Re: On the links between FOSS developers and the academia

On Wed, Aug 17, 2005 at 10:38:32AM +0300, Ari Jolma wrote:
> I'm interested in the links between the GIS industry and academia. By 
> "GIS industry" I mean also FOSS GIS, of which a growing part is outside 
> academia. How could we strengthen the link between the academia and the 
> developers of the free GI software?

I have some general remarks:

- IMHO, a GIS methodology should be explained in general
  and then tried in practice with at least two different
  tools.
  Students learn to know that there are alternatives
  and how to evaluate them. A qualification I miss for many
  students.
  Hopefully at least one of the tried tools is a Free Software,
  because students can actually look at the implementation
  of a discussed algorithm - wow!

- If ever something is implemented during studies, the result
  should be Free Software. Even better is to start upon
  a Free Software and invent something new rather then
  invent the wheel again. Contributing to a existing project
  improves a lot more skills than just geoinformatics. Good
  for the students.

Both, the proprietary and the Free Software GIS industry will
be interested in such students.

Best

	Jan

-- 
Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/
Intevation GmbH                      http://intevation.de/
Kolab Konsortium               http://kolab-konsortium.de/
FreeGIS                                http://freegis.org/