Conference Hosts
TriMet’s Web Mapping Project commenced with an alternatives study that was presented at last year's GOSCON. The analysis concluded with a strategy to replace the existing proprietary system with an open source solution in 6-12 months. Right on schedule, within the past year TriMet has successfully released a new mapping system built entirely on open source components and open standards demonstrating the effects of interoperability and the cost savings potential for government agencies. The mapping software stack, which is standards compliant with specifications from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), consists of GeoServer, OpenLayers, Grails and Postgresql/PostGIS. It supports a robust and scalable infrastructure for interactive web mapping and provides an enterprise foundation for centralized geospatial data management. The session will start with an overview of the relevant standards and open source projects by Tim Schaub, a core contributor of OpenLayers and a part of The Open Planning Project, the non-profit that leads development of GeoServer. Then Nathan Banks from TriMet will share the real world experiences of working with the system to build a user friendly scalable mapping solution. Lessons learned and benefits realized will be explored, as well as hints on how to avoid potential pitfalls. The talk will conclude with a demonstration of the live service, demonstrating the interoperable capabilities and 'mashup' potential of the system.
Mr. Schaub is a geospatial software developer for The Open Planning Project. He works on developing, promoting, and supporting open source components of web mapping applications. Mr. Schaub has been developing internet applications for over a decade, has worked on geographic information systems for seven years, and has specialized in bringing spatial data to the web for over five years.
Mr. Banks is a GIS Data Analyst with TriMet. His work at TriMet involves geographic analysis and the interpretation and presentation of quantitative and spatial data. Additionally, he provides GIS and software training to TriMet staff. Mr. Banks has over six years experience in GIS and has worked as a consultant in the public transit and environmental engineering fields.