A GIS example in Open Source Software

And a few other comments

Local Authority Open Source Forum

25th Jan 2011

Mel McIntyre

Mel McIntyre

Non executive director of OpenForum Europe since 2005 and founder and chair of an OFE partner in Ireland – participates in GOSCON (US), ZeaPartners, OpenIreland, OpenNI, Connected Health

Founder and Managing Director of OpenApp, a software development and support company since 2002 focusing of OSS solutions in business, health and education sectors

18 years at Amdahl Corporation in test, engineering, quality roles, 3 years at Silicon Valley start-up Rise Technology in microprocessor development – also Mobilink Telecom and DMR Consulting

Open Source Software,Open Standards

Open Commons, Open Dataall fueling a culture of

collaboration, sharing, and reuse, making it easier to join up

public services and making it more attractive and supportive for staff to

engage and innovate

Key message

Open Source SoftwareOSS

Free and Open Source SoftwareFOSS

Free/Libre Open Source Software FLOSS

Software just like any other but free of license costs

Software that comes with a license that provides the user with certain freedoms− freedom to use for any purpose− freedom to copy the software− freedom to view and modify the source

code− freedom re-distribute modified versions

What is Open Source Software

Software examples Infrastructure – Linux Operating System - XEN –

Virtualbox - Thin Client

Mail and Groupware – Sendmail, Cyrus IMAP - Open Exchange - Zimbra, OpenLDAP

Network - Smoothwall firewalls – Apache web server

Content Management, Document Management and and Websites – Drupal, Plone, Alfresco, MediaWiki, Nuxeo CPS

Database – MySQL, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Ingres, Sap MaxDB

Business Intelligence – Eclipse BIRT, Pantaho, OpenREPORTS, Jasper

Customer Relations – SugerCRM, Compiere

. . and More

Desktop Applications – OpenOffice – QGis – Qcad – Scribus – Firefox – Thunderbird - Inkscape

Enterprise ERP – Compiere, OpenBravo, OpenERP, ERP5

Directories - OpenLDAP

Monitoring – Nagios, Ossec, Awstats

Telephony and Mobility – Asterisk, Funembol

Languages – Python, PHP, Ruby, Java? Mono (.NET)

Frameworks – Jboss, Zope, Django, Tomcat, Rails, Eclipse

We have some failurestrainingdemo.openapp.ie

An Example

Health Atlas Ireland

GIS and Statistics in HSEHealth Atlas Ireland – Health Intelligence in the Health

Service Executive in Ireland

Health Atlas Ireland is a web application portal supporting Health Service Planning, Analysis and Monitoring.

It is built completely on Open Source web framework integrating geographic, statistical and database components with supporting libraries and infrastructure components

Supports collaboration within Health (Hospitals, LHOs, Colleges (Surgeons, Phycians, Nursing) and with external agencies – HPSC, DCU, TCD, NUIM, Environment, Road Safety, Ordnance Survey,

Sample dashboard

http://rsa.ie/RSA/Road-Safety/Our-Research/Ireland-Road-Collisions/

Boundaries and demographics

Administrative boundariesand supporting aggregations

Deprivation and affluence

Population by 1Km grid

Buildings and RoadsIncluding GeoDirectory

Water mapsGroundwater, piping, supply etc

Flood zones and river catchments

Emergency Service Module

Theming

Staff per head of population

Cards per head of Population

Costs per Card

Low Med High

Light low – Dark high

Catchment analysis

Staff coded to nearest ED

Staff coded to nearest EDAdd Sample Catchments

Catchment analysis

Technical architecture

OpenApp ClientOpenLayers

Client Applications

Thick ClientGoogle Earth

NASA WorldwindArcGIS, Mapinfo, QGis

Data FeedsGeoRSSGoogle

WFS(Web Feature Service)Feature Selection

WMS(Web Map Service)

Tile Cache

CSW(Catalogue Server)

Server ApplicationPortal Services

Selection, AnalysisVisualisationZope, Python

Mapserver

Other SupportLibraries

ReportlabOpenOffice.org

GDGDALMapnik

Virtualisation - XENLinux Debian, SuseCertificate Services OpenSSLDirectory Services OpenLDAPSecurity Monitor OssecMonitoring – Alerts NagiosSystem Statistics CactiWeb Statistics AWStats

Infrastructure

Calculations& Analysis

R SpatialR Statistics

GRASS

PostgreSQLPostGIS

Spatial DatabaseEvent & Support

Data

FileSystem

RastersVectors

PostgreSQLMetadataAlternatively:

Oracle, MySQLMS

OptionalComponents

WMS

WFS

Data available

• Hospital Inpatient

• Pharmacy

• Births

• Cancer

• Vaccine

• Infectious disease

• Studies – Renal, Diabetes, Asthma more . . .

• Census

• GeoDirectory

• Asset registry

• Population model

• Ordnance Survey Maps – Rasters and Vectors

• Boundary data

• Other - water, environmental,

Multiple applications

• Geocoding and address cleansing

• Location selection and catchment analysis

• Hospital Inpatient application

• National prescribing application

• Primary Care application

• Analysis – pivot tables, standardised ratios, counts costs etc

• Display by – multiple aggregations

• Visualisations – maps, symbols, charts

• Public faces – HSE Map Centre, Road Safety Collisions Stats

JavascriptCSS

PythonZope templating

SQL Database adminGIS expertiseStatistics - minimal

System administration

Skills applied

Closing comments

Barriers to using OSS• Access to affordable support – onsite configuration, problem solving, usage

– There is generally less obvious support in the business space for OSS

– Software often covered under capital budget or as % of – consulting support often expense

• Local expertise – most successes seem to be built on the commitment of individuals rather than commitment from the 'system'

• Too much software – how to choose what is useful

– Similar issue to using 'free demonstration' versions of proprietary applications - it takes time and commitment to evaluate - keep the OSS software should it fit your need

• No vendor push – nobody selling, limited marketing collateral, the vendor business models are in their infancy

• Brand and career issues – ?DB versus Oracle, OpenOffice versus MS Office, PostGIS versus ArcIMS, R versus Sas

• Poor understanding of OSS coupled with a 'procurement/tendering' mentality

Strategies to deploy

Embed an open source culture of sharing, re-use and collaborative development

Ensure that there are no procedural barriers to the adoption of open source products . . . paying particular regard to the different business models and supply chain relationships involved.

Ensure that systems integrators and proprietary software suppliers demonstrate the same flexibility and ability to re-use their solutions and products as is inherent in open source.

Adopt open standards

Ensure that open source solutions are considered properly taking into account other advantages, such as re-use and flexibility

The notion of an Application Store – shared repository of applications or code

Strengthen the skills, experience and capabilities to use open source to greatest advantage - participate in conferences, encouraging staff to present and get involved

Thanks

Mel.mcintyre@openapp.ie