of their final vote.
On 30th April the UK Unix Users Group (UKUUG) requested judicial review of the BSI’s reversal. In June this application was rejected by a Judge. On the 19th UKUUG appealed, the BSI made no public comment. Unless it becomes public record in court, their reasoning will remain secret.
This post isn’t about the BSI or ISO 29500/OOXML. More >
Free/Open Source Government: part 1
Apr 8th
Several events for me in the last fortnight converged almost perfectly on a common theme
- On Thursday 28 March The Register reported from an anonymous source, that the British Standards Institute (BSI) would reverse their vote on the proposed DIS 29500 standard from ‘No – with comments’ to Yes. In response John Pugh MP, Liberal Democrat member wrote a letter to the BSI Director urging BSI not to vote yes.
- On Tuesday 1 April Pieter Hintjens, former FFII president gave a talk on ‘Software Patents and Open Standards’ at the UKUUG Spring 08 conference.
- On Wednesday ISO announced that Microsoft OOXML/Ecma 376 is to be approved as DIS 29500.
- On Thursday David Cameron MP, Conservative leader gave a speech on ’Innovation and its role in public policy‘ to NEST. He said a Tory government would open UK government data and “We also want to see how open source methods can help overcome the massive problems in government IT programs.”
- On Thursday evening Material World broadcast ‘Redefining the Kilogram’ on efforts towards a better international standard of mass and weight.
The theme is how the Free/Open Source software movement might aid the political establishment. More >
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