Late last month, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), the humanitarian news and analysis a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, published an article which examines the growing interest in using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for managing disasters. Central to that discussion is the idea that in a growing number of instances, FOSS applications are comparable and sometimes exceed the capabilities of products by major commercial vendors. Conversely, major commercial vendors currently hold the advantage when it comes to product support. As such, public safety officials need to think about how to create the correct mix of products to deliver effective mission support, and not just assume one solution or the other will always be better. More below:
(IRIN, May 30, 2013)
Comment: Undoubtedly the most heavily used FOSS for Geospatial (FOSS4G) product in the world is MapServer - developed by Steve Lime while in the Masters program at the University of Minnesota. Recently, a second Minnesota-developed FOSS4G product joined MapServer as one of only 19 software products officially sanctioned for worldwide use by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. It's called GeoMOOSE - more tomorrow.
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