Editor's Perspective
GIF 2010 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 (February)
In her interview in this issue, Mary Irvin, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Source Operations and Management Directorate, highlights her agency’s efforts to make open source GEOINT readily available. Using the old metaphor about feeding people by teaching them to fish, rather than giving them some, she observes, “Our 2010 goal is to teach analysts to ‘fish’—to teach them to go after open source GEOINT as part of their daily operations.”
Efforts along those lines include the Geospatial Open Source Management Authority, which facilitates the transition to an end-to-end global open source architecture, and the GEOINT Open Source Center of Excellence. They are part of a broader movement within the intelligence/analysis community to take more advantage of open source information, such as the Open Source Center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which makes available vast amounts of information from publications, broadcasts and Internet sources around the world.
When most people mention of “open source” and “geospatial” in the same sentence, they’re probably thinking first of the publicly available satellite imagery that is becoming so common on the Internet and in the media. That is indeed a valuable resource, but it’s worth mentioning that the terms can also be applied to efforts to disseminate free, transparently developed geospatial analysis tools. A number of organizations and companies are involved in this area, and their efforts are worthy of attention.
A leader in the field is the Open Geospatial Consortium, which is frequently featured in these pages. Their work focuses on developing standards for sharing information. Another organization is the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, which encourages collaborative development of software. In addition, there is OpenStreetMap, which offers a free, editable map of the world on the Web, as well as companies that will help and guide users of free tools.
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