James Fee GIS Blog

I get tons of emails from people asking where they can get free ArcView licenses for home use. People really want to work with GIS at home as well as at work which makes sense to me. I’ve always pointed folks to QGIS and other tools, but Matt Perry has a wonderful and [...]

[Read more →]

I’m “stuck” in Waikiki this week at our Honolulu office helping them get back on track with their GIS after our GIS coordinator resigned to join her husband in the peace corps on Tonga. The new GIS person is really excited about GIS and that is always nice to be around. Sometimes even [...]

[Read more →]

I’m sure most of you got the news yesterday that MapServer 5.0.0 has been released. I love the look that folks are getting with the AGG graphics library which just makes the rendered maps look very impressive. The change log is available here for those who want to see what has been fixed/added [...]

[Read more →]

As was suggested in the ESRI Web Mapping Sites post, post your favorite open source web mapping sites. One of my favorite sites is the OpenStreetMap project. I’m a sucker for Open Layers, but the concept and implementation of OpenStreetMap as a whole is wonderful.

[Read more →]

ArcIMS died April 11, 2007, the day Arc2Earth Publisher was released. With the ability to serve up even dynamic layers using Virtual Earth, there is no reason to invest any money in ArcIMS anymore. Save the money you would be using licensing ArcIMS and take a look at ArcGIS Server which does bring [...]

[Read more →]

I got a trackback from a new blog from an ESRI user who is attempting to migrate over to open source. He/She doesn’t seem to be a Linux pro so this might be a good blog reference for those thinking of making the migration.
Datum Shift

[Read more →]

In the past month I’ve had 4 people tell me that they are probably not going to be using ESRI Server (ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS, ArcSDE) on their projects unless their clients specifically demand it. I’m not talking about 4 people off the street here, but ESRI MVP types. When asked why they felt [...]

[Read more →]

Thanks to Sean Gillies for pointing out this Open Source GIS San Diego Gathering planned during the ESRI UC. It will be Tuesday, August 8th 2006, 6:30pm to 9:00pm at the Visualization Lab, San Diego State University.
Open Source GIS San Diego Gathering (OSG-SD) -
Tuesday, August 8th, 6:30pm
You are cordially invited to an Open Source [...]

[Read more →]

Tobin Bradley has posted about the speed difference between ArcIMS and Mapserver. “Although I can’t rerun their test to validate the results, I can anecdotally support them - I have certainly found MapServer to perform significantly faster than ArcIMS, and that experience has been echoed to me by other parties. The study found MapServer to [...]

[Read more →]

I spent some of the morning on the IRC channel following the meeting, but I slept in and missed more than half of it.
Both Matt Perry and Gary Sherman has some good insights into what transpired. The best news is everyone (including Sean I assume also) can now move forward and try [...]

[Read more →]

Mapserver 4.8.0 is out and you can view the changelog or download it. Its a little late, but just in time for the Mapserver Foundation meeting.
Update - Mapserver 4.8.1 was release with some bug fixes

[Read more →]

Adena’s got a post up right now with the news. MapGuide Open Source is the “new” name and as an ex MapGuide developer, I’m glad to see the name stick around because MapGuide is a great name for a mapping product. Now the focus can be on what the MapServer Foundation should be [...]

[Read more →]

After watching the Mapserver Foundation email list, I was starting to get dizzy because people kept talking in circles. Because of this merry-go-round, I actually stopped reading the email list because as it seemed like nothing was getting done. Well finally Autodesk/DM Solutions have stood up and scheduled a meeting in Chicago on [...]

[Read more →]

Link - PostGIS 1.1.0 Released
PostGIS 1.1 has been released. The more I play with PostGIS, the more I see its power. Being able to run a spatial open source database is really beginning to appeal to me given the high price of Oracle Spatial or Oracle and ArcSDE. ArcSDE is already expensive [...]

[Read more →]

Link - Autodesk product naming poll
The Mapserver Foundation is running a poll to try and determine what the new name of Mapserver Enterprise (MapGuide) should be. You’ll need to either login or register to vote, but if you do please make sure to comment with any ideas. You can view [...]

[Read more →]

via MapServer Discussion E-mail List
Folks,
We’ll have to think about how to do this, but the bottom line is that we’ve heard you: the name doesn’t work. It took weeks to set it up, and it will take weeks to change it. Please give us time to sort this out.
Thanks,
Gary
Looks like the community works and Autodesk [...]

[Read more →]

Link - Results for questionnaire MapServer naming and the foundation
There is a poll on the MapServer community page on what the name of the MapServer Foundation and the name of MapServer should be. There seems to be consensus so far to kept he name of the foundation MapServer and keep the name of the [...]

[Read more →]

Just to clarify some things for some people who are still confused.
Autodesk MapServer Enterprise is a rewrite of MapGuide, the only thing in common with (UMN) MapServer is the MapServer Foundation (well and the use of the MapServer name).

[Read more →]

I’ve gotten a ton of email about this subject (probably more than anything but ArcGIS Explorer) and I’ll pass along some interesting tidbits. First it would appear that many Autodesk MapGuide users are referring to the product as Autodesk MapServer, not MapServer Enterprise (apparently Autodesk puts their name in front of every product they [...]

[Read more →]

Link - Autodesk Bars the Door to Open Design Alliance at Autodesk University - via All Points Blog
Kind of makes you wonder if they will allow people working on MapServer into their future conferences. Heck even ESRI allowed Google/Keyhole to attend the ESRI Conference (though it was low key). Just another closed door [...]

[Read more →]