Open Source Software and Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA National Datacentre
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The document discusses the role of open source software and interoperability standards at EDINA, a national datacentre in the UK focused on enhancing academic services for higher education. It presents two case studies: Digimap, an online mapping service for academia, and DIAD, which handles data integration and dissemination, showcasing how open source technologies support their operations. The conclusions emphasize the importance of open source software for cost-effective, scalable services while acknowledging the necessity of proprietary software for specific tasks.
Open Source Software and Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA National Datacentre
- 1. Open Source Software and Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA National Datacentre Joe Vernon November 25, 2009 Slide 1 of 18 Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA
- 2. Slide 2 of 18 Overview of Presentation Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA • Introducing EDINA national datacentre • Our thoughts on open source software and open interoperability standards • Two case studies: • Digimap • DIaD (Data Integration & Dissemination) • Conclusions
- 3. Slide 3 of 18 EDINA National Datacentre Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA • A not-for-profit national datacentre for tertiary education since 1995 • Based at The University of Edinburgh, Scotland • Our mission… To enhance the productivity of research, learning and teaching in UK higher and further education. • Focus is on services, but also R&D • Geo-Services and research team • Largest team within EDINA (~35 people) • OGC associate member since 1999 • Substantial experience handling geospatial data on a large scale
- 4. Slide 4 of 18 Open Source Software Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA • EDINA tasked with pioneering research role – to enhance academic services through innovation • OSS used throughout our production systems: • PostgreSQL+PostGIS • >450M geographic objects • MapServer, GeoServer, TileCache • 1.5M Maps/month generated • OpenLayers, MapFish • OSS highly customisable, freedom to evolve • Virtualised environments – no licensing restriction per processor cost, greater architectural flexibility • But not suitable for all purposes…
- 5. Slide 5 of 18 Open Interoperability Standards Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA • Many of EDINA’s systems implement Open Geospatial Consortium OpenGIS® interoperability standards • While we do not offer public WFS/WMS services, we do make extensive use of: • WMS, WFS, SLD, GLS, KML, GML… • Through various mapping / data download clients • Our subscription services protected by Shibboleth authentication (implementing SAML to provide single sign-on and attribute exchange) and are free at the point of use
- 6. Slide 6 of 18 Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Digimap – a case study
- 7. Slide 7 of 18 What is Digimap? Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA • An online mapping and data delivery facility • Originally built to provide access to Ordnance Survey (GB) maps and data – a virtual map library • Launched in 2000 – first time UK academia had access to this type and quantity of high quality data • Subscription service with some 60,000 users • Extended to now include hydrographic, geological and historic mapping and data • Open standards and protocols heavily deployed by Digimap services – underpinned by a mix of both open source and proprietary software
- 8. Slide 8 of 18 Digimap Mapping Facilities Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Classic / Roam Carto
- 9. Slide 9 of 18 Digimap Architecture Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Roam Carto TileCache MapServer PostgreSQL PostGIS Cadcorp software OpenLayers Web QuantumGIS June 2009, replaced IngresDB Sept 2009WMS WMS SFSQL GDAL, OGR Raster data Apache
- 10. Slide 10 of 18 Digimap and MS Live Search compared Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Aviemore, Scotland
- 11. Slide 11 of 18 Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA DIaD – a second case study (Data Integration and Dissemination)
- 12. Slide 12 of 18 Data Integration and Dissemination Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA
- 13. Slide 13 of 18 Geographic Linking Service Spec. Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA
- 14. Slide 14 of 18 Open Source Software in DIaD Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA • DIaD implemented with Open Source Software: • OpenLayers / jQuery client • UKBORDERS (PostGIS GeoServer WFS) • GLS implemented using OGR, outputs ESRI Shapefile • Cartogram generation with ScapeToad (http://chorogram.choros.ch/scapetoad) • Plan to open source our own GLS code
- 15. Slide 15 of 18 Cartogram generation service Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Cartograms generated via DIaD Geo-linking service
- 16. Slide 16 of 18 Conclusions (1) Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Open source software vital for our operation Led our ability to provide robust, scalable services without additional licence costs but… • Proprietary software necessary for: • Plotting A0 maps, additional styling / bitmap symbols • GeoPDF with layer support etc Open standards have a definite role, vital for chaining open source products but… • They are not an end in themselves • Not always as mature (or static) as might wish and can evolve in short time periods!
- 17. Slide 17 of 18 Conclusions (2) Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA
- 18. Slide 18 of 18 Open Source Software & Open Interoperability Standards at EDINA Thank you Any Questions? Joe Vernon Email: [email protected] Twitter: @joevernon EDINA website: http://edina.ac.uk Case Studies Digimap: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap DIaD: http://edina.ac.uk/projects