The GeoNetwork week (5-9 November) was organized by the FAO Natural Resouces Management and Environment Department (NRCE) to promote communication among the major actors of the GeoNetwork opensource project (users, developers and managers), to keep them updated on the latest software implementations and to work together on planning a new development strategy for the coming year.

The workshop started with two parallel sessions dedicated to the latest version 2.1 of the GeoNetwork opensource software. One session focused on the end users perspective while the other one gave an overview on the underlying techniques of GeoNetwork, the web site administration and the remote harvesting capabilities.

A plenary session took place in the middle of the week to present and evaluate some existing GeoNetwork opensource nodes installed around the world. In particular, FAO, WFP, OCHA, WHO, UNHCR, JRC, CSI_CGIAR, ICIMOD, the GEOSS initiative and the BlueNet project from the University of Tasmania, exposed their experience and highlighted their achievements using GeoNetwork.

Working groups were also organized to discuss new GeoNetwork requirements, prepare a work program and a project strategy for the forthcoming year.

Within the framework of the GeoNetwork Workshop, other technical workshops were held on Open Source Web-mapping and Desktop GIS applications.

Organization

Workshop Date

November 5-9, 2007

Workshop Place

FAO Headquarters - Rome, Italy

Program

Main Session - Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 November

- Presentation of the GeoNetwork Workshop 2007  by Jeroen Ticheler (FAO)

- Partner Presentations

Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping - Spatial Infrastructure Environment  by George Mu Ammar (WFP-VAM)
Open Approaches to Geographically Referenced Data at the World Health Organization  by Jason Pickering (WHO)
GeoNetwork, a GeoPortal platform for supporting strategies and sustainability assessment tools for urban-rural linkages  by Jean Dusart (JRC)
CGIAR-CSI Consortium for Spatial Information - GeoNetwork Project  by Enrica Porcari (CSI-CGIAR)
Distributed Spatial Data Management through GeoNetwork at ICIMOD  by Kiran Shakya (ICIMOD)
GeoNetwork opensource and GEOSS  by Archie Warnock (A/WWW Enterprises)
Presentation by Simon Pigot (BlueNet)

- Working Groups Major Outcomes

The major outcomes of the working groups have been summarized in the following activities described and published on the GeoNetwork opensource Developer website:

The Advisory Board and the Project Steering Committee confirmation
The Release Strategy
The Proposals Page

Technical Workshops - From Monday 5 to Friday 9 November

- GeoNetwork Training (Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 November)

- Presentations

- GRASS/QGIS (Monday 5 November)

 The Geo Graphic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is an open source Geographic information System (GIS) used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling and visualization.  Quantum GIS (QGIS) is another open source GIS that can be used as an alternative GUI for GRASS. 

Introduction to the software packages and hands-on session by Paolo Cavallini (FAUNALIA)

Quantum GIS - User and Installation Guide

- Talend SDI  (Tuesday 6 November)

The Talend SDI is an open source data integration solution specialized in the manipulation of geographical information.
Spatial ETL is powered by Talend: Towards an Open Source spatial ETL.
 
- Presentations

Camptocamp & Talend Presentation, Talend Overview  by François-Xavier Prunayre (Camptocamp)
Camptocamp and Talend Presentation (short version) by François-Xavier Prunayre
Improving Management of Data & Metadata in Information Systems... using OpenSource (GeoNetwork, Talend SDI)  by François-Xavier Prunayre

- OpenLayers (Tuesday 6 November)

OpenLayers is an open source JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers. It provides an Application Programming Interface (API) for building rich web-based geographic applications similar to Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth.
OpenLayers was created by MetaCarta and released as open source software by MetaCarta Labs. OpenLayers is in the process of incubation into Open Source Geospatial Foundation.

- Presentations

Introduction to the software and hands-on session by Erle Schuyler (NoCat.net)

- GeoServer (Wednesday 7 November)

GeoServer is an open source server that connects the spatial information to the Geospatial Web. With GeoServer you can publish and edit data using open standards. Your information is made available in a large variety of formats as maps/images or actual geospatial data. GeoServer's transactional capabilities offer robust support for shared editing. Geoserver's focus is ease of use and support for standards, in order to serve as 'glu' for the geospatial web, connecting from legacy databases to many diverse clients.

- Presentations

Presentation of the GeoServer Workshop  by Andrea Aime

- Hands-on Sessions

GeoServer Practical Sessions  by Andrea Aime

- OpenStreetMaps (Wednesday 7 November)

OpenStreetLayers is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free greographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways. The project collects data with GPS units, upload into a common database, and draw roads and geographic features, all with open source software and complete open access, like wiki.

- Presentations

OpenStreetMap Brighton v. 0.999  by Michel Maron

OpenStreetMap - A Disaster Waiting to Happen  by Michel Maron

- HR-WebGIS: A pilot WebGIS platform to support Returnee Monitoring in West Darfur (Thursday 8 November)

The HR-WebGIS is a pilot open source Web GIS platform developed by INTERSOS, with the technical support of the research center FBK-irst and its spin-off MPA-Solutions, to support returnee monitoring in Southern West Darfur (Sudan) for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

- Presentations

Introduction to the HR-WebGIS  by Alessandro Guarino (INTERSOS)
Introduction to the Technonogical Infrastructure  by Steno Fontanari and Stefano Menegon (MPA-Solutions)
The Techcnological Infrastructure of the Monitoring System by Steno Fontanari, Stefano Menegon and Paolo Brunetti (MPA-Solutions)
Spatio-temporal Gap Analysis for the UNHCR-INTERSOS WEBGIS using OpenSource Software by Giorgio Guzzetta and Cesare Furlanello (FBK-irst)

- Spatial Data infrastructure for Transport (UNSDI-T) Framework (Thursday 8 November)

The United Nations Joint Logistic Center (UNJLC) presents this SDI that is developed to support the logistic on UN Organizations and missions.

- Presentations

UNSDI-T Progress Report  by Nicolas Chavent (UNJLC)

- GIEWS WorkStation (Thursday 8 November)

The GIEWS Workstation is a geographic (GIS), web based information system managing spatial datasets, satellite images, tabular and text data, designed to fulfill the growing demand for food security-related information at global, national and sub-national levels (e.g. localized agricultural production, international market trends, health and nutrition, etc.). The Workstation is funded by the European Commission within the framework of the EC-FAO Food Security information for Action Programme.

- Presentations

Introduction to the GIEWS Workstation  by Fabio Grita (FAO)
Metadata in the GIEWS Workstation  by Silvia Cerilli (FAO)
GIEWS Workstation & GeoNetwork Integration - Technical Description  by Emanuele Tajariol (FAO)
Food Security and Agriculture Statistics - Data Standardization and Harmonization  by Gladys Morales (FAO)
GIEWS Workstation - Communication Module  by
Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL) by Fabio Grita

- gvSIG (Friday 9 November)

gvSIG is an open source tool oriented to manage geographic information. It is characterized by a user-friendly interface, with a quick access to the most usual raster and vector formats. In the same view it includes local as well as remote data through a WMS, WCS, WFS source.

- Presentations

Introduction to gvSIG: A GIS desktop solution for an open SDI  by Michael Gould (Universitat Jaume I), Arturo Beltran (Universitat Jaume I), Victor Olaya (University of Extremadura), Francisco Peñarrubia (indipendent consultant).

- Hands-on Sessions

Exercise 1: Data Visualization
Exercise 2: Visual Analysis
Exercise 3: Using Remote Services
Exercise 4: Editing
Exercise 5: Working with Geoprocesses
Exercise 5b: Geoprocessing
Exercise 6: Raster Georeferencing
Exercise 7: Map Authoring

- WFP VAM PDA Survey Software (Friday 9 November)

The (PDA) Personal Digital Assistant survey software is a small hand-held computer that provides facilities for taking notes, storing data and retrieve information. Data from PDA is synchronized with desktop/laptop computers via cable or wireless transmission. PDA is pen based and uses a stylus to tap selections on menus and enter printed characters. The PDA survey software was developed by WFP-VAM for household survey and to support effective humanitarian decision making.

- Presentations

PDA-based Data Collection  by George Mu Ammar (WFP)

Participants

List of Participants and their Contact Details