Autodesk's Contribution to the Geospatial Open Source Community Gains 'Seal of Approval' From Developers
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 -- LOCATION INTELLIGENCE CONFERENCE -- Following the first anniversary of its launch, MapGuide Open Source has achieved a new status within the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) as a fully endorsed project. Originally developed as Autodesk MapGuide software by Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), and released to the open source community in 2006, MapGuide Open Source is a Web-based platform that enables users to develop and publish online mapping applications and geospatial web services.
During its incubation process, the project's community of more than 600 members actively engaged in development and application efforts to validate the software's functionality, viability and support. As part of the project's graduation, Robert Bray, platform software manager and architect of geospatial solutions at Autodesk, has assumed the role of OSGeo vice-president -- MapGuide Open Source.
"As a new open source project, it was crucial that MapGuide Open Source show clear signs of an open development process and community involvement. Early in the incubation process, community members were already collaborating to identify new ways to use the technology and to request new features needed in future releases," said Tyler Mitchell, executive director of OSGeo. "Now that it has graduated from the incubation process, becoming an official OSGeo project, developers can have added confidence applying the MapGuide Open Source platform to meet their specific web mapping needs."
With more than 25,000 downloads in its first year and an average of four to five thousand downloads per month in 2007, the software is already being embraced by the geospatial open source community. To date, MapGuide Open Source has had three version releases, with the most recent update in January 2007 adding direct support of KML files for Google Earth mapping service.
"As a sustaining sponsor of OSGeo, Autodesk is excited by the number of innovative projects that open source developers are building with MapGuide Open Source," said Lisa Campbell, vice president of geospatial solutions at Autodesk. "This network of professionals brings new capabilities to local and regional audiences around the world much faster than Autodesk could, if the software were still proprietary."
One new geospatial project using MapGuide Open Source is the San Francisco Urban Forest Mapping System, a dynamic online resource for residents, community groups and city employees to update and share information about trees within the city's urban forest. As the Urban Forest Mapping Project is a community-based initiative by public and non-profit organizations, MapGuide Open Source was the ideal platform because it offered the flexibility to adapt the technology to suit the project's unique needs. The project partners plan to contribute the Urban Forest Mapping Project technology to the open source community for the benefit of other cities or organizations. The source code for the map will be released to the open source community at http://www.sftreemap.org/.
In addition to MapGuide Open Source, Autodesk contributed its Feature Data Object (FDO) data access technology as an open source project to OSGeo. Autodesk is also a sustaining sponsor of OSGeo, further showing their support of the open source community.
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration. The foundation's projects are all freely available at http://www.osgeo.org/ and useable under an OSI-certified open source license.
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com/.
NOTE: Autodesk, AutoCAD and Autodesk MapGuide are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. OSGeo and Open Source Geospatial Foundation are trademarks of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation in the USA and/or other countries. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
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