ESRI and others Support Open Source
A press release I confess we missed, explains that ESRI and several other companies have come together for an open source GIS organization generally focussed on spatial data infrastructure (SDI) but initially focussed on sensor web enablement and digital rights management. Those are hot topics at OGC just now. (Thanks to SlashGeo for catching the release; disclosure: I consult to OGC.)
The organization is officially called the 52°North Initiative for Geospatial Open Source Software GmbH (or just 52°North for short) and the companies behind it include “con terra GmbH Muenster, the Westfaelische Wilhelms Universitaet Muenster, the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) Enschede and ESRI Inc. Redlands, USA.”
BTW, the release came from Ann Hitchcock, a member of the 52°North team. She and I went through school together (elementary through high school) and both ended up in GIS. There’s one other GISer (I’ve found), also a woman, from our town who was a year behind us.
