terrestris – WebGIS im Intra-/Internet, DesktopGIS sowie Geodatenmanagement mit freier und OpenSource-Software



News

The city and the first day of the conference – terrestris at FOSS4G: days 2 and 3

Impressionen von der FOSS4G 2010

vom 8. September 2010

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Barcelon, here we come – terrestris at FOSS4G: day 1

Impressionen von der FOSS4G 2010

vom 6. September 2010

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

FOSS4G next week

Limited service by terrestris

vom 1. September 2010

Next week the FOSS4G will take place in Barcelona and terrestris not only is a Bronze-Sponsor but will participate with 6 people in this event. That implies that we can still be reached by e-mail but not so easily by phone. By the same token we will be concentrating on the conference and work less on our projects. We hope for your understanding and that you will bear this in mind when trying to communicate with us next week.  For all who are unable to come to Barcelona we will be providing some written accounts of proceedings in this spot so that you can also get an impression of what is going on there. So please visit again frequently next week.

terrestris uses green electricity

terrestris switches power provider

vom 23. August 2010

The company terrestris is actively protecting the climate. Since August 2010 we are powering the office in Bonn through electricity derived 100% from renewable sources and delivered by the company ENTEGA. Thus we are protecting the climate – albeit in a very small fashion.

Answer questions and win the OpenLayers-book

OpenSourcePress verlost Jansen/Adams: "OpenLayers - Webentwicklung mit dynamischen Karten und Geodaten"

vom 5. August 2010

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Renewable energy atlas online

Test version activated

vom 15. July 2010

The interactive map portal “Energy Atlas” focusses on the subject of renewable energy in the Emscher-Lippe-Region. terrestris was instrumental in the technical concept. Under the URL www.energieatlas.org the new portal concerning renewable energy is presented by the county Recklinghausen, the WiN Emscher-Lippe GmbH, the Association to further the use of Renewable Energy in Gladbeck (VEE) as well as the cities of Bottrop and Gelsenkirchen.
Stakeholders and other parties interested in “Renewable Energy” are invited to participate in the Energy Atlas. Organisations wishing to be listed in the Energy Atlas can contact the people responsible directly at www.energieatlas.org/kontakt.php. The official activation and presentation to the public is planned for the end of September 2010.

Start of Mongolia project

MoMo kick-off in Magdeburg

vom 7. July 2010

On Friday July 02, 2010 the kick-off meeting for phase 2 of the MoMo-project took place at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Magdeburg. The following 12 organisations plus terrestris belong to the project consortium:

Since not all organisations participated in phase 1 of the project there was a dense program of talks to inform everybody about past activities and about the work that lies ahead. Apart from this there was an intense and detailed discussion about the future collaboration which will culminate next in a kick-off meeting in Mongolia due to take place in the week from September 19 to 26 in cooperation with our Mongolian partners.

BLE awards contract

terrestris and SimpleThings to develop a SDI

vom 25. June 2010

The Federal Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (BLE) houses the competence center for geo-information and remote sensing (CC G+F) of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). Due to these circumstances the BLE is tasked to develop and operate a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) within the portfolio of the BMELV.

The companies terrestris and SimpleThings created a successful bidding consortium as in the case of the geoportal Berlin/Brandenburg and were awarded the contract to implement the SDI using open source software components. terrestris is looking forward to the collaboration with all participants involved!

Open Source Park at the InterGEO 2010

terrestris assumes planning task

vom 11. June 2010

For many years projects and companies engaged in free software projects dealing with geographical information systems had the opportunity to present themselves in a special area termed Open Source Park at the trade fair InterGEO. In 2010 it is also envisioned to provide the same service to exhibitors from the open source sector as in past years to present themselves. The company terrestris has been using and developing free software for years now which is one of the reasons why we agreed to adopt a coordinating role in the planning of this years’ Open Source Park. In this we will closely cooperate  with the organisers of the trade fair and the companies which assumed this role in recent years.

terrestris involved in scientific project

Integrated water ressources management in Mongolia

vom 4. June 2010

It is essential in Mongolia to manage water ressource in a sustainable fashion. This necessity led to a project lasting 3 years funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in which various organisations from Germany dedicated themselves to this task with scientific and practical methods. The project termed MoMo was tremendously successful so that it was extended for another 3 years also with funding from the BMBF.

The company terrestris is very happy to join in in phase II of the project and will be responsible for geodata management. More information about the progress of the project will be published at frequent intervals on these pages.

FOSS4G accepts 5 contributions by terrestris

Talks in English

vom 25. May 2010

During the FOSS4G conference in Barcelona in September there are 120 presentation slots consisting of 30 minutes each. In total more than 360 presentations were submitted. terrestris also proposed some talks and is happy to announce that the following presentations were accepted:

  1. “What You Type Is What You See: Comparing two web-based open source approaches to display the results of spatial SQL queries”
  2. “Comparing TileCache, GeowebCache and MapProxy”
  3. “GeoExt and MapFish Client components – how to migrate”
  4. “Comparison of SOS-Servers: UMN, deegree and 52°-SOS”
  5. “Putting things together: Geonetwork opensource, OpenLayers, GeoExt and MapFish under the roof of Drupal CMS – Geoportal RO as an example”

You are invited to come to Barcelona and listen to the presentations.

terrestris still growing

A warm welcome to you, Johannes Weskamm!

vom 5. May 2010

Who would have thought as much: 2 months ago the terrestris team was complemented by Christian Mayer and today we are happy to announce that another new team member has been found. Starting May 1st 2010 Mr. Johannes Weskamm joined our team for initially 2.5 days per week since he currently has another contract with the University Clinic in Cologne lasting until June 30th. After that Mr. Weskamm will work full-time for terrestris.

Johannes Weskamm studied geography, geology and cartography at the University of Cologne. Amongst others he has worked for professors Bareth and Fink at the University of Cologne. terrestris extends a warm welcome to Johannes and looks forward to the collaboration!

AmeiN! manual online

Creative Commons Licence

vom 29. April 2010

AmeiN! has not been maintained by terrestris for a number of years but every so often someone would like to have a manual. Since this also is not being kept up to date we provide it ‘as is’ under a Creative Commons Licence on the internet today and are happy with the people for whom it is of use. You can download the manual here.

terrestris sponsoring FOSS4G 2010

Bronze Sponsor

vom 28. April 2010


FOSS4G Conference

The international meeting place for the GIS industry using free and open source software is the FOSS4G conference. This year it takes place in Barcelona lasting from September 06 – 09. terrestris as an active member of this community will contribute to the agenda through various talks and, for the first time this year, acts as Bronze Sponsor to also support the event financially.

We are overjoyed!

Our book has arrived.

vom 26. April 2010

The happy parents ....

The happy parents ....

“IT – THE BOOK”
17,6 x 24,1 x 1,8 cm
approx. 400 grams

saw the light of day after a lot of parental care.

Although still very young it likes to talk about
OpenLayers and web development using dynamic maps and geo data.

These stories, although not fairy tales, are so riveting that we don’t want to deny you this joy. Just follow this link and get your personal copy today (sorry, in german only).

Till Adams und Marc Jansen

Developer needed!

Vacancy to be filled immediately

vom 21. April 2010

The company terrestris is still looking for a developer to reinforce our team. You can find the job description here. We look forward to your application!

ILEWS: Integrative Landslide Early Warning Systems

Project ends in April with topic still hot

vom 20. April 2010

In April 2010 a lot of things are going on on earth: The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano underneath the like named glacier in Iceland keeps most of Europe busy and airplanes on the ground, while in Brasil and South Tyrol landslides took the lives of numerous people.

The last mentioned event is somewhat connected to the work of terrestris: Since 2007 terrestris is involved in a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) dealing with “Integrative Landslide Early Warning Systems – ILEWS” led by researchers from the University of Bonn and the University of Vienna. The project is researching methods for landslide early warning systems with one study area located in the Swabian Alb and another site in South Tyrol. The project will end on April 30, 2010 but current events underline that these research activities are still hot topics.

ifgi Spring School in Münster

Abridged report of the ifgi Spring School in Münster

vom 7. April 2010

An employee of terrestris participated in this years Spring School at the ifgi (Institute for Geoinformatics) of the University of  Münster. Within the 10-day program three short block courses with innovative topics of GIScience were attended:

Besides introductive and deepening lectures the knowledge was consolidated by practical exercises:

Within the block “Similarity” a research proposal about the perception of “near and far” was developed. Therefore an analysis of the cammunity-based geonames data set and its “nearby” tag was introduced in order to determine the different understandings of “near and far”.

Developing a raw concept of integrating self-organizing maps (SOM) in current research projects was another task. Here a possible usage of SOM in a landslide early warning system was presented. Therefore the applicability of SOM within the ILEWS project, in which terrestris is partner, was analyzed: By sensor observations on endangered slopes and information on real landslides a derivation of critical measurement combinations could be possible.

We thank the organizer for the free of charge participation including a felicitous social program.

OpenLayers trainings

terrestris featured in Open Source School agenda

vom 1. April 2010

The authors Marc Jansen and Till Adams wrote the book “OpenLayers – web development using dynamic maps and geodata” (sorry, in german only), which is being published in April by Open Source Press. Who would be more suited to introduce interested people to the subject of OpenLayers than the two authors. The company terrestris is very happy that the Open Source School has included this training course in its’ agenda. There is more information on contents, requirements, costs, etc. (sorry, also in german only) here.

terrestris participated in Geoinformatik 2010

Hot topic OpenLayers, Geoext and MapFish

vom 23. March 2010

The conference Geoinformatik 2010 took place from March 17 to 19 in Kiel at the Christian-Albrechts-University. A comprehensive and eclectic agenda induced approximately 400 people to visit the conference. Although the talk by terrestris regarding “OpenLayers, Geoext and MapFish” was located in the last session before the end of the conference on a Friaday it was attended by about 60 participants. The subject matter concerning interactive cartography on the internet using Web 2.0 techniques is a hot topic at this point in time, so the comparatively high number of listeners is attributed to this fact.

LINUX magazine reporting on FOSSGIS 2010

FOSSGIS 2010 in LINUX-magazine

vom 10. March 2010

The Linux-magazine has three articles related to the FOSSGIS 2010 conference: first the Opening of the conference, secondly the lightning talks and the keynote and last but not least reporting about the OpenStreetMap focus.

Our impressions of FOSSGIS 2010 in Osnabrück

Extended FOSSGIS-conference a success

vom 9. March 2010

The annual FOSSGIS (Free and OpenSource Software for Geographical Information Systems) conference is a highlight of the year for terrestris.

The conference took place from March 2nd to 5th 2010 in Osnabrück on the campus of the University and College. This year one more day was added to accomodate the first german speaking OpenStreetMap-conference. Besides free software as a natural focus of the conference a second emphasis was on free geodata provided by the OpenStreetMap-project. We deem this development to be very positive.

What was the conference about? The whole OSGEO-software-stack concerning PostgreSQL/PostGIS, UMN Mapserver, Geoserver, OpenLayers, Mapbender, Mapfish (and others like GeoExt) was represented through high quality talks regarding applications and future potentials. From our point of view the program was balanced regarding the components used as well as the target audience. Attendance of the conference was surprisingly international: Of course there were lots of participants from german speaking countries like Austria, Switzerland and Germany but you could also meet people from the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

Besides the conference itself traditionally a number of user- and developer-meetings take place. As an example we can mention the Mapbender-Development-Sprint on March 05th where Marc Jansen represented terrestris. For a first time this year a “Birds of a Feather”-session (a presentation type known from the international mother conference FOSS4G) regarding “GeoJQuery” took place. Interested developers met here to discuss a new open source project that aims to combine the easy to use JavaScript-library jQuery with the geographical competence of OpenLayers.

We were delighted as every year to meet customers and colleagues and discuss with them the developments of the GIS business. Besides maintaining old contacts a significant number of new contacts were made. We look forward to the work involved in following up on the ideas developed during the conference. In addition to this we often received congratulations for having written a book on “OpenLayers – web development with dynamic maps and geodata (sorry in german only)“.

Conclusion: We would like to thank the organisers of the conference for a wonderful event (cue: catering). A demanding but very successful conference came to an end and we already look forward to the next FOSSGIS. When and where FOSSGIS 2011 will take place is as yet unknown but you can help find a location by joining the discussion on FOSSGIS e.V..

The company terrestris at the FOSSGIS (sorry, all talks in german):

Successful start of FOSSGIS 2010

terrestris gives a number of talks

vom 3. March 2010

Marc Jansen gives keynote speech

Marc Jansen gives keynote speech

Yesterday, March 2nd 2010, the annual FOSSGIS conference got off to a good start and for the first time in its’ history covers a four day program. One major innovation this year is the prominent participation of the OpenStreetMap project, that is dedicated to producing free geodata. Through this participation a gap that was perceived by many is being closed since any information systemprofits from accurate and up-to-date data.

terrestris has helped to shape this years’ program, as we did in past years too, by submitting a number of talks. Marc Jansen gave the keynote speech of the conference titled “HTML 5, ECMAScript 5 and the cloud – Potencials for future WebGIS applications”, while Till Adams held a much noted talk on “There is no alternative to OpenLayers ….?”. All talks are in german only unfortunately but will be available for download at the end of the conference here.

New team member found!

A warm welcome to you, Christian Mayer!

vom 1. March 2010

We are glad to announce that our search for a new colleague was successful. Starting on March 01, 2010 Mr. Christian Mayer will complement our team initially on 2.5 days per week since he still has a contract with the University of Bonn until June 30, 2010. After this date he will work full-time for terrestris.

Christian Mayer studied geodesy and geoinformatics at the University of Mainz in the working group of Prof. Alexander Zipf. terrestris extends a warm welcome to Christian and looks forward to the collaboration!

Job posting: We need more man power

Aktuell sucht die Firma terrestris wieder nach neuen Mitarbeitern, die unser Team verstärken können.

vom 12. February 2010

We are hiring again. Are you interested to get involved in our team?

Please read the German job posting for details.

(Deutsch) FOSSGIS 2010

Treffen Sie terrestris vom 02. bis 05. März 2010 auf der FOSSGIS 2010 in Osnabrück.

vom 9. February 2010

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Meet terrestris at ‘Geoinformatik 2010′

terrestris will give a talk ...

vom 2. February 2010

terrestris will participate in the conference ‘Geoinformatik 2010′ which will take place from March 17 to 19, 2010 in Kiel. The motto is „Die Welt im Netz“ which translates to “The world online”. terrestris will give a talk titled “OpenLayers; GeoExt and Mapfish” which will introduce the named components and provide some examples. You can find program details here (in german only):

Merry Christmas …

... and a successful year 2010!

vom 22. December 2009

The terrestris-team thanks all customers, partners and friends for the confidence you have placed in us during the year of 2009 and wishes everybody a peaceful christmas and a successful year 2010!

Contract signed to create Geoportal Berlin/Brandenburg

terrestris was awarded the contract to implement the portal.

vom 21. December 2009

The ordnance survey of the german province of Brandenburg invited a tender to implement a geoportal which was to play a central role in the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of the Berlin/Brandenburg region. The geoportal is to serve citizens, administrations and businesses as a central plattform to receive information about available geodata and -services. Another important objective is to visualise the aforementioned data. Basis for the geoportal Berlin/Brandenburg will be adaptations of the geoportal in Rhineland-Palatinate and the internet pages of the SDI Berlin/Brandenburg.

The company terrestris today signed the contract to implement the portal and looks forward to working with all parties involved.

terrestris voted into MapFish PSC

Till Adams will help steer the MapFish project.

vom 21. December 2009

MapFish is a framework with which one can easily establish web based map applications. Since many developers worldwide are working on this project it makes sense and is also prescribed by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) that a project steering committee be established to decide in which direction the project evolves. Voting for the PSC took place in a completely open process and we are very happy to announce that Till Adams was voted a member of the PSC consisting of 5 people. Congratulations!

OpenLayers book

OpenLayers - Web development with dynamic maps and geodata by Till Adams and Marc Jansen

vom 10. November 2009

In the spring of 2010 the Open Source Press publishing house will publish the OpenLayers book that was written in german by Till Adams and Marc Jansen. In this book the two authors show how to enhance a website with an interactive map. They explain, using a lot of practical examples, how geodata from different sources can be put to use according to the individual focus of the application. Unfortunately this book is only available in german.

FOSS4G a success!

The trip to Australia was worth our while.

vom 28. October 2009

Considering the location of this years FOSS4G in Sydney, Australia

The famous opera in Sydney, Australia

The famous opera in Sydney, Australia

this meant a trip half way around the world for a lot of protagonists. So, with 420 registered participants the conference was not the largest when it comes to numbers but can be deemed a great success nevertheless. One central observation that was made is of Open Source GIS projects becoming more mature and that their visibility within the GIS-world has increased. This is substantiated also by sponsors like SAFE Software (FME) or Autodesk.

Looking at the webmapping sector that is especially interesting for terrestris one can safely say that Web 2.0 has arrived. Amongst others projects like MapFish and geoext have supplied important impulses for our work.

terrestris gladly went half way around the world to participate in this years FOSS4G and will do so again – albeit not so far – next year when the FOSS4G takes place in Barcelona, Spain. Nos vemos.

TERENO goes down under, too

terrestris will deliver a talk concerning Terrestrial Environmental Observatories during the FOSS4G 2009

vom 7. October 2009

terrestris was offered another time slot for a presentation during the FOSS4G in Sydney, Australia, which we gladly accept. On Wednesday, October 21 from 13:30 to 14:00 hours we’ll be presenting results from work we did for the Forschungszentrum Jülich (a renowned german research institution) in conjunction with the project Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO). The talk will be about the visualisation and interpolation of environmental data in an open source WebGIS.

Contract signed to create Geoportal Raumordnung for Baden-Württemberg

terrestris and reichert+partner were awarded the contract to implement the geoportal. The contract was signed in Stuttgart today.

vom 1. October 2009

The ministry of economics of Baden-Württemberg, the regional councils as well as other governing bodies intend to set up a comprehensive geoportal for regional planning for the whole federal state. A major goal of the geoportal is the provision of user oriented products, processes and services as part of the spatial data infrastructure of Baden-Württemberg in an open, service-oriented infrastructure. This geoportal will help comply with the INSPIRE directive and the law governing geodata access that is to be passed in the future.

The companies terrestris and reichert+partner from Tübingen are tasked with the implementation of this portal. The subsequent contract was signed in the ministry of economics in Stuttgart today. terrestris is looking forward to the collaboration with all project participants.

Successful InterGEO 2009 in Karlsruhe

During the InterGEO terrestris had good talks with visitors from Germany and abroad and therefore deems the fair participation a success

vom 28. September 2009

terrestris participated in the tradefair InterGEO from September 22 to 24 in Karlsruhe and deems it a great success. Many conversations on a high professional level underline the quality of this meeting point for the geoinformatics business. For the first time this year an ‘Innovation park for young companies’ was organised in which terrestris took part due to the involvement in the research project ‘Integrative Landslide Early Warning Systems – ILEWS’. Most visitors were intrigued by the applications realised for the Forschungszentrum Jülich, the University of Copenhagen and the cities of Soest and Wolfsburg that use, amongst others, the open source components OpenLayers, MapFish, PostGIS und GRASS.

New Mapbender version 2.6 released

terrestris congratulates the Mapbender project team on releasing the new version 2.6

vom 23. September 2009

Just in time for Intergeo 2009 the developers of Mapbender released a new version of the software and portal site for geodata management of OGC OWS architectures yesterday.

Version 2.6 of Mapbender (direct link to download) shows many improvements and new features, especially in the areas digitisation, GUI management und general administrative tasks.

Congratulations to the Mapbender-Team! We are happy to be able to test the new functionality now.

HOBEDATA.DK goes down under

terrestris will give a live presentation of the project www.hobedata.dk in the demo theatre of the FOSS4G 2009

vom 18. September 2009

On Thursday, October 22nd at 12:25 hours (AEST) terrestris will give a live demonstration of the project www.hobedata.dk in the demo theatre of the FOSS4G 2009 in Sydney, Australia. There will be a focus on the JQuery functions (Theming, GRID) that are integrated into the project as well as the flexible data filters.

The aim of the demo theatre is the pure presentation of software and projects without any slides or advertisement. The demo theatre has been an inherent part of the FOSS4G for the past 3 years.

OpenLayersButtonGenerator

OpenSource-Skript zum Umfärben der OpenLayers Knöpfe

vom 27. July 2009

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

terrestris to speak at FOSS4G 2009 in Sydney, Australia

terrestris freut sich bekannt geben zu können, dass am Montag, dem 20. Juli 2009, zwei von Till Adams und Marc Jansen eingereichte Vorträge zur diesjährigen FOSS4G-Konferenz vom lokalen Organisationskomitee angenommen wurden.

vom 23. July 2009

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

terrestris to build city map service for Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg erteilt terrestris den Auftrag zur Erstellung eines Stadtplandienstes.

vom 10. July 2009

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

2.8… die neueste Version von OpenLayers ist da!

OpenLayers, die äußerst beliebte Javascript-Bibliothek für WebGIS-Anwendungen verschiedenster Couleur, ist seit gestern in der aktuellen Version 2.8 verfügbar.

vom 23. June 2009

OpenLayers, die äußerst beliebte Javascript-Bibliothek für WebGIS-Anwendungen verschiedenster Couleur, ist seit gestern in der aktuellen Version 2.8 verfügbar.
Die offiziellen Release Notes für Version 2.8 heben insbesondere die folgenden relevanten Aspekte der neuen Version hervor die auch uns sehr wichtig erscheinen:

  • Control-gestützte Selektion von Features aus mehreren Vektorlayern,
  • Snapping und Splitting von Vektorgeometrien (insbesondere für Digitalisierfähigkeiten relevant)
  • Labeling von Vektorlayern mit arbiträrem Text
  • eine explizite GetFeature- und GetFeatureInfo-Control für WMS bzw. WFS-Dienste etc.
  • Neue Layertypen:

Zudem wurden zahlreiche interne Verbesserungen (etwa bei Strategien, Formaten, etc.) integriert und es konnten insgesamt mehr als 30 Bugs behoben werden. Gratulation an das OpenLayers-Team für dieses vielversprechende Release!
Wir freuen uns schon sehr darauf unsere bestehenden Anwendungen auf Basis von OpenLayers und Mapfish zu aktualisieren. Und bei den kommenden Neuentwicklungen werden wir direkt von Anfang an das volle Potential von OpenLayers 2.8 nutzen können.
Wenn Sie Fragen zu OpenLayers, Mapfish oder WebGIS im Allgemeinen haben, so zögern Sie nicht uns zu kontaktieren. Wir zeigen Ihnen gerne die Vorzüge von OpenSource-GIS Software anhand unserer Referenzen.
Gefunden via GIS Blog von James Fee und die OpenLayers-User-Mailingliste.

City of Soest about to renew their WebGIS-pages

Die Stadt Soest wird gemeinsam mit der Firma terrestris das bereits bestehende und sehr umfangreiche WebGIS technisch aktualisieren. Zum Einsatz beim Design der neuen Benutzeroberfläche kommt die bewährte OpenLayers-Technologie.

vom 18. May 2009

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

New homepage

terrestris hat jetzt eine neue Homepage

vom 13. May 2009

terrestris hat jetzt eine neue Homepage

Open Layers Cheatsheet

... ab sofort hier verfügbar

vom 13. March 2009

Unter der folgenden Adresse ist das neue Cheatsheet ab sofort verfügbar.
Sie können dieses Dokument runterladen, es ausdrucken, und verschicken.

http://www.terrestris.de/openlayers_cheatsheet.pdf (PDF, 896kB)

Wir hoffen, dass es Ihnen bei der Entwicklung von OpenLayers-Anwendungen hilfreich ist.