Perhaps you’ve heard the buzz: Esri presented a keynote talk at FOSS4G? Yes, and if you read a bit of context it should not be so surprising, at all.

Many of us at Esri have participated in one way or another in FOSS projects. Most recently Esri has supported the continued development of the GDAL library which is a key component inside most GIS software products out there, and also we have open-sourced a few key extensions to the ArcGIS platform: the ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension and the Open Street Map editor for ArcGIS desktop. In my case, previous to coming to Redlands my university research group (information systems students) worked with commercial software and also developed software as part of one of a major FOSS project. FOSS projects tend to foster a ‘warm and fuzzy’ sense of community collaboration, and at Esri much of our effort to support the education community is based on this same spirit. Anyway, my previous experience and personal relations with members of the Barcelona organizing committee resulted in an invitation for me to deliver one of the keynote talks last week.

It came as no surprise to most people in the audience last Wednesday, that we neither announced a full transition to the open source business model nor tried to convince FOSS developers that they were on the wrong path.

The title of the presentation was “Shades of grey: opportunities for collaboration” and the main (intended) message was that the world is not, in fact, black and white: exclusively FOSS or commercial. Most IT experts agree that the norm these days is a mix of both. This was expressed by Paul Ramsey in his 2009 FOSS4G keynote talk in Sydney (see slide 3 of my presentation), citing a quote by The Economist magazine.

My 2010 presentation slides are publicly available at http://www.slideshare.net/mdgould/foss4g2010esri

Allow me to step through the slides and provide some minimal context so you can get an idea of the spirit of our message.

• Slide 2: Imagine how much we could accomplish is we worked together rather than building artificial walls between us, separating supposed black/white worlds.
• Slide 3: Ramsey’s use of the quote from The Economist (image from someone’s cellphone)
• Slide 4: A clearer version of the 2009 quote. We note that this quote goes both ways: yes, FOSS is gaining respectability but this is not to say that it is becoming the exclusive choice; a blend is normally the preferred solution.
• Slide 5: Harvard Business School researchers have suggested that open/closed, all or nothing, is not a realistic dichotomy; rather there are grades of openness of both the core and the extensions of an organization’s software offering.
• Slide 6: This is the matrix they use to situate software in 1 of 4 quadrants. We argue that the ArcGIS platform resides in the lower left box, and is slowly rising a bit to occupy parts of the upper left.
• Slide 7: One example of ArcGIS open extensions is the collection of Resource Centers being created, including openly published code and sample. Shown here is one example of a software extension that combines python code linked to the R geostatistics package.
• Slide 8: Searching on “arcgis” in CodePlex, one can find 14 projects offering source code, including the Open Street Map editor for ArcGIS desktop. 14 is a modest number, but we hope that these baby steps are recognized and not ignored or derided.
• Slide 9: A close-up view of the OSM editor project page.
• Slide 10: Esri supports the OSM project by including it as a default basemap in its desktop and webGIS products, as is shown here using the free (of cost; freeware) ArcGIS Explorer Online product. We encourage the entire community to use and to contribute to OSM. Of note here, is that the OSM tiles are served from University College London: FOSS developers as well as one of the few Esri Development Centers (EDC)…another example of a cutting edge research group that works with both development models, as needed.
• Slide 11: Another move Esri has made in the direction of collaboration with FOSS, was to join the 52 North initiative, headquartered in Munster Germany, to help to move research topics to usable software solutions with open source and commercial (i.e. dual) licenses. 52 North is currently developing extensions to the ArcGIS Server product and also has exposed AGS geoprocessing functionality via OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) interfaces. We encourage you to visit their website and to participate.
• Slide 12: This slide has attracted criticism from FOSS hardcore advocates. Our intention was NOT to try to re brand Esri as an open or open source company by “exploiting the term open for our own purposes”. We intended to show several of the ways in which the ArcGIS platform is opening up to allow contributions, extensions, and collaboration by users and developers. Again, the essence of open is NOT all or nothing, rather there are grades of openness. If critics prefer “more open than before” then we’d be happy to say that.
  The following slides go into further detail on the partner programs and the new REST specification.
• Slide 13: The Esri Developer Network (EDN) program is foreign to many FOSS developers, so we announced a special offer only for attendees of the Barcelona event: a free 1-year EDN subscription for those who expressed interest. (We were pleased to chat later with 40+ institutions that took us up on the offer, and expressed interest in the mixed development environment.) We hope to have news to offer, soon, regarding a mechanism to continue collaborating with independent developers in such as way that ‘lowers the bar’ of entrance into the Esri business partner network. We are extending a hand here…
• Slide 14: We announced the new Esri Non-Profit program, which actually was pre-announced the day before by J. Dangermond at the Gov 2.0 conference. This program brings software prices down to levels similar to schools pricing (i.e. full ArcInfo desktop + extensions for $100) to allow more non-profit organizations to build Esri platform-based solutions that help more people. This is an important announcement because many FOSS4G developers work with or for non-profits. Thus this opens the door, to those who wish, to develop value-added FOSS extensions/solutions on top of the widely used ArcGIS platform.
• Slide 15: We announced the publication (on Sept 7) of the Geoservices REST Specification document, similar to the way in which Shapefile details were shared back in 1997. I invite you to have a look at the document and decide for yourself if it is a valuable way to allow non-Esri servers to be accessed by Esri web apps (i.e. Flex, SL, JS clients) and also for non-Esri clients to access content published by ArcGIS Server instances. 52 North has already implemented the spec on both client and server sides and was able to show demos at their booth during the Barcelona event. The doc is found at: http://www.esri.com/apps/products/geoservices/rest2010/index.cfm
  
• Slide 16: We announced that the ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension (previously GPT) was undergoing a process to make it available freely and with source code, in addition to under a commercial license if wished. GPT users since 2003 have had access to the sourcecode, but now the code is to be published for everyone to use, extend, etc. Keep an eye out for developing news on this important contribution to Spatial data Infrastructure and related projects and initiatives.
• Slide 17: Global cargo transport was absolutely revolutionized via the standardization of containers, which could interchangeably ride on a variety of platforms i.e. truck, train, ship. ArcGIS is a well-known and widely adopted software platform, upon which FOSS developers should consider developing apps. Not exclusively, but in addition to other platforms. Think iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile….multiple options mean being able to reach more people and make more of a difference.
• Slide 18: Continuing on the same platform theme.
• Slide 19: Ending as we started, extending a hand toward collaboration.

Epilogue: some have chosen to bite the hand, but others have contacted us and have entered into conversation about how we can work together in a win-win-win (users also) situation.

Our FOSS4G presentation was a modest attempt to recognize the good work of many in the FOSS4G community, present a few concrete initiatives (not just rhetoric) aimed to show how we are moving slowing toward an area of more fruitful collaboration, and to heighten the dialogue. We plan to work together in this rich, grey area and we invite others to get involved and to supply creative ideas, criticism, and proposals.

If you have questions or comments on this exciting topic, please contact me.

- Michael Gould, Director of Education, Industry Solutions, Esri (mgould@esri.com)