A few people were wondering what I’ve been up to since I stopped working for OSGeo back in November. There are two big things going on that I’m excited about.
First, I just hit the one month mark in my new position with Actian (formerly known as Ingres). Some of you will have remembered the work Andrew Ross kicked off a few years ago, adding new geospatial smarts to the existing Ingres db. I’m taking over from where he left off, but what is already there is substantial. We have OGC SFSQL support in there as well as several data access libraries able to interact with the database (OGR, Geotools so far). We’re working on other features and 3rd party toolsets so our clients can access their spatial data using a wide range of both proprietary and open source solutions. Already an Ingres db user? I’d love to hear from you about what geo needs you may have. The upside to the Ingres db is the availability of long term and 24/7 support, as well as being open source and built with familiar geo toolkits like Proj.4 and GEOS. More to come as I find my feet …
Second, and on an entirely different note, you may have noticed that my Locate Press venture is going to have its first book for sale shortly. Gary Sherman’s updated The Geospatial Desktop (formerly known as Desktop GIS) is coming out of the chute following a review of our first proofs. Sign up on the form at http://locatepress.com to be the first to hear when it is available. Visit Gary’s book site for more information as well: http://geospatialdesktop.com. We have a few other books in the works as well, including a workshop training guide on Web GIS and more.
All-in-all, a great way to start a new year! I’m looking forward to finding new and interesting ways to continue working with the range of open sourcerers friends that I’ve enjoyed working with over the past decade.
See you soon!