A comparison of open source geospatial technologies for web mapping

The past decade has witnessed a steady growth of open source software usage in industry and academia, leading to a complex ecosystem of projects. Web and subsequently geographical information systems have become prominent technologies, widely adopted in diverse domains. Within this context, we developed an open source web platform for interoperable GIServices. In order to implement this architecture, 14 projects were selected and analysed, including the client-side libraries and the server-side components. Although other surveys have been conducted in this area, little feedback has been formally obtained from the users and developers concerning their opinion of these tools. A questionnaire was designed to obtain responses from the relevant online communities about a given set of characteristics. This article describes the technologies and reports the results of the survey, providing first-hand information about open source web and geospatial tools.

[1]  Regina O. Obe,et al.  PostGIS in Action , 2011 .

[2]  Peng Yue,et al.  Web GIS in practice VIII: HTML5 and the canvas element for interactive online mapping , 2010, International journal of health geographics.

[3]  Erwan Bocher,et al.  An overview on current free and open source desktop GIS developments , 2009, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[4]  Geoffrey J. Hay,et al.  Free and open source geographic information tools for landscape ecology , 2009, Ecol. Informatics.

[5]  Leslie M. Orchard,et al.  Professional JavaScript Frameworks: Prototype,YUI, ExtJS, Dojo and MooTools , 2009 .

[6]  W. Ball.  Learning the Local Political Landscape with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) , 2009 .

[7]  Richard M. Stallman,et al.  ViewpointWhy "open source" misses the point of free software , 2009, CACM.

[8]  Sumeet Gupta,et al.  Measuring open source software success , 2009 .

[9]  Gary Sherman,et al.  Desktop GIS: Mapping the Planet with Open Source Tools , 2008 .

[10]  G. Brent Hall,et al.  Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling , 2008 .

[11]  José Ignacio Fernández-Villamor,et al.  A comparison model for agile web frameworks , 2008, EATIS.

[12]  Dirk Riehle,et al.  The Total Growth of Open Source , 2008, OSS.

[13]  Jürgen Bitzer,et al.  Intrinsic motivation in open source software development , 2007 .

[14]  Jan Stage,et al.  Usability in open source software development: opinions and practice , 2006 .

[15]  Andrew Crooks,et al.  Exploring Cities Using Agent Based Models and GIS , 2006 .

[16]  Kevin B. Wright,et al.  Researching Internet-Based Populations: Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Survey Research, Online Questionnaire Authoring Software Packages, and Web Survey Services , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[17]  Bill Kropla,et al.  Beginning MapServer: Open Source GIS Development (Expert's Voice in Open Source) , 2005 .

[18]  Joel R. Evans,et al.  The value of online surveys , 2005, Internet Res..

[19]  Andrea Bonaccorsi,et al.  Why Open Source Software Can Succeed , 2003 .

[20]  Shashi Shekhar,et al.  Spatial Databases: A Tour , 2003 .

[21]  David M. Nichols,et al.  The Usability of Open Source Software , 2003, First Monday.

[22]  Robert C. Martin.  Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices , 2002 .

[23]  Paul DuBois,et al.  MySQL Reference Manual , 2002 .

[24]  Alexander Hars, Shaosong Ou.  Working for Free? Motivations for Participating in Open-Source Projects , 2002 .

[25]  Alexander Hars,et al.  Working for free? Motivations of participating in open source projects , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[26]  Michela Bertolotto,et al.  An open-source web architecture for adaptive location-based services , 2010 .

[27]  Joao Vitor F. da Silva.  Sharing botanical information using geospatial databases , 2009 .

[28]  Gilberto Câmara,et al.  Free and Open Source GIS: Will There Ever Be a Geo-Linux? , 2009, OGRS.

[29]  Takafumi Hayashi,et al.  INTEGRATED LUNAR WEB-GIS ENVIRONMENT USING DATA OBTAINED BY LUNAR EXPLORATION , 2009 .

[30]  Aaron Newton,et al.  MooTools Essentials: The Official MooTools Reference for JavaScript and Ajax Development , 2008 .

[31]  Jesse James Garrett.  Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications , 2007 .

[32]  Nicolas Regnauld,et al.  IMPROVING EFFICIENCY FOR DEVELOPING AUTOMATIC GENERALISATION SOLUTIONS , 2006 .

[33]  Graeme Rocher,et al.  The definitive guide to Grails, second edition , 2006 .

[34]  Monika Sester,et al.  Multiple representation and interoperability of spatial data , 2006 .

[35]  Schuyler Erle,et al.  Mapping hacks : tips & tools for electronic cartography , 2005 .

[36]  Christian Bauer,et al.  Hibernate in action , 2005 .