[Zope] Mapping tools and Zope - SIG? Fishbowl?

[twiens]

I'm writing to all who responded to my query regarding mapping tools for
Zope or others interested in this issue. In one of the responses, was
the suggestion to start a SIG or Fishbowl.

At this point in time, I'm in a research phase for a project where a
mapping interface will be needed in Zope based web application. We are
starting to move into the design phase and so some technical decisions
will start to be made in the next two months at which point we will
begin building something.

I've received a number of other interesting replies about GIS and Zope
and possible solutions. These have ranged from "I know about this" to "I
use this" to "We should build something". I think there might be
sufficient interest in at least starting a SIG or Fishbowl or separate
list about the problem. Is there??

I'm personally a bit hesitant to even consider building yet another GIS
product. There are many of them out their (see www.freegis.org) for web
display, cartography, spatial analysis, etc. Obviously our interest here
is web interfaces, but these other products are testimony to the
ubiquitous nature of the problem; a good suite of comprehensive GIS
software solutions just doesn't exist, either for free or commercially
(IMHO). The approach my team will likely take on our project will be to
examine existing open source products and determine if there is one that
is sufficient to meet our needs and simply use it. If we can build some
tools around this product to facilitate it's future use with Zope by
others, we will open source those.

I would welcome the discussion of this issue, since it is important and
it is one of the up and coming needs for web applications. I would
welcome feedback from others who undoubtedly have significant experience
and knowledge to bring to this problem.

T
--
Trevor Wiens
twiens@compusmart.ab.ca

The significant problems that we face cannot be solved at the same level
of thinking we were at when we created them. (Albert Einstein)