Download - Software, Licences etc
School of ComputingFaculty of Engineering
Software, licences and other usage issues
Anthony (Ant) Beck
Twitter: AntArch
Potential of satellite images and hyper/multi-spectral recording in archaeology
Poznan – 31st June 2012
Software - Proprietary
Examples
• Erdas Imagine
• ENVI
• ArcGIS
Software - Proprietary
Pros
• Well supported in universities
• Expected by employers
• Tight integration with sensors (ENVI in particular)
• Generic
• Robust?
Software - Proprietary
Cons
• Requires dedicated machines (normally a lab)
• Expensive
• Black-box
Software - FOSS
Examples
• GRASS – The daddy of them all
• Opticks
• Q-GIS
• U-DIG
• Whitebox
• SAGA
• ILWIS
• MapWindow
• Etc.
Software - FOSS
Pros
• Well supported by the community
• Allows development on any machine• You can develop a portfolio of work that stays with you
• Generally cross platform
• Transparent processing• White box (VERY important)
• Open processes are more in-line with CLOUD processing• Workflow orchestration
• Robust
• Extendable by individuals
Software - Proprietary
Cons
• Some interface issues
• There is a perception that FOSS is not as good as proprietary
• Bleeding edge 3d does not always compete with the commercial
Software – Open Source Geospatial foundation
OSGeo: http://www.osgeo.org/• To provide resources for foundation projects -
• To promote freely available geodata
• To promote the use of open source software in the geospatial industry (not just foundation software) - eg. PR, training, outreach.
• To encourage the implementation of open standards and standards-based interoperability in foundation projects.
• To provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via curriculum development, outreach, and support.
• To support use and contribution to foundation projects from the worldwide community through internationalization of software and community outreach.
• To operate an annual OSGeo Conference,
Software – Open Source Geospatial foundation
OSGeo: http://www.osgeo.org/• Live DVD: http://live.osgeo.org/
• A pre-configured XUBUNTU O/S with a range of applications installed and pre-configured (this is excellent )
• OSGeo4W: https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/
• A pre-compiled binary install of different OSGeo approved packages for windows.
• Both the above deal with some of the more complex bindings between applications.
The Future – collaborative computing
Licences - Why are they an issue?
Data is rarely in the ‘public domain’• It is normally available under a licence.
Licences dictate:• Who owns the data
• How you can use data
• How you reference the data
• How you can share/redistribute the data (and any derivatives)
LICENCES ARE REALLY IMPORTANT
Licences – examples: Commercial high resolution satellite
Under a strict license that dictates:• Who can use the data (normally a single organisation)
• Sometimes for how long
• What happens with the derivatives
The license protects their data which protects their income stream
A user does not ‘own’ this data• They use it under licence
Licences – examples: Government\Research satellite data
The licences vary:• Military
• Research grade
• Archive
Much of this data is released to the academic community• Community science (?) initiatives
• The collecting body does not have the resources to analyse the data
• The collecting body captures data on behalf of a broad community
• The data is no longer sensitive or relevant
Examples: Landsat, ASTER, Corona
Licences – examples Landsat 8
Australia will publish images captured by soon-to-launch satellite Landsat 8 online, in close to real time, for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.
“We want to make as much data freely available as possible,” says Jeff Kingwell, the Section Leader of GA’s National Earth Observation Group. “We will move towards a system where we are taking Landsat data in, in near real time.” Data will be corrected to make it usable, then published, all in as close to real time as is practical.
How COOL is that
Licences – examples: Data you OWN
It’s yours! What do you want to do with it?
Licences – Take Home Points
Prior to using data find out the licensing constraints• Licence holders ARE litigious – they have every right to sue you if you
infringe their licence
If you buy data – ensure you licence this for as broad a re-use base as possible (NEVER licence to an individual)
If you own data – always provide it to others with a CLEAR re-use licence • If you want credit include an attribution clause
DO NOT derive maps etc. from Google Earth data – it is illegal
Licences – DART (www.dartproject.info)
DART does the following:• For data under licences:
• Ensures broad access
• Opens data where possible (NERC ARSF)
• Encourages re-use
• For data it owns: gives it away
• Data: Open Data Commons By Attribution licences (http://opendefinition.org/licenses/odc-by/)
• Everything else: Creative Commons By Attribution licences (CC-By: http://opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by/)
• Why
• Open Science
Open Data: Server (in the near future)
The full project archive will be available from the server
Raw Data
Processed Data
Web Services
Will also include
TDR data
Weather data
Subsurface temperature data
Soil analyses
spectro-radiometry transects
Crop analyses
Excavation data
In-situ photos ETC.
Why are we doing this – spreading the love
Why are we doing this – it’s the right thing to do
DART is a publically funded project
Publically funded data should provide benefit to the public
Why are we doing this – IMPACT/unlocking potential
More people use the data then there is improved impact
Better financial and intellectual return for the investors
Why are we doing this – innovation
Reducing barriers to data and knowledge can improve innovation
Why are we doing this – education
To provide baseline exemplar data for teaching and learning
Why are we doing this – building our network
Find new ways to exploit our data
Develop contacts
Write more grant applications
The case for Open Science from Cameron Neylon