Introduction¶
The Open Source GIS Stack by Kartoza is maintained in the Kartoza / osgs repository.
What is the Open Source GIS Stack?¶
In the open source geospatial world, there are many different interesting technologies that have been developed to allow users to manipulate, analyze, visualize, publish, manage, edit, and otherwise interact with geospatial data. These technologies are often maintained in disparate projects, often performing various specialty or niche core functions.
Naturally, many of these projects overlap in functionality, which may make it difficult for users to choose between technologies (an issue sometimes exacerbated by the natural extensibility of open source applications).
Some programs, like the QGIS project, are often ensemble applications that take some of these different technologies as components and use them to provide some higher level functionality. In some cases, this integration is in silos or vertical applications, which only offer a part of the required functionality to achieve a complete Spatial Infrastructure.
Geospatial applications typically rely on Spatial Data Infrastructures, or SDIs, to achieve their objectives by managing data, services, and publication objectives.
An example of a commonly utilized Open Source Geospatial Stack might be QGIS Desktop, PostGIS, and Geoserver, although there are many different stacks and processes in use today, with multiple variations of each.
Of course there are numerous other functionalities, such as web publishing or content management and discovery as well which need to be considered as well.
The aim of this project is to take a number of these projects and components and incorporate them into a single cohesive platform, lowering the barriers for entry, reducing the learning curve, and easing the deployment and maintenance of infrastructure components so that spatial data users can focus on solutions.
By taking various services and solutions that are easily available and offering them within a consolidated platform, the objective is to provide simple and effective end-to-end solutions based on open source geospatial technologies.