Foss4gabstract

Department of Telecommunications and Information Services

Expanding the Role of Open Source GIS in Government Abstract The City and County of San Francisco has recently embarked on an adoption of Free and Open Source Software for GIS (FOSS4G) for web-based geospatial presentation (WebGIS). There have been two primary drivers for this approach: economic pressures to innovate as well as a higher usability standard set by the Google Map interface. Numerous enterprise purveyors of geospatial information, particularly those in the government sector, are at similar crossroads. End users have come to expect web-based mapping applications that are intuitive and responsive. The legacy WebGIS of the City (developed in 2001) have been described by endusers as ‘slow’ and ‘complicated’. In reviewing alternatives it became clear that FOSS4G was a viable technology refresh option. While the legacy applications continue to serve maps and related data to the public, prototyping of the FOSS4G stack (PostGreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer, TileCache and OpenLayers), began in October 2007. Within six months of work on the development of the FOSS4G stack it became clear that a FOSS4G application was eligible for pilot consideration. The City found through its research efforts, that FOSS4G development was experiencing rapid and dynamic growth, with an engaged developer community. Many other municipalities were in the process or had already put in place FOSS4G-based applications serving the public. In concert with these applications, municipalities were providing machine-readable formatted data over the web (GeoRSS, KML, GML), which could be harnessed for use in other types of applications, including decision support systems. During the search for candidate pilot departments the potential emerged for a larger role for WebGIS within the broader decision support context. WebGIS is well positioned to become the man-machine interface of choice for complex decision visualization. Executive decision-makers have made clear their need to view data roll-ups not only through text reports, but also via the powerful visualization provided by interactive mapping. With the integration of complementary open source modules such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and Business Intelligence (BI) FOSS4G is well suited to evolve civil asset management from reactive to proactive. Chief Consulting Officer Blair Adams

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Department of Telecommunications and Information Services

By augmenting the capabilities of WebGIS in order to go beyond the ‘where’ question to include who, what, when and cost a broader decision support system will be well-positioned with cost conscious executive leadership. Expanding the role of an open source GIS would serve to demonstrate increased innovation through cooperative crowd-sourcing of software development while providing better service to constituents and a greater return on investment through cost savings found in proactive civil asset management model. Contributors: Blair Adams, Jay Nath, Jeff Johnson, & Paul McCullough

Geospatial Decision Support Conceptual Diagram

Customer

3. Where?

1. Who?

CRM

GIS 4. When

Rollup Reports (1-5) 5. Cost?

2. What?

CMMS BI

Chief Consulting Officer Blair Adams

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