Talk: UTM Skudai gets exposed to Quantum GIS

Taklimat: UTM Skudai didedahkan kepada Quantum GIS

Hari ini, saya telah dijemput oleh Fakulti Alam Bina, UTM Skudai, Johor untuk memberi taklimat memperkenalkan GIS melalui Quantum GIS. Ianya dihadiri oleh pelajar asing dan tempatan, oleh itu, dibentang dalam bahasa Inggeris. Pada sesi pertanyaan, saya rasa terdapat minat mengenai open source GIS pada peringkat server dan menerangkan bahawa dalam keadaan Open Source terdapat sedikit perbezaan dengan proprietari GIS lalu menjelaskan fungsi PostgreSQL-PostGIS sebagai pangkalan data geospatial di  peringkat server dan pengguna mencapai data dari server di peringkat desktop menggunakan Quantum GIS dimana output adalah sama. Sekiranya pengguna mahir memasang dan konfigur server, kos adalah percuma, sudah pasti, dengan andaian semua peralatan telah diperolehi. Saya tidak heran maklumbalas seperti tersebut disuarakan sebab terdapat orang yang melihat setup gis server dari sudut pemahafahaman yang mereka sudah biasa. Saya berpuashati telah mempromosi QGIS dikalangan pelajar termasuk pensyarah yang ada belum pernah dengar QGIS, semoga QGIS akan cepat bersebaran di wilayah selatan Semenanjung  Malaysia.

Talk: UTM Skudai gets exposed to Quantum GIS

Today, I was invited by the Faculty of Built Environment, UTM Skudai, Johor to give a talk on An Introduction of GIS - The Quantum GIS way. It was attended by both foreign and local students, thus, the talk was given in English language. After the talk under Q&A, I got the feeling that there was further interest in an open source GIS at the server level so I explained that in Open Source the situation is slightly different from proprietary GIS and illustrated the case of PostgreSQL-PostGIS fuctioning as the geospatial database at the server level and the user retrieves data from the server to the desktop level using Quantum GIS where the output is still the same and if the user was familiar with the installation and configuration of the server, cost would be nill assuming of course the hardware was already available. I am not surprised because some people still see the gis server setup from a proprietary point-of-view which they have been familiar with. Well, I've done my part to promote QGIS among the students as well as the lecturers whom too never heard of QGIS, hopefully the word of QGIS will spread in the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia.