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Title
CASE STUDY: UPGRADING GUATEMALA'S SDI PORTAL TO A GEONODE
Abstract
The centerpiece of Guatemala's Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) effort is a geoportal (http://ide.segeplan.gob.gt) offering a number of layers served from MapServer and GeoServer. However, the current system felt slow and was not intuitive to use. For example, the functions to pan, zoom, and resize all required selection from the menu, so the user could easily get lost when try to manipulate the map. It also didn't have any features that encourage user participation, like being able to email an interesting map to a colleague. To improve the portal we incorporated the principles of the GeoNode project (http://geonode.org), bringing in several of the technologies behind it. This talk will cover how we incorporated GeoWebCache, OpenLayers, Ext.js, GeoExt and the Google Earth javascript API to transform the portal into a faster, more intuitive interface that was much more attractive to users. It will cover the implementation of features like 3-D view using Google's terrain and Guatemala's orthophotos, tile optimizations with GeoWebCache, and more interactive user experience with GeoExt. Other additions included the ability to add remote WMS's, which is especially useful in Guatemala, where every government institution will soon be providing a web mapping service. We also adapted some code from the OpenGeo Suite to allow users to compose a map of different layers, send it to their friends and even publish the resulting map on their blog. This talk will look at the implementation decisions we made, as well as demo the resulting work. It should show how a couple months of work with the latest open source geospatial software can make a portal that offers a number of compelling user features for a fraction of the cost of proprietary software. Note: (I prefer speak in spanish for the presentation)
Authors
Byron Bobadilla - Secretaria de Planificacion y Programacion de la Presidencia SEGEPLAN
