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News Office. gvSIG project writes "Dear Users,

This is to inform you the gvSIG project has created a repository that will allow access to all the builds that it generates.

Within the developing phases of gvSIG, prior to the published versions in the official web of the project, there are builds being generated. The builds are used internally to test new features, they are extremely unstable and do not have the entire features of the program. Certain builds could end up being official versions. Allowing users free access to the builds will let them test the new features in which the developing team is working at the moment and evaluate the development state.

The URL to access the builds is:
https://gvsig.org/web/projects/gvsig-desktop/devel

If you are interested to see the latest features of gvSIG that are being developed, you can download the last build of the "trunk" version (branch 12xx) called "1211". In this build you will have access to new tools for the raster, remote sensing, advance symbology, etc.

On the other hand, the application is being restructured in a way that it will allow in the future to improve the actual stability of the program as well as offering an API easier to be developed. These builds are included in the "20xx" series.

We hope this initiative contribute to the understanding of the gvSIG project by the community as well as facilitate the collaboration with voluntary testers."

It may be sensationalism, but strange nonetheless. From the ESRI Spain conference incident thread, writen by one Spanish company employee supporting gvSIG: "Ok, some coworkers of him went to Madrid few days ago to attend the Annual ESRI Users Conference. Because IVER has customers that use ESRI technology they, as every year, wanted to know the latest "arc-news". Obviously they registered previously and they were confirmed by the organization. Well, when they tried to register at the beginning of the conference, the Marketing Director invited them to abandon the conference. Even more, the Managing Director of ESRI Spain insisted one of the IVER people that "to talk with customers, better she should go to a café or on the street". Quite annoying and bizarre!" You can read the whole thread to learn more about reactions and also look at the original entry in Spanish.

The EiS offers links regarding Google's Android getting free turn-by-turn satnav via AndNav2 and OpenStreetMap and OpenRouteService. From the Earth is Square summary: "An article on PocketPicks and GAB about an navigation application for the Android enabled mobile phones called AndNav2. The application uses street data from the OpenStreetMap project and can give turn-by-turn directions in Germany, France, Denmark, United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Austria & Ireland." See also related stories below.

iknowjoseph writes "Juan Lucas Domínguez Rubio has announced the release of gvSIG Mobile for Openmoko; the first time the software has been made available for handhelds not based on Windows Mobile:

Features include:
Browsing Spherical Mercator remote tile services (OpenStreetMap layers and Yahoo Maps Satellite layer).
Easily configurable access to standard WMS servers (version 1.1.1). The application applies a tile approach.
Support for the vector data file de facto standard (ESRI shapefile, *.shp).
Access to GPS device via Gpsd. A rotating arrow shows on the map indicating position and heading. Coordinates are also shown.

Screenshots, link to the source, installation instructions etc available from Juan Lucas' blog." We mentioned Openmoko before and gvSIG plenty of times. This is an interesting step for mobile (e.g. on phones) open source GIS.

This is an extract from a personal email. It's obviously very incomplete and you are welcomed to share additions and corrections in comments below. The context is a discussion about the user-friendliness of today's open source geospatial software. Here below you'll find direct links to screenshots of popular OSS software, all previously mentioned on the site (see related stories below).
"You are absolutely right with saying that documentation and user-friendliness has not been a strength of geospatial open source software in the past, but that has significantly changed in recent years and is still evolving very rapidly. Before I give a list of examples of the top of my head (experts could provide even more insights), I'd like to focus on this: sharing information and knowledge is the key here. Even if the benefits of open source geospatial software can surpasses its inconveniences for many applications, stakeholders must be aware of all the opportunities available to make the best technology choice possible otherwise people just stick with what they know, even if it's not the best solution.

Examples of some open source geospatial software that are now "user friendly":
** GIS:
* Quantum GIS can be considered quite user-friendly. It is far from being as full featured as ArcGIS, but can do surprisingly a lot, especially with the GRASS GIS plugin that unleashes serious geoprocessing power within the QGIS graphical user interface.
* There are plenty of other open source GIS that have good graphical user interfaces: uDig, OpenJump, gvSIG and several others.

** Web mapping:
* Autodesk's MapGuide Open Source also have map authoring tools such as Maestro and Fusion.
* OpenLayers.org while one can simply copy existing examples, there's OpenLayers Architect and LiziLayers that offers enhanced WYSIWYG capabilities.
* The MapFish.org framework also a Studio too now.
* You can even generate web maps directly from within the Quantum GIS interface.

** Other:
* Several other open source geospatial software can be considered quite user-friendly for what they do (e.g. GeoServer). Others, such as PostGIS (GUI tool), are probably as 'user-friendly' as other spatial RDBMS are. Even OpenStreetMap has a feature-rich GUI for editing maps.

This list is obviously incomplete (I'm still no expert! ;-), but I hope it does convince you that open source geospatial has come a long way in the recent years and is continuing to improve at a crazy rate. That said, yes, advanced proprietary software is still very appropriate (even required!) for some applications, it really depends on what you want to do! But one must also be aware of all the options at hand."

gvSIG Project writes "It is available already for gvSIG the normalization extension. This extension allows separating chains of text in different parts and storing them in table fields. These chains of text can have their origin in plain text files or in the different records of a table field. It is available in the Extensions section of the gvSIG web page. Advice: To install this extension you must have correctly installed gvSIG 1.1.2 version." See also related stories below.

News Office. gvSIG Project writes "The 5th Edition of the gvSIG Conference, organized by the Regional Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (CIT), will be held from December 2nd until December 4th at the Feria Valencia Convention and Exhibition Center, and will once again host the eclipseDay.

In these difficult times when collaboration is most important, we cope with the adversities together with the aim of coming out strengthened by them. We continue moving ahead together. This is part of the gvSIG project and through this approach we keep on growing. This is our slogan for the fifth edition of the gvSIG Conference: We keep growing.

The call for papers for the Fifth Edition of the gvSIG conference is now open. As of today communication proposals can be sent to the email address: contacto-jornadas-gvsig@gva.es; they will be evaluated by the scientific committee as to their inclusion in the conference program.
There are two types of communication: paper or poster. Information regarding to regulations on communication presentations can be found in the report's section. Abstracts will be accepted until September 21st .

Organizations interested in collaborating in the event can find information in the section: How to collaborate?"
gvSIG has been mentioned several times in the past, see selected stories below.

gvSIG Project writes "Buenos Aires will host the 1st Latin American and Caribbean gvSIG users' conference [1], organized by the National Geographic Institute of the Republic of Argentina and the gvSIG Association, with the slogan: "Cooperation is Growth"

This conference will serve as a meeting point to an increasing number of experts and stakeholders in free geomatics, to share experiences and exchange ideas. It will be a turning point towards consolidating the Latin American gvSIG community.

During the conference the latest advances in the gvSIG project will be presented such as the uses and solutions based on gvSIG that are being carried out in diverse Latin American countries; projects that closely follow the international interoperability standards and which are also more sustainable.

Participation in this conference will be open to any person or organization interested in providing a communication and proposals can be sent for evaluation by the Scientific Committee.

The call for communications proposals is open from today until July 27, 2009. Information regarding regulations on communication presentations can be found in the communication's section on the conference's webpage [2].

[1] http://www.gvsig.org/web/community/events/jornadas -lac/2009/
[2] http://www.gvsig.org/web/community/events/jornadas -lac/2009/Comunicaciones"
See some previous gvSIG stories below.

gvSIG 1.9 has been released, read more below to read the full announcement. GeoMusings shares a summary: "The new features in 1.9 are summarized here. Some of the new features, including SLD import/export, are pretty interesting. gvSIG seems to be flourishing a bit under the wing of OSGEO." See also related stories below, we regularly mention gvSIG. There's also an unofficial gvSIG Mobile 0.1.5 now available.