3OCT2006

ADAGUC

Webservices, aka Geoservices

The realisation of an SDI at the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (VenW)

Wim de Haas, projectmanager

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 2

Outline

• Aim of this presentation• Brief introduction of the Ministry• Geoservices• OSS• Historical perspective and user view• Pittfalls beyond the usual suspects• Conclusions

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 3

Deliverables ADAGUC

• Open Source conversion tools• Selected atmospheric datasets in GIS

format• Web service to demonstrate the

usability of the above to the geospatial and atmospheric community.

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 4

Aim of this presentation

• To share experiences on the development and use of OS Geotools

• To give inside information on the practical use of OSS in a central government, showcasing Geoservices

• To give some points of view on the mechanisms in the OSS field

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 5

Putt’s Law

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 6

The Ministry of Transport, etc.

The core tasks of V&W are:• to offer protection against floods • to guarantee safe and reliable

connections over land, water and through the air

• to ensure clean and sufficient water

• Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is the executive branche of the Ministry of Transport

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 7

Water-based infrastructure

Water-based infrastructure under Rijkswaterstaat management :

State-managed waters: approx. 850 km of major rivers, approx. 300 km of major canals; North Sea; Delta region; Wadden Sea; IJsselmeer region

• Flood defences: 300 km out of a total of 3565 km of primary flood defences

• Water management structures: 10 dams, 9 discharge sluices, 2 guard locks, 50 navigation locks

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 8

Land-based infrastructure

Land-based infrastructure under Rijkswaterstaat management :

• 3250 km of main roads (of which > 2100 km of motorway), approx. 1000 km with traffic control systems

• 14 tunnels, 7 road traffic control centres, 91 DRIPs, 51 Entry Point devices, 11 rush hour lanes, 5 wildlife overpasses

Total economic value: approx. EUR 25 billion

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 9

Geoservices (1)

Geoservices solutions facilitate communication between departments:

• By standardizing on open interfaces• Using OGC standards• Design principle: All applications will be

designed as a network of services • The motto: Build whatever you want to

build guided by Geoservices, unless you have solid reasons to go without

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 10

Geoservices (2)

• Geoservices = Open Standards• Geoservices = Architecture built on OGC

interfaces (WMS,WFS,WCS,SLD,GML)• Geoservices =

– Data visualisation– Data access– Data discovery– Metadata

• Current focus on technical interoperability, not semantic interoperability

• BTW: VenW, so KNMI too, is member of OGC

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 11

Geoservices (3)

Bind

Publish

Registry

Requestor Provider

Find

2. Requestor localizes data/service

1. Provider publices data and services at Registry

3. Requestor start service

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 12

Geoservices (4)

OSS :

• Mapserver v4.8

• GDAL

• OGR

• Chameleon v2.4

• GeoServer v1.0

• Deegree v1.0

• Mapbuilder v1.0

Proprietary software :

• IONIC RedSpiderWeb, Catalog, Enterprise

• ESRI ArcGIS, ArcIMS, ArcSDE

• Oracle Spatial 10g r1

• LizardTech

Still: GIS friendlyness is our focus

netCDFWCS support funded by

NASA

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 13

OSS (Thanks to Paul Ramsey)

• By definition: software in which the code is available for distribution and modification

• A lot to choose from: BSD, MIT, GPL, LGPL

• What makes some OSS projects successful and others not?

• Can we measure the success of OSS projects?

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 14

Successful OSS projects and how to measure them

A community of shared interest is what drives a successful project

• The software itself is designed in a modular manner

• The software is extremely well documented

• The software core design and development process is transparent

• The core team itself is modular and transparent

• IP rights: provenance tracking

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 15

Outline

• Aim of this presentation• Brief introduction of the Ministry• Geoservices• OSS• Historical perspective and user

view• Pittfalls beyond the usual suspects• Conclusions

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 16

Historical perspective: Gartner (2003) on Open Source Applications

2000-2004: Under the radar

Me-too extensions

User is developer

Basics in place

Innovation

Start Geoservices

Technical maturity

Skills availability

Service and support

Change management

Risk management

Total costs

Relevant standards

Geoservices considered a stable

product

2006-

Trusting?

Stack alignment

ISV support

Acquisition costs

Product ‘repurposing’

Niche roles

Awareness Geoservices

2004-2006:

Experimenting

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 17

Historical perspective:OSS: Real Benefits, Hidden Costs

Open-Source SoftwareOpen-Source Software

Selection/Audit Fees

Disposal and

Replacement

Costs

Internal Support

Skill Transfer

andTraining

Internal Maintenance

andDevelopment

PoliticalHype

SocialMovement

Mktg. Hype

MutualDev. Model

LicensingModel

Benefits

No Licenses(Upfront or Upgrade)

No Over-

commitment

No Supplieror License

ManagementNo OngoingMaintenance

PeerSupport Groups

Quality Assurance

After Gartner 2003

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 18

Political hype

• Motie Vendrik 20NOV2002: government shall stimulate the use of OSS and open standards, pursuing that in 2006 all government bodies shall adopt open standards

• Succeeded by a statement of the minister of Economic Affairs on 2FEB2004: new legislation to lower the barriers for smaller and younger companies to do business with the government

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 19

Costs: Internal maintenance and development

• DIY: you’re at the steering wheel• Fun if you like it: change management,

release cycles is more of an issue compared to traditional software development opportunities for OSS companies (packaging)

• It’s all about creating trust both internally and externally

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 20

Benefits: Quality guarantee

• OSS provides an excellent tool for keeping ALL vendors on edge: true interoperability is not something written down in a white paper, but proofs itself only in real production environments

• OSS fits the equation

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 21

Remember Putt’s Law?

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 22

The not so obvious pittfalls (1)

First comment on Putt’s Law: • A third type of people can be identified

who neither manage nor understand the technology, whether it be OSS or Open Standards: the end-users

• And after all, why should they?– Why rebuild everything we already have– Open standards may be working, but what about

my functionality?

• A technology driven programme contrasts with functionality driven users

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 23

The not so obvious pittfalls (2)

Users, management and IT have different perspectives:

• Users are data centered, IT is services centered, and management has a strong budget focus and they all have different timescales

• In R&D environments end-users are developers too

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 24

Concluding remarks

• Everybody can exchange geo-information via the geoservices framework

• OSS is not for the faint at heart• OSS is not longer developer centric, but

instead, users are becoming more into play

• After burner: the only successful SDI’s are backed up by legislation: European Water Directive, INSPIRE

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 25

Some application screenshots

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 26

Implementatie 2

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 27

Implementatie 3

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 28

Implementatie 4

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 29

URL’s

http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/apps/geoservices/portaal/

http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/services/geoservices/basispakket/dtb?

http://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/services/geoservices/basispakket/grenzen?

3OCT2006

ADAGUC 30

Questions?

Wim de Haas

mailto:w.c.a.dhaas@agi.rws.minvenw.nl