Politics, IT, Spending, and GIS

Mar 312010

image With an impending election in the UK, the Conservatives, the current opposition party have decided to try and win some votes by cutting spending in IT. On the upside they plan to scrap ID cards if elected. Which GIS projects this may affect is impossible to tell as:

He [the shadow chancellor] was unable to cite specific projects, as opposition parties are not allowed to inspect government contracts.

What would be ideal is if IT projects were able to be scrutinised by the opposition parties, and the public. It appears Australia is far more open with their government tenders, and even include the actual costs involved which would be considered as extremely sensitive business data in other countries.

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MapInfo and SQL Server 2008

Mar 242010

For a new project I am working for the first time with MapInfo 10 “the world’s premier desktop mapping application.”

In an effort to move away from MapInfo’s .tab files (the shapefile equivalent) I was keen to test out the direct connection to geometry stored in SQL Server 2008. Until version 9.5 data could only be stored and accessed in a relational database using SpatialWare. Again to use ESRI terminology this is the ArcSDE equivalent. Fortunately MapInfo was quick off the mark in removing this barrier.

Access to SQL Server 2008 spatial data is provided by integrating FME functionality directly into the product, and having a “Universal Data” option on the File menu. There is also a tool named Easy Loader that allows loading .tab files into SQL Server as geometry.

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Quantum GIS and MapServer

Oct 122009

One of the main barriers I had to using MapServer as a web GIS server was that layers had to be symbolised iqgisn a text editor, using a MAPFILE. It was cumbersome to keep editing and refreshing a browser, there was no easy way to check for errors, and you have to learn the syntax and keywords.

Whilst this is ok for smaller projects where I could make these myself, larger projects require non-programmers to gather data, symbolise it, and handle the map layouts and creation.

I’ve just discovered that another of the OSGeo‘s projects, Quantum GIS (often abbreviated to QGIS) has a tool that can take a map project created and symbolised in the desktop application, and export it to a MAPFILE which can be read by MapServer. This seems to be the missing link in a complete Open Source GIS stack.

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