Geophysics: 2010 Predictions: GIS Software
A couple of days ago, in the heat of a stick coffee made by my mother-in-law We were doing some hallucinations about the trends set for 2010 in the Internet area. In the case of the geospatial environment, the situation is more static (Not to say boring), A lot in this is already said in the medium term by the big brands, but not to waste the cup of coffee this time and the preamble of year-end, here goes.
Commercial software (not free): Few news. The positioning between ESRI, Bentley and AutoDesk seems not to vary, (At least in the Hispanic environment) And as for innovation for almost five years that the novelty of the xml and interaction with OGC standards ceased to be surprising.
Also much to be said, improving the vectorial editing capabilities in the GIS and visualization in the CAD are issues that go for long.
Thus, in the case of AutoDesk, The most we will see is AutoCAD 2011, in which people are already getting used to the contextual tape (Ribbon) and begins to entertain how valuable that occasion came. It is possible that Civil 3D will give us surprises, but not much, the maturity of the software and the balance for not disorienting users with many crazy things will remain. Also as we know, AutoDesk does not make extreme news in odd years (Release, Not Calendar), Only makeup, this reassures us as we will see a new format .dwg up to 2011 when AutoCAD 2012 is announced.
In case of Bentley We will see more crazy things, but only at the level of extreme smoking. I-model At the moment it will only affect Project Wise and Publisher, also at the proposal level, because in my opinion Bentley seeks to recover its added value from Select and disseminate the XFM, which it plans in the medium term we will not see in 2010. Perhaps for this year let's look at the first implementations of Bentley Hotels Participating in the Be Inspired, That yes, should be smoked to the sublime, of which I have three slight presentiments that I prefer not to reveal.
As for ESRI I do not have the slightest idea of what we could expect, An 9.4 version?, I doubt it. For tools with that level of positioning (in sales and piracy) it is difficult to feel that you can mature more, although the friends of the Open neighborhood Have it on the wall Macondo.
As for the Manifold GIS It would be most aggressive, possibly before June we will see Manifold 9. In the little that we have read in the magisterial wills that Dimitry releases, I perceive insistence with CUDA And continue to force people to the 64 bits, which is what they call speed. A shame, because for a long time these should enter into agreements with the greats, at least with the dwg and dgn formats that have remained at a begging level justified in their irony that oscillates between reality and bad taste.
If something is to be expected of Manifold is that these friends yes that smoke Of the green, We would not be surprised if they add many more crazy functionalities to the toy, which little by little improves its position compared to the big ones. But in my opinion, we will see more crazy at the database and interoperability level, little at the vector construction and editing level.
Open source: Looking for sustainability. Nobody said this is not commercial, the terms Free and not free they are adequate to separate the segments.
Mere appreciations, but in my opinion, gvSIG with its version Stable 1.9 Continue to solve small bugs and create alliances that will give you sustainability and positioning. This term seems complicated, if we give the microphone to sociologists, I like it better how agronomists describe it:
Some trees do not constitute a forest, because there must be a favorable environment and a certain amount to be considered sustainable.
In case of GvSIGIt will have to follow those alliances that it has initiated towards Europe, the interior of Spain and Latin America. A basic reason: Who will give continuity to crazy versions like Windows 7 if to the Generalitat Not very interested to continue with Don Bill Gates, or the thousand flavors that are in the Linux repositories. And for this, you need to create hybrid context sustainability networks: academia, private sector, public sector, that can be ready for when we see things from gvSIG 2.0.
The case of the role played by initiatives such as OSGeo, FIG y Open GIS Consortium, It is expected that they will continue to move the floor on the farm, with greater representation of the Hispanic community and balance between what Free and not free.
The others not free, We are likely to have a new version of Portable GIS, that update stable platforms and integrate a couple more screwdrivers. In my opinion, we will see little new with the others that have already reached maturity, such as Quantum GIS, Grass and Udig; They have more pressure to build sustainability than to make innovations.
I do not rule out interesting news, what happens is that like small initiatives (not free), their ability to make noise have little impact on the Hispanic environment. At least, not like gvSIG, that with each little nail Get the jolota to fly, A strategy that has worked more for being systematic than for the size of the brad; And that builds sustainability.
If for me, I would drop some preferences that I have for the Software not free, What happens is that gvSIG has to think about Widows users, (95%) that with 90,000 plots suffer the slowness of the Java environment and that different policies prevent them from switching to Linux as well Romp.
Also much of the open source Around what happens with MySQL, now that Oracle has The perfect smoker between the second and third finger (Plus the third). Partly good, because many do expect crazy news coming out of PostgreSQL and PostGIS.
Other herbs: Lo Unpredictable. Google Earth, in my opinion in about three years could have many capacities for construction and analysis on the Scullion Kml and OGC services. It is likely that the fact of Plug it in to Braca As standard To the Consortium Will bear fruit on third-party developments, this would make Google insist on giving it the value it deserves (to them), A navigation platform Gorilopólica. (The latter is understood in the context of UTM 15 and 16 zones plus the effect of this lady's coffee
What else could I say, this is the neighborhood of products that hang around here. CadCorp, MapInfo and SuperGIS are from another neighborhood, and this keeps the post in the myopia of the local farm.