History of the GRASS GIS Video from 1987 (with William Shatner)

Folie 1

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tv_tropes_producers_gracie_films.png

First public screening of the high resolution version of the GRASS GIS video from 1987.

File:OSGeo 300 127 pixel.png

Good :-) I bugged Bob about sending a photo of himself.

slide 19. Our first GRASS computer was a Sun 150U rack mount computer. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-1

Was ist der mehrwert des alten films? Blick zurck in eine kaum noch vorstellbare vorzeit. Aber wir denken heute hnlich smallBig data on the rise! Identify trends in mash ups and hoto videosDream big!

Nochmal in das gang of 3 anschreiben email schauen

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Vhs_cassette_bottom.jpg/250px-Vhs_cassette_bottom.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U-matic.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star_Trek_William_Shatner.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star_Trek_TOS_logo.svghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Grass_GIS.svg/150px-Grass_GIS.svg.png

The Who ?

German: Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)

largest science and technology library globallyover 9 Mio. items,

180 Mio. Documents (GetInfo Portal)

125 km of shelving

national library of Germany for engineering, technology, and the physical sciences.

funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the 16 German states.

the world's first Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration agency for research data sets (since 2005).

operates in conjunction with the Leibniz University, Hannover.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Universit%C3%A4t_Hannover_-_Hauptgeb%C3%A4ude_-_B.jpg

The TIB acquires literature in all engineering fields as well as architecture, information technology, chemistry, mathematics, physics and other basic sciences. the world's first Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration agency for research data sets in the fields of technology, natural sciences and medicine (since 2005).

The Library Angle:
Open Source + Science = Open Science

http://www.hannover.de/var/storage/images/media/01-data-neu/bilder/redaktion-hannover.de/portale/initiative-wissenschaft/tib/7405927-1-ger-DE/TIB_image_full.jpgScience advances only if knowledge is shared.

Accelerating the sharing of scientific knowledge accelerates the advancement of science.

While scientists focus on the final frontier, (data-driven libraries) will work on designing

a different kind of space

full of physical and virtual tools

that

capture imagination and

enable researchers to explore it.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/data-driven-library-future

Christopher Erdmann, 2014
John G Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

http://thrilling-tales.webomator.com

The future:
Data-driven Libraries

John G Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: recommended digital tools for scholarly research:For moving beyond the book:Oculus Rift Intuilab (Interactive Experiences) For creating collaborative, interactive articles and notebooks:Authorea ShareLaTex IPython For capturing research software/data releases and citation:Zenodo Figshare For managing and raising research impact:ImpactStory Altmetric ORCID For reference management:Mendeley Zotero Google scholar For peer review credit:Publons PeerJ For the cutting edge:O'Reilly Atlas Jupyter & coLaboratory

What about GRASS GIS ?

http://grass.osgeo.org/uploads/images/logo/grasslogo_vector_big.pngGRASS GIS: Geographic Resources Analysis Support System

Development started in 1982

One of the initial OSGeo projects

http://grass.osgeo.org

GPL-licenced

Current versions:

GRASS 6.4.4

GRASS 7.0 (beta)

Volumes, rasters, topological vectors

Temporal data

Cooperation with QGIS

> 400 core modules, > 100 add-ons

The GRASS community
Alive, kicking and growing

GRASS GIS is going strong - for over 30 years

GRASS is people

New generations of developers and users emerge

People address new problems

People retire from the project

The GRASS history trail is growing

Knowledge + skill needs to be preserved

30 YEARS OF GRASS GIS!Hamish.jpgHelena.jpgMarkus.jpgLucadelu.pngMaris nartiss.jpgMlanda.pngMichael.jpgJachym.pngDaveSampson.pngCedric.jpgMaciek.pngRadim.jpgScott.jpg

Madi.jpgHellik.png

http://www.familytree.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/family-tree.jpghttp://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-we-are-family-7.pnghttp://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Teamhttp://vienna2014.sprint.osgeo.org/assets/photos/IMG_0011_edited_small.jpgConstruction Engineering Research Laboratorys Bill Goran (left), along with Jim Westervelt and Marilyn Ruiz, works on an early GRASS map in the late 1980s. (Photo by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Lets go back to the 1980s

Loosetails cover.jpgImage result for wikipedia live aid

Donkey Kong arcade.jpghttp://www.energia.ru/ru/history/images/image08_big.jpghttp://tspwiki.com/images/e/e4/Firefox-clint-eastwood-movie-poster.jpg

Calvin and Hobbes Original.pngMTV Logo 2010.svgTdkc60cassette.jpghttp://www.atarimania.com/8bit/screens/de_re_pac_man_2.gif

Back to the Future Part II.jpghttp://i1.ytimg.com/vi/6Tf8mPsvcOs/mqdefault.jpg

Live Aid logohttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/The_Shuttle_Enterprise_-_GPN-2000-001363.jpg

Sol Katz

STAR TREK MOVIES !

How did pac man really look likeHow did computer maps look likeComputing was done in small boxesWhat kind of problems fit in small boxesThe boxes grew to fit larger problems or were abused for this

http://catsconnect.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/1980s-postcard.jpghttp://www.energia.ru/ru/history/images/image08_big.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/The_Shuttle_Enterprise_-_GPN-2000-001363.jpg

Iron Curtain in Potsdam !

Star Trek Movie !

Walk Like an Egyptian"The Bangles"Open Your Heart"Madonna"Livin' on a Prayer"Bon Jovi"Jacob's Ladder"Huey Lewis and the News"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"Starship"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)"Aretha Franklin and George Michael[16]"(I Just) Died in Your Arms"Cutting Crew"With or Without You"U2"You Keep Me Hangin' On"Kim Wilde"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"Whitney Houston"Alone"Heart"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"U2"Who's That Girl"Madonna"La Bamba"Los Lobos"I Just Can't Stop Loving You"Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett"Didn't We Almost Have It All"Whitney Houston"Here I Go Again"Whitesnake"Bad"Michael Jackson"Mony Mony"Billy Idol"(I've Had) The Time of My Life"Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes"Faith"George Michael

The early days of GRASS

Growth of GRASS installations from 1982 1991(Westervelt 1991)

Year

Installations

GRASS Version

1982

1

-

1983

3

-

1984

5

-

1985

20

GRASS 1.0

1987

100+

GRASS 2.0

1988

1000+

GRASS 3.0

Sun 150U

2014: $90k

http://www.inprocess.com/sites/default/files/u22/COE.pngSun 150U rackmount server http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Sun150U_Front.jpg/220px-Sun150U_Front.jpg

CITE PRICES BY DOI !

In this decade before the advent of the WWW, the user base of GRASS was measured in sites installations.

From its launch in 1982 until 1997, GRASS GIS was hosted at U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers Research Laboratory (USA CERL). Baylor University, Texas, maintained the software from 1997 to 1999. Beginning in 1998 GRASS GIS was hosted at University of Hannover, Germany until 2001, when ITC-irst in Trento, Italy took over. In 2006, GRASS GIS became one of the first projects to join the OSGeo Foundation. Since then its main repository is hosted by the OSGeo in the USA.Since the beginning of the project, the GRASS user base has continuously grown. From 1982 to 1991 the dropping prices for computer equipment were the driving factor. In this decade before the advent of the WWW, the user base of GRASS was measured in sites installations. See table 1 for details.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Apple_II_tranparent_800.png/300px-Apple_II_tranparent_800.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/AcornArchimedes-Wiki.jpg/220px-AcornArchimedes-Wiki.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_IIgs_001_(transparent_background).pnghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amiga500_system.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore-128.pnghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore-64-Computer.pnghttp://images.pcworld.com/images/article/2012/07/ibm20ps220model2030-11382846.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Floppy_disk_2009_G1.jpg

GRASS GIS:
The starting point of OGC standards

Markus Neteler, 2013

Apache,1999

BEGRIFFE FINDEN:

OPEN GRASS FOUNDATIONhttp://geospatial.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83476d35153ef01a511915d73970c-320wi

OPEN GIS CONSORTIUM

Open Geospatial Consortium

LOGOS fr WMS/WFS/WCS/WPS/SOS

http://mundogeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/OGC_Logo.jpghttp://grass.osgeo.org/uploads/grass/history_docs/grassclippings93_7_2_gardels_ogc.pdfhttp://commons.esipfed.org/sites/default/files/skitched-20120424-161559.png

From a niche to a global user community: Open Source GIS and OSGeohttp://de.slideshare.net/markusN/from-a-niche-to-a-global-user-community-open-source-gis-and-osgeo?qid=0dbbc3cf-3c1c-4da7-88ea-9da3d634d2c1&v=qf1&b=&from_search=2

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) celebrates 20 years of progress in geospatial interoperabilityLast night in Crystal City the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) celebrated its first 20 years. To appreciate the OGC's remarkable achievements it is valuable to look back to where geospatial was before the OGC was formed.The Canada Land Inventory, which is considered the world's first GIS, was designed in the late 1960's and implemented between 1967 and 1977.In the early 1980s, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) developed GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System). Subsequently several U.S. government agencies including the Corps of Engineers, the Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, and the National Park Service standardized on GRASS. Like Unix GRASS was freely available and universities around the world adopted it. In 1992, the GRASS user community formed a non-profit organization, the Open GRASS Foundation (OGF), intended to stimulate private sector support for GRASS and to create a consensus-based membership process for management of GRASS community affairs.

To put this in context Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985. Development of the NCSA HTTP Server began in 1995. Subsequently a group of eight developers working on the NCSA HTTP Server came to be known as the Apache Group and the legal entity, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), was founded in 1999. The Open Grass Foundation preceded the ASF by about seven years.

But GRASS did not provide a basis for comprehensive interoperability between different geosoftware packages. The OpenGIS Project envisioned diverse geoprocessing systems interoperating directly over networks by means of a set of open interfaces based on the "Open Geodata Interoperability Specification" (OGIS). To implement this vision, in 1994 the Open GIS Consortium (OGC) was founded with eight charter members Camber Corporation, University of Arkansas - CAST, Center for Environmental Design Research at the University of California Berkeley, Intergraph Corporation, PCI Remote Sensing, QUBA, USACERL (US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory), and USDA Soil Conservation Service.Today OGC standards comprise a platform for geospatial interoperability. They have been implemented in hundreds of commercial geoprocessing products, both proprietary and open source, and are being implemented by governments and non-government organizations around the world. An indication of their success is that other industries look to the geospatial sector and the OGC as a model for implementing interoperability.http://geospatial.blogs.com/geospatial/2014/03/open-geospatial-consortium-ogc-celebrates-20th-anniversary.htmlEarly success of GIS led to a problem no vendor could solve aloneBy the mid-1980s, geographic information system (GIS) software was heavily used in the natural resources and defense domains, especially within government agencies. Other market sectors, such as state and local government, civil engineering, transportation and business marketing were seriously exploring the technology. The future looked bright, but there were frustrations brewing among users.Users liked the power and potential of the new mapping and spatial analysis tools. However, the expensive software's limited extensibility and flexibility and inability to share geospatial data between systems caused severe frustration. Users were forced to use inefficient, time consuming and error-prone data transfer methods.While several commercial GIS products were available, for a variety of reasons related to funding, some agencies developed their own GIS software. Late in the 1970s, the US Fish and Wildlife Service contracted for the development of MOSS (Map Overlay and Statistical System), an open source vector GIS that was used in many U.S. Department of Interior agencies and in a number of state and local governments. In the early 1980s, a raster GIS, GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System), was developed at the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL). The Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, and National Park Service standardized on GRASS and it was used in universities around the world. GRASS took advantage of the openness of the UNIX environment and the internet and became one of the first global open source software projects. Coordinated by CERL, developers from around the world contributed code. GRASS was successfully integrated with other public domain spatial, statistical and imaging analysis packages.A major setback leads to an ultimately successful path.The Corps, despite receiving a congressional award for its GRASS initiative, had to transition the project to the private sector because of other considerations. Leaders of the GRASS community, led by multiple public sector agencies, needed support from the private sector for the software to effectively support users in government, industry, and academia. In 1992, the GRASS user community formed a non-profit organization -- the Open GRASS Foundation (OGF) -- chartered to stimulate private sector support for GRASS and create a consensus-based membership process for management of GRASS community affairs.With the demand for more software choices, better and faster integration,and a speedier procurement process, the GRASS group focused on the issue of cooperative planning and facilitation of interoperable geoprocessing. Instead of focusing solely on open source software, the group aimed to create a process that might (1) make more commercial as well as non-commercial geoprocessing choices available in the marketplace, (2) act as a sounding board for the user community to articulate its requirements to the developer community, and (3) speed up procurement by aligning the needs of the users with the product plans of the vendors. GRASS, though free, modular, and maintained in a process driven by user input, did not provide a full interoperability solution. It had an open data format, but that was not sufficient to enable interoperability with other software packages. The OpenGIS Project, which preceded the formal launch of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) in 1994 (now the Open Geospatial Consortium), defined (with the participation of the principal MOSS developers) a vision of diverse geoprocessing systems communicating directly over networks by means of a set of open interfaces based on the "Open Geodata Interoperability Specification" (OGIS).OGC was founded with eight charter members at the time of its first Board of Directors meeting on September 25, 1994. These members were Camber Corporation, University of Arkansas - CAST, Center for Environmental Design Research at the University of California Berkeley, Intergraph Corporation, PCI Remote Sensing, QUBA, USACERL (US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory), and USDA Soil Conservation Service. Intergraph was OGC's first commercial Principal Member.From 1994 to 2013, the membership has grown from 20 to more than 475 government, academic, and private sector organizations. Traditional GIS vendors are involved, along with technology integrators, data providers, and companies at the cutting edge of location services.Liaisons with other standards, professional and educational organizations have been established and maintained.OGC has always been a worldwide organization, concerned with global outreach and education as much as with standards development. Though founded in the US, the OGC now has more members in the US than in North and South America.In the early years, OGC engaged the major GIS companies and some major user agencies in a consensus process to define and agree to the details of the OpenGIS Abstract Specification. OGC has continued to make progress, from the OGC Standards Program's first approved implementation standard in 1997 and the first OGC Interoperability Program testbed (Web Mapping Testbed) in 1999 to today's broad array of standards and initiatives. More than thirty-five approved OGC implementation standards are now freely available to address the challenges that were identified at OGC's founding and many other challenges that have been identified since then. The real measure of OGC's success is that these standards, which collectively comprise a platform for interoperability, have been implemented in hundreds of commercial and open source geoprocessing products and are being implemented in communities and organizations around the world. Today OGC standards are key elements in the geospatial communication interfaces, encodings and best practices for sensor webs, location services, Earth imaging networks, climate models, disaster management programs and national spatial data infrastructures around the world. To ensure consistency across the Internet and Web ecosystem, the OGC has alliance partnerships with many other standards development organizations and industry associations, who work closely with the OGC on a wide range of topics such as Indoor/Outdoor location integration, sensor fusion, urban modeling, location based marketing, aviation, meteorology, the Internet of Things,Points of Interest and the Semantic Web.http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/history

GIS Customer demands were driven by
Star Trek

1983Our For McClellan customer [] was impressed with the new computer and software for his office and, upon seeing the first map image on the screen asked Can you rotate it ?

We were amazed that he wasnt aware of what was required to just get the image on the screen- and in color.

http://grass.osgeo.org/uploads/grass/history_docs/westervelt2004_GRASS_roots.pdf

Stephen Collins as Cmdr. Willard Decker in Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979)Stephen Collins as Cmdr. Willard Decker in Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979)Stephen Collins as Cmdr. Willard Decker in Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979) - Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

The Star Trek television series had really raised expectations within our target user community.

Jim Westervelt, 2004

Movie - Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan Wallpapers and Backgrounds ID : 260126http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=260126http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FAvQzOamW0o/UVsL9YhrfhI/AAAAAAAAEQs/7WTcJeT_9cs/s1600/star_trek_2_the_wrath_of_khan_poster_by_tanman1-d57gd23.jpghttp://images.alphacoders.com/260/260161.jpg

1982: The Wrath of Khan

GEGENGESCHICHTE ZU HERNY FORD (FASTER HORSES)

http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=260126http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FAvQzOamW0o/UVsL9YhrfhI/AAAAAAAAEQs/7WTcJeT_9cs/s1600/star_trek_2_the_wrath_of_khan_poster_by_tanman1-d57gd23.jpghttp://images.alphacoders.com/260/260161.jpg

Technicall challenge people see problems and services, but not the size of the current boxes. Dream big!Flying a spaceship thats what people expectAdd defender screenshot !

Quote from Jim:

From the early days of GRASS GIS development, user feedback to the developers had been influenced by the concepts of advanced information visualization as foreseen by the Star Trek TV show, thereby indirectly affecting the evolution of the GRASS software (Westervelt 2004). http://media.theiapolis.com/d4-i1OJD-k2-l1UO/stephen-collins-as-cmdr-willard-decker-in.htmlhttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pkVLEItyW_M/Tg-ytp1wAbI/AAAAAAAAAB8/ToPC2pHpeOQ/s1600/2653037108_9e20faed16.jpg

The 1987 promotional GRASS GIS video

1987: USA-CERL has a video for GRASS GIS produced.

Narrated by William Shatner (a.k.a. James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek)

Video was distributed on VHS tapes

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11800000/ST-Behind-the-Scenes-william-shatner-11886186-2022-2560.jpg

2014-01-14-wm.shatnerlightbkgrnd.jpg

http://www.inprocess.com/sites/default/files/u22/COE.pnghttp://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11800000/ST-Behind-the-Scenes-william-shatner-11886186-2022-2560.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VHS-cassette.jpg

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-01-14-wm.shatnerlightbkgrnd-thumb.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metz_VH48_v2.jpg

The making of the GRASS video
Recollections from Robert Lozar (PI, CERL)

The project took about 6 months.

Script by Robert Bob Lozar, story board by Carla Peyton.

When Roger Inman bid low to make the video (special effects were his), we had extra money, so we said, lets get a big name to do the audio.

Carla Peyton and I flew in to Los Angles, but the plane was late,

Carla's luggage was literally melted by the conveyor belt and we got in a traffic jam on the way to Hollywood.

So we were a little late;

Roger

Bob

Carla

http://www.inprocess.com/sites/default/files/u22/COE.png

Roger InmanProduction took six months and was managed by Robert Lozar as the Principal Investigator (Robert Lozar, oral communication, 2014). Filming and special effects were carried out by Moving Pictures Productions Champaign Illinois. For audio, a soundtrack was composed by Scott Wyatt and the audio script was narrated by the professional actor William Shatner.

The TV show Star Trek (IMDB: Star Trek 2014) was initially broadcasted between 1966 and 1969. The actor William Shatner, who would provide the voice-over for the GRASS video in 1987, stars in the TV show as the Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the fictional starship USS Enterprise. The choice of William Shatner to narrate the promotional video was not accidental, as the actor Leonard Nimoy, who played the alien Mr. Spock from the fictional planet Vulcan in the same TV show, would have been the backup for Mr. Shatner (Robert Lozar, oral communication, 2014). The launch of a sequel to the original Star Trek TV show in 1987, named Star Trek: The Next Generation, without the original cast, seems to be coincidence (IMDB: Star Trek: The Next Generation 2014).From the early days of GRASS GIS development, user feedback to the developers had been influenced by the concepts of advanced information visualization as foreseen by the Star Trek TV show, thereby indirectly affecting the evolution of the GRASS software (Westervelt 2004). The striking similarities of the tolerance-based behavioral codes among the fan communities devoted to the Star Trek TV shows and the meritocracic values of OSGeo project communities remain to be analysed (Shatner & Kreski 1999, Lwe & Neteler 2014).

Bob on the full version:[20140416]The original version was longer. It started with a tv news broadcast talking about how a GRASS analyse was used to catch some archaeology poachers on an installation. It was a great beginning. Just before its release, we found out it didn't really happen so we had to edit that introductory portion out. I haven't seen a copy of that version in many many years. Because it was incorrect, it really should never be distributed anyhow.

Roger Inman on outtakes[20140411]There were only two versions I remember. A long one that had a segment we had to delete and the shorter one. It is possible that we made a few other changes. My U-Matic machines that accept full size cassettes are not working at this time. I found an RF dub of the long version on a small cassette and edited out the segment we deleted. I did not remember any other changes, but I should look at your version and conform mine to it, I suspect

There were only two versions I remember. A long one that had a segment we had to delete and the shorter one. It is possible that we made a few other changes. My U-Matic machines that accept full size cassettes are not working at this time. I found an RF dub of the long version on a small cassette and edited out the segment we deleted. I did not remember any other changes, but I should look at your version and conform mine to it, I suspect.

Bob[20140326]Peter there are a lot of stories associated with this project. I was the Principal Investigator on the project to make the GRASS video. It was a small amount of funding. When Roger Inman bid low to make the video (special effects were his, no George Lucas involvement at all), we had extra money, so we said, lets get a big name to do the audio. I wrote the script, Carla Peyton refined it to a "story board" format that video makers actually use. Shatner actually read the story board script, having never seen the video or not having any idea what a GIS was. It took about 4-6 months from the start of the project to completing it. Shatner autographed the cover of the GRASS Manual - that was either version 1 or 2. It was hanging the the GRASS studio for years. Now Marji Larson has it now.-> Marji Larson, Urbana IL !

[20140325]But Peter here is a little story that you might wish to relate to the group. Carla Payton and I flew in to Los Angles, but the plane was late, Carla's luggage was literally melted by the conveyor belt and we got in a traffic jam on the way to Hollywood.So we were a little late; Shatner was very impatience and gruff. (He is also really short - you never realize that in the movies.) So he went to the sound studio I had rented (with my own money because I didn't think the government would reimburse me for renting the "Salty Dog" studio). I went to the control booth with the technicians and started to relax because Shatner was there and had the script ready to start. Then he looked up and asked, "Who is directing me?" Since I was the only one that knew what was going on, I said I was. My first job in Hollywood was directing William Shatner. It was also my last... they never invited me back!

The making of the GRASS video
Recollections from Robert Lozar (PI, CERL)

Shatner was very impatient and gruff.

I went to the control booth with the technicians and started to relax because Shatner was there and had the script ready to start. Then he looked up and asked, `Who is directing me?`"

Shatner actually read the story board script, having never seen the video or not having any idea what a GIS was.

Since I was the only one that knew what was going on, I said I was. My first job in Hollywood was directing William Shatner.

It was also my last... they never invited me back!

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11800000/ST-Behind-the-Scenes-william-shatner-11886186-2022-2560.jpgProduction took six months and was managed by Robert Lozar as the Principal Investigator (Robert Lozar, oral communication, 2014). Filming and special effects were carried out by Moving Pictures Productions Champaign Illinois. For audio, a soundtrack was composed by Scott Wyatt and the audio script was narrated by the professional actor William Shatner.

The TV show Star Trek (IMDB: Star Trek 2014) was initially broadcasted between 1966 and 1969. The actor William Shatner, who would provide the voice-over for the GRASS video in 1987, stars in the TV show as the Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the fictional starship USS Enterprise. The choice of William Shatner to narrate the promotional video was not accidental, as the actor Leonard Nimoy, who played the alien Mr. Spock from the fictional planet Vulcan in the same TV show, would have been the backup for Mr. Shatner (Robert Lozar, oral communication, 2014). The launch of a sequel to the original Star Trek TV show in 1987, named Star Trek: The Next Generation, without the original cast, seems to be coincidence (IMDB: Star Trek: The Next Generation 2014).From the early days of GRASS GIS development, user feedback to the developers had been influenced by the concepts of advanced information visualization as foreseen by the Star Trek TV show, thereby indirectly affecting the evolution of the GRASS software (Westervelt 2004). The striking similarities of the tolerance-based behavioral codes among the fan communities devoted to the Star Trek TV shows and the meritocracic values of OSGeo project communities remain to be analysed (Shatner & Kreski 1999, Lwe & Neteler 2014).

Bob on the full version:[20140416]The original version was longer. It started with a tv news broadcast talking about how a GRASS analyse was used to catch some archaeology poachers on an installation. It was a great beginning. Just before its release, we found out it didn't really happen so we had to edit that introductory portion out. I haven't seen a copy of that version in many many years. Because it was incorrect, it really should never be distributed anyhow.

Roger Inman on outtakes[20140411]There were only two versions I remember. A long one that had a segment we had to delete and the shorter one. It is possible that we made a few other changes. My U-Matic machines that accept full size cassettes are not working at this time. I found an RF dub of the long version on a small cassette and edited out the segment we deleted. I did not remember any other changes, but I should look at your version and conform mine to it, I suspect

There were only two versions I remember. A long one that had a segment we had to delete and the shorter one. It is possible that we made a few other changes. My U-Matic machines that accept full size cassettes are not working at this time. I found an RF dub of the long version on a small cassette and edited out the segment we deleted. I did not remember any other changes, but I should look at your version and conform mine to it, I suspect.

Bob[20140326]Peter there are a lot of stories associated with this project. I was the Principal Investigator on the project to make the GRASS video. It was a small amount of funding. When Roger Inman bid low to make the video (special effects were his, no George Lucas involvement at all), we had extra money, so we said, lets get a big name to do the audio. I wrote the script, Carla Peyton refined it to a "story board" format that video makers actually use. Shatner actually read the story board script, having never seen the video or not having any idea what a GIS was. It took about 4-6 months from the start of the project to completing it. Shatner autographed the cover of the GRASS Manual - that was either version 1 or 2. It was hanging the the GRASS studio for years. Now Marji Larson has it now.-> Marji Larson, Urbana IL !

[20140325]But Peter here is a little story that you might wish to relate to the group. Carla Payton and I flew in to Los Angles, but the plane was late, Carla's luggage was literally melted by the conveyor belt and we got in a traffic jam on the way to Hollywood.So we were a little late; Shatner was very impatience and gruff. (He is also really short - you never realize that in the movies.) So he went to the sound studio I had rented (with my own money because I didn't think the government would reimburse me for renting the "Salty Dog" studio). I went to the control booth with the technicians and started to relax because Shatner was there and had the script ready to start. Then he looked up and asked, "Who is directing me?" Since I was the only one that knew what was going on, I said I was. My first job in Hollywood was directing William Shatner. It was also my last... they never invited me back!

GRASS Manual autographed by W. Shatner

Image: Marji Larson, 2014

For the Grass teamWill Shatner

Frontpage of the GRASS Manual Version 2.0

It was hanging in the GRASS studio for years.

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11800000/ST-Behind-the-Scenes-william-shatner-11886186-2022-2560.jpg

Bridging the digital divide
2004

1990s

While the GRASS project evolved and addressed new kinds of geospatial challenges,

the GRASS video tape became legendary and a preservation/access issue.

2004

Jim Westervelt digitizes a VHS copy.

First screening at the FOSS/GRASS Users Conference in Bangkok 2004.

Jeff McKenna receives video on USB stick

.mov-file on the GRASS Webportal

2011 The video is uploaded to YouTube with limited Metadata

FOSS4GGets coined

The challenge according to

2013

Wired magazine features the GRASS movie in an online article and describes both its limbo status and significance, being a historic document:

Absence of references/links to the movie:

not on the International Movie Database (IMDB)

not on Wikipedia

not on Mr. Shatners website

Source: http://www.wired.com/2013/08/shatner-loves-digital-maps/

World leaks out**Significance** according to WIRED !Dawn of geospatial legacy for the digital century

LOOK BACK IN TIME Part of Heritage

Why is this cool -> Look back in time -> days hardly conceivable today. No webmapping, etc.

Praise by

Were pretty confident that if you really like Shatner, or you really like maps, you will really like this video.

But we are absolutely certain that if you are a professional geographer,

youve probably already seen this video 100 times but

still get super excited every time you watch it and

can only barely contain yourself at timestamp 1:50

when Captain Kirks voice tells you,


Why is this coolWhy is it mrentioned in wired?Part of heritageVhs legacy for the digital century8 track tapes!

Praise by







Dont keep your information about soils, vegetation, roads or archeological sites rolled up in map tubes or stuffed into drawers.



Praise by







Dont keep your information about soils, vegetation, roads or archeological sites rolled up in map tubes or stuffed into drawers.

Keep it in a computer.



Bridging the digital divide: 2014

The GRASS video is chosen as a test case for the new TIB portal for nontextual audio-video content.

The project team from 1987 was contacted via Jim Westervelt:

Roger [] seemed interested in finding the original copy which would yield a much better digital version

If luck continues, Roger may be able to read that original with some old equipment to create something of archive quality.

Carla Peyton: She was intimately involved with the development of the video and did a lot of the post-editing; a behind-the scenes creative genius (passed away 2005)

[Jim Westervelt]

Jim

Jim WesterveltRoger Ingman (Pic)Robert Lozar

Success:
The GRASS 1987 video on the TIB AV-Portal

The high resolution version of the GRASS 1987 video is available:

Citable by Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Searchable

Long term preserved for the future.

GRASS Video

!This is just a showcase. OSGeo Communities need to consider what portals to use.

Enhanced search capabilities:
Navigation by film segments and search strings

Visual index

Download Options

New (open) formats will be added in the future.

Navigation and Citation by audio-transcript

Caption

DOI + Media Fragment Identifier (MFI)

Keep it in a computer

Star Trek: Late 80s

1986: The Voyage Home 1989: The final frontier

http://manilovefilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/st-voyagehome-poster.jpghttp://williammaginn.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lcars_star_trek_iv_the_voyage_home_animal_analysis.gif1987 ?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7YRNEO13plE/UMLNPDfV3jI/AAAAAAAAE4M/5AdR_3mJgHA/s400/TheVoyageHome3.jpghttp://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/images/shatner_director_stv.jpg

Star Trek: Late 80s


http://manilovefilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/st-voyagehome-poster.jpghttp://williammaginn.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lcars_star_trek_iv_the_voyage_home_animal_analysis.gifhttp://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tff_other/posters/tff_poster.jpghttp://www.nitehawkcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Robocop1.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7YRNEO13plE/UMLNPDfV3jI/AAAAAAAAE4M/5AdR_3mJgHA/s400/TheVoyageHome3.jpgThe original Robocop !

Star Trek: Late 80s


http://manilovefilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/st-voyagehome-poster.jpghttp://williammaginn.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lcars_star_trek_iv_the_voyage_home_animal_analysis.gifhttp://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tff_other/posters/tff_poster.jpghttp://www.nitehawkcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Robocop1.jpgSpaceballs 1987http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7YRNEO13plE/UMLNPDfV3jI/AAAAAAAAE4M/5AdR_3mJgHA/s400/TheVoyageHome3.jpg

Star Trek: Late 80s


http://manilovefilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/st-voyagehome-poster.jpghttp://williammaginn.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lcars_star_trek_iv_the_voyage_home_animal_analysis.gifhttp://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tff_other/posters/tff_poster.jpghttp://www.nitehawkcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Robocop1.jpgSpaceballs 1987

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7YRNEO13plE/UMLNPDfV3jI/AAAAAAAAE4M/5AdR_3mJgHA/s400/TheVoyageHome3.jpg

Enjoy Have a great FOSS4G !

For the Grass teamWill Shatner

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tv_tropes_producers_gracie_films.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracie_Films#mediaviewer/File:Gracie_Films.png

For closing: Kirk Statement: Keep it in a computer,Stay calm and put your maps in a computer

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History of the GRASS GIS Video from 1987 (with William Shatner)

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Transcript of History of the GRASS GIS Video from 1987 (with William Shatner)