[location-iwg] Chris Holmes, OpenGeo

[Chris Holmes <cholmes@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey everyone, I'm Chris. My role at OpenGeo is now 'chairman', but
basically have done just about every random thing here at some point.

I'm interested in this group for its potential to get even more
collaboration going around open source geospatial software, to try to
bring it really mainstream. Any by mainstream I mean going far beyond
what traditional 'GIS' has established, towards making geospatial a
fabric in all that everyone is doing in the world. You shouldn't have
to stick data in a 'geodatabase' and manage it there - geospatial
tools should work with whatever you've got, wherever it is.

We've been pushing for awhile to help bring open source geospatial
software out of its niche, but so far have mostly just focused on
doing so established GIS niches. Would love to work with others on
this list to figure out how we garner the resources to make
proprietary GIS software in to a niche, with open source geospatial
under the hood everywhere. And am definitely psyched on using new
capabilities like hadoop and GPU's to take it to the next level.

Another interest, which may be outside of this particular group, is
helping governments work together more directly. Have them collaborate
on building software for their needs, just like eclipse has
established for commercial company collaboration. Would eventually
love to see some government entities directly in this group (though
not sure if that's just well outside what we're trying to do).

Looking forward to talking, and I could probably make an in person
meeting in DC in may.