Mapping software highlight at USU conference
A software project that began 10 years ago when Idaho State University assistant professor Dan Ames was a graduate student at USU has taken off – downloaded more than 250,000 times – and recently was the subject of an entire conference, held March 31 – April 2 in Orlando, Fla.
MapWindow GIS was written to provide software developers a basis for their own map-based programs, which can then be used in simulations, models and analysis, said Jeff Horsburgh, a USU assistant professor with the Utah Water Research Lab (UWRL) who worked with Ames on the project from its inception.
Ames described it as a component, or window, that allows mapping capabilities to be added to existing software. It can be used for anything from agriculture models to tracking taxis in cities and more.
“For example, you could ask it, ‘If I cut down all the trees, what will happen to the water quality here?'” Horsburgh said.
He called the myriad operations that MapWindow can perform “decision support systems” and said it was originally designed to support projects going on in the UWRL at the time.
“It turned out to have quite a lot of utility outside of those projects,” he said. “It really took on a life of its own.”
Because similar software is commercially available at a price of several thousand dollars per copy, commercializing MapWindow wasn’t the most cost-effective option. Horsburgh said that instead, they made MapWindow open-source software – free to the public, and open for changes and improvements by whoever has something to add to it.
Now, Horsburgh said, the sustainability of the downloadable program, which was originally developed using grant money for projects that needed services like the ones MapWindow offers, comes from the thousands across the country and world who use and change it.
Most of the larger scale improvements to the software are now happening at ISU through Ames’ work there, and Horsburgh said his team is working on version six of the program.
“While I wrote much of the first version,” Ames said, “it was quickly apparent that it needed more programmers with better skills than me.”
This team included not only Horsburgh and other higher-level faculty assisting in the technical aspects, but also six or so student programmers from the computer science and then-business information systems – now management information systems – departments.
The biggest issue facing the program is the ever-changing world of technology, Horsburgh said. Incorporating technological advancements and preparing for the next ones makes it a continuous effort to keep the program updated.
Ames said that as one of several dozen attendees at the First International MapWindow GIS Users and Developers Conference in Florida, he was made more aware of the importance of the program and its continual use and improvement, making it a viable alternative to the expensive options for similar software.
Others at the conference included representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, several universities and private companies. More than 9,000 people are registered, regular users of the software, which can be found at http://www.mapwindow.org, and Ames said many more are unregistered.
“It’s important to note that this started 10 years ago and opened up this kind of software to a broader base of users, and that it’s still being used,” Horsburgh said. “It’s not something we did and then stopped. It’s something that is ongoing.”
He said some funding from the National Science Foundation is being used to develop new features for the next version of the software.
– chelsey.gensesl@aggiemail.usu.edu