%0 Journal Article %J Open Source Business Resource %D 2009 %T Editorial: Geospatial (March 2009) %A Dru Lavigne %A Dave McIlhagga %X The recent emergence of MapQuest, Google Earth, Garmin GPS, and many other modern geospatial products make it seem that mapping technologies are a relatively new component of today's information technologies. In fact, the mapping industry was one of the original adopters of technology when geographic information systems were first developed over 40 years ago. The fruits of this backroom technology, once the domain of highly trained specialists, is now being leveraged by hundreds of millions, if not billions, of consumers around the world. Open source geospatial technologies have followed this same path from niche technology to mainstream component and are now critical to many of the applications that business and consumers use on a daily basis. Google Earth, for instance, incorporates a critical component of the open source geospatial stack to deliver satellite imagery to several hundred million installations around the planet. In the following articles, you will learn more about how these critical niche technologies have evolved from small grassroots activities to thriving technology projects under the umbrella of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, and ultimately into key commercial components of industry. %B Open Source Business Resource %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %8 02/2009 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/233 %N February 2009 %9 Editorial %1 Talent First Network Dru Lavigne is a technical writer and IT consultant who has been active with open source communities since the mid-1990s. She writes regularly for O'Reilly and DNSStuff.com and is the author of the books BSD Hacks and The Best of FreeBSD Basics. %2 DM Solutions Dave McIlhagga is the president and founder of DM Solutions Group Inc., a leader in web mapping solutions delivery since 1998. Dave has positioned DM Solutions Group as a leading provider of commercial products and services to the open source web mapping community. Recently he has led the company's effort to bring high quality custom mapping to consumers through MapSherpa.com, to be launched in spring of 2009. Dave is a former Board member of the Open Source GeoSpatial Foundation and an active contributor to the open source geospatial movement. Prior to founding DM Solutions Group, Dave was a leading developer of one of the industry's first web mapping technologies at TYDAC Research. Dave graduated from Carleton University with an Honours Bachelor's degree in Geography, concentrating in Geographic Information Processing.