3OCT2006
ADAGUC
Webservices, aka Geoservices
The realisation of an SDI at the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (VenW)
Wim de Haas, projectmanager
3OCT2006
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Outline
• Aim of this presentation• Brief introduction of the Ministry• Geoservices• OSS• Historical perspective and user view• Pittfalls beyond the usual suspects• Conclusions
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Deliverables ADAGUC
• Open Source conversion tools• Selected atmospheric datasets in GIS
format• Web service to demonstrate the
usability of the above to the geospatial and atmospheric community.
3OCT2006
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Aim of this presentation
• To share experiences on the development and use of OS Geotools
• To give inside information on the practical use of OSS in a central government, showcasing Geoservices
• To give some points of view on the mechanisms in the OSS field
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Putt’s Law
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
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The Ministry of Transport, etc.
The core tasks of V&W are:• to offer protection against floods • to guarantee safe and reliable
connections over land, water and through the air
• to ensure clean and sufficient water
• Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is the executive branche of the Ministry of Transport
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Water-based infrastructure
Water-based infrastructure under Rijkswaterstaat management :
State-managed waters: approx. 850 km of major rivers, approx. 300 km of major canals; North Sea; Delta region; Wadden Sea; IJsselmeer region
• Flood defences: 300 km out of a total of 3565 km of primary flood defences
• Water management structures: 10 dams, 9 discharge sluices, 2 guard locks, 50 navigation locks
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Land-based infrastructure
Land-based infrastructure under Rijkswaterstaat management :
• 3250 km of main roads (of which > 2100 km of motorway), approx. 1000 km with traffic control systems
• 14 tunnels, 7 road traffic control centres, 91 DRIPs, 51 Entry Point devices, 11 rush hour lanes, 5 wildlife overpasses
Total economic value: approx. EUR 25 billion
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Geoservices (1)
Geoservices solutions facilitate communication between departments:
• By standardizing on open interfaces• Using OGC standards• Design principle: All applications will be
designed as a network of services • The motto: Build whatever you want to
build guided by Geoservices, unless you have solid reasons to go without
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Geoservices (2)
• Geoservices = Open Standards• Geoservices = Architecture built on OGC
interfaces (WMS,WFS,WCS,SLD,GML)• Geoservices =
– Data visualisation– Data access– Data discovery– Metadata
• Current focus on technical interoperability, not semantic interoperability
• BTW: VenW, so KNMI too, is member of OGC
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Geoservices (3)
Bind
Publish
Registry
Requestor Provider
Find
2. Requestor localizes data/service
1. Provider publices data and services at Registry
3. Requestor start service
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Geoservices (4)
OSS :
• Mapserver v4.8
• GDAL
• OGR
• Chameleon v2.4
• GeoServer v1.0
• Deegree v1.0
• Mapbuilder v1.0
Proprietary software :
• IONIC RedSpiderWeb, Catalog, Enterprise
• ESRI ArcGIS, ArcIMS, ArcSDE
• Oracle Spatial 10g r1
• LizardTech
Still: GIS friendlyness is our focus
netCDFWCS support funded by
NASA
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OSS (Thanks to Paul Ramsey)
• By definition: software in which the code is available for distribution and modification
• A lot to choose from: BSD, MIT, GPL, LGPL
• What makes some OSS projects successful and others not?
• Can we measure the success of OSS projects?
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Successful OSS projects and how to measure them
A community of shared interest is what drives a successful project
• The software itself is designed in a modular manner
• The software is extremely well documented
• The software core design and development process is transparent
• The core team itself is modular and transparent
• IP rights: provenance tracking
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Outline
• Aim of this presentation• Brief introduction of the Ministry• Geoservices• OSS• Historical perspective and user
view• Pittfalls beyond the usual suspects• Conclusions
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Historical perspective: Gartner (2003) on Open Source Applications
2000-2004: Under the radar
Me-too extensions
User is developer
Basics in place
Innovation
Start Geoservices
Technical maturity
Skills availability
Service and support
Change management
Risk management
Total costs
Relevant standards
Geoservices considered a stable
product
2006-
Trusting?
Stack alignment
ISV support
Acquisition costs
Product ‘repurposing’
Niche roles
Awareness Geoservices
2004-2006:
Experimenting
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ADAGUC 17
Historical perspective:OSS: Real Benefits, Hidden Costs
Open-Source SoftwareOpen-Source Software
Selection/Audit Fees
Disposal and
Replacement
Costs
Internal Support
Skill Transfer
andTraining
Internal Maintenance
andDevelopment
PoliticalHype
SocialMovement
Mktg. Hype
MutualDev. Model
LicensingModel
Benefits
No Licenses(Upfront or Upgrade)
No Over-
commitment
No Supplieror License
ManagementNo OngoingMaintenance
PeerSupport Groups
Quality Assurance
After Gartner 2003
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Political hype
• Motie Vendrik 20NOV2002: government shall stimulate the use of OSS and open standards, pursuing that in 2006 all government bodies shall adopt open standards
• Succeeded by a statement of the minister of Economic Affairs on 2FEB2004: new legislation to lower the barriers for smaller and younger companies to do business with the government
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Costs: Internal maintenance and development
• DIY: you’re at the steering wheel• Fun if you like it: change management,
release cycles is more of an issue compared to traditional software development opportunities for OSS companies (packaging)
• It’s all about creating trust both internally and externally
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Benefits: Quality guarantee
• OSS provides an excellent tool for keeping ALL vendors on edge: true interoperability is not something written down in a white paper, but proofs itself only in real production environments
• OSS fits the equation
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Remember Putt’s Law?
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
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The not so obvious pittfalls (1)
First comment on Putt’s Law: • A third type of people can be identified
who neither manage nor understand the technology, whether it be OSS or Open Standards: the end-users
• And after all, why should they?– Why rebuild everything we already have– Open standards may be working, but what about
my functionality?
• A technology driven programme contrasts with functionality driven users
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The not so obvious pittfalls (2)
Users, management and IT have different perspectives:
• Users are data centered, IT is services centered, and management has a strong budget focus and they all have different timescales
• In R&D environments end-users are developers too
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Concluding remarks
• Everybody can exchange geo-information via the geoservices framework
• OSS is not for the faint at heart• OSS is not longer developer centric, but
instead, users are becoming more into play
• After burner: the only successful SDI’s are backed up by legislation: European Water Directive, INSPIRE
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Some application screenshots
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Implementatie 2
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Implementatie 3
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Implementatie 4
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URL’s
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/apps/geoservices/portaal/
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/services/geoservices/basispakket/dtb?
http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/services/geoservices/basispakket/grenzen?