Foreword

For novices and geospatial experts alike, mapping technologies are undergoing as significant a change as has been seen since mapping first went digital. The prior introduction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other digital mapping technologies transformed traditional map making and introduced an era of specialists in these new geographic technologies. Today, an even newer set of technological advancements are bringing an equally massive change as digital mapping goes mainstream. The availability of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), broadband Internet access, mass storage hard drives, portable devices, and most importantly web technologies are accelerating the ability to incorporate geographic information into our daily lives. All these changes have occurred simultaneously and so quickly that the impact of only a fraction of the full potential of spatial technologies has yet been felt.

In parallel with the exciting opportunities that modern technologies are providing the digital geospatial universe, a less broadly known but perhaps far more important phenomenon has emerged: a new world of open source collaboration. Open source development and user communities, along with a healthy commitment from industry, are filling the growing need and demand for spatial technologies for making better decisions and providing more information to the growing mapping needs of technology users. In a multidimensional world, geography forms a common framework for disseminating information. The open source community and industry is filling that need at a growth rate unmatched in the industry.

In an age when web technologies have erased the distances between peoples of different continents and nationalities, this book and the technologies behind it remind us of the continued importance of place in the world in which we live. Mapping has always highlighted the differences and variations that occur over space; but at the same time it has reminded us that we share this world with our neighbors, and our actions have impact beyond ourselves. Hopefully, web mapping technologies will help to bring this powerful information to all of us for our common future good.

If you are reading this book without ever having heard of Geographic Information Systems or Remote Sensing, you are not alone. It is for you that the publishing of this book is so timely; it is now that mapping technologies are for the first time becoming readily accessible to the broader IT world. The incredible wealth of information provided in this book will allow you to interact with the open source mapping community as so many have already done, and will one day allow you to help the many others that will follow.

I hope that this book will, if nothing else, engage you in understanding the power that mapping information can bring to your web presence and other IT needs regardless of whether you are with an NGO, a small or large corporation, or a government organization. The importance of this book cannot be overstated. It comes at a critical stage, when two phenomena with tremendous momentum are coming together: the emergence of Open Source mapping technology, and the availability of technologies enabling digital mapping to become accessible by the masses.

Dave McIlhagga

President, DM Solutions Group