A seminar held last week to celebrate Software Freedom Day, saw presenters demonstrating active working solutions using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), including for Geographic Infor-mation Systems (GIS).
FOSS refers to software which is widely available using licences which allow free redistribution, reuse and modifications, unlike some commercially available applications. Most of the software is available free of cost and includes a range of applications like Libre Office for word processing and other productivity uses, the Linux operating system, VLC media player, and others. The use of FOSS avoids copyright infringements. According to a press release from the facilitators, governments around the world have adopted FOSS and recently, the Italian Ministry of Defence announced it was moving to use LibreOffice.
The release said Donielle Dundas, a lecturer at the University of Guyana Berbice Campus, believes that FOSS is a solution to the problem of limited IT resources in schools since the cost of licences is removed. She conducted a research project with Lenandlar Singh on how FOSS could be used in Guyana’s schools and the results are available at http://jiped.ub.ro/index.php/arhive/1548, the release said. Her view was endorsed by a lecturer in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences who teaches GIS and is gradually moving to QGIS as the software for teaching. QGIS is free and open source.
The release quoted GIS specialist Naseem Nasir as saying, “It is the responsibility of the IT personnel to determine, with the input of the users, the maturity of the solutions available.” He presented on his project, ‘A Practical Appli-cation of QGIS in a Study of House Lot Utilization’ and spoke in reference to the slow adoption of open source software. He is of the opinion that the reason for the slow adoption is that there exists a significant lack of IT departments playing meaningful roles in the business planning and direction of organisations. Nasir used QGIS and Libre Office to show that there are low cost options for government agencies to help with administering state resources, including land.
Another presenter, Roxroy Bollers, the release said, uses Open Data Kit (ODK) as a solution to achieve fast and consistent data collection. ODK Collect is an application which allows persons using mobile phones to collect data once they have the appropriate forms downloaded to their mobile phones. One of his projects was part of the community monitoring, reporting and verification (CMRV) of forest resources in Gunns Village, Konashen, some 500km from Georgetown.
The participants at the event talked about the potential for quick data collection in the health sector and for the population census and in other projects. One UG student in Forestry is using the ODK as part of her final year research project, the release said, adding that a utility company is also using FOSS GIS and ODK software.
According to the release too, Donald Singh is part of the collaborative project in the national resources sector (GLSC, GGMC, GFC and EPA) that has created Guyana’s Geoserver Portal at http://www.geoserver.ggmc.gov.gy/. This portal provides geospatial data and services for citizens. The portal has road, drainage, administrative, mining, forestry and samples of various layers from agencies. The intention is to allow agencies and individuals to add geospatial data they may wish to share or make available to third party applications, such as Google Earth or even display it as a live map on their own website. The data is owned and managed based on the security settings set by the person uploading the data, but uses the Open Data Model. The portal is built using free and open source software. Many of the persons who were in the gathering were surprised that such a portal had been formed, the release noted.
Meanwhile, the release said that Lance Hinds, the CEO of Brainstreet Group who sponsored the event facilitated a short discussion on the urgent need for an enabling environment to encourage IT as an economic sector, and to leverage the use of IT especially in the public sector.
Presentations are available from the blog at http://churchroadman.blogspot.com/2015/09/it-in-education-house-lot-utilization.html. The seminar was held at the Herdmanston Lodge in Queenstown, Georgetown.
