AfriSpatial

Interest in QGIS is growing among high school Geography teachers in southern Africa. Teachers are looking for GIS software that is affordable, easy to use and understand and easy to teach with. They say it’s important to be flexible and creative in the classroom and not be stuck with fixed lesson plans. Hands-on work such as on-screen digitising and map composition is important. Quantum GIS satisfies all these requirements.

Following the recent QGIS workshop in the Western Cape we were invited to present a QGIS workshop at Michaelhouse College in kwaZulu-Natal Province. Twenty-two Geography teachers spent Monday 15th Nov in the Geography computer room learning the basics of QGIS and how it could be used in practical lessons. Bridget Fleming, as a Geography teacher who uses GIS in every lesson, gave an introduction from a teacher’s perspective and gave a background on FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and its history and principles.  Then Gavin Fleming from AfriSpatial and Frank Sokolic from GIS Solutions / EduAction took QGIS through its paces.

Bridget’s tip for teachers who are daunted by technology is: “Just get the kids started and they will teach you the rest!”

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 09:05, HTC HTC Magic

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 09:33, HTC HTC Magic

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:57, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 2.8, 5.7mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 565

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:57, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 2.8, 5.7mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 800

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:57, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 2.8, 5.7mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 518

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:58, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 2.8, 5.7mm, 0.011 sec, ISO 800

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:58, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 2.8, 5.7mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 702

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:58, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 2.8, 5.7mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 800

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 10:59, NIKON COOLPIX L16, 3.5, 9.873mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 400

View at Picasa 15-Nov-2010 14:23, HTC HTC Magic

AfriSpatial and OpenGeo, producer of the OpenGeo Suite, have announced a reseller agreement that will bring the first Enterprise FOSS stack offering to the southern African market. AfriSpatial will assume first line support for the OpenGeo Suite for end users in countries throughout southern Africa, while gaining privileged access to OpenGeo for second line support. Our new relationship with OpenGeo is particularly timely.  South African Government FOSS policy is gaining momentum in implementation, and AfriSpatial will be able to assist end users adopting open source geospatial solutions by immediately bringing in-depth experience with the open source components promoted by OpenGeo.

Chris Holmes, OpenGeo President, remarked: “AfriSpatial has deep experience with the components of the OpenGeo stack dating back to 2004.  We are excited to be working with their team, and are looking forward to the expansion in open source geospatial software use in southern Africa this relationship will make possible.” OpenGeo is well known worldwide for its contributions and leadership in the development and evolution of powerful open source geospatial technologies. The OpenGeo Suite offers a fully integrated open source geospatial platform for serving maps and data through web applications, mobile devices, and desktop clients. The OpenGeo Suite Enterprise Edition consists of tested, integrated and supported geospatial components GeoServer, OpenLayers, GeoWebCache, PostGIS and GeoExt.

With the addition of the OpenGeo Suite to its offerings, AfriSpatial can now fill a major gap in the market—for those organisations needing the lower risk and powerful backing of an enterprise-class product.