Free visualization software

[Nick Kew]

> 	One other point to consider is that if someone, whether it was done in
> government or outside of it, has gone to the trouble to create some
> visualization software, it may be because no-one in the private sector
> has stepped up to the plate to create something like it yet.  No-one
> likes to reinvent the wheel - at least wise people don't - and for
> anyone to create something unnecessary is a real waste of time.

Me-too-ism?

I should say the opposite is the case, as evidenced by - above all else -
Microsoft, whose entire history is of buying or reinventing ideas at the
point where their commercial value is demonstrated and growing rapidly,
and marketing them.

Governments are different, but with them the bottom line is (still) that
the expertise required to secure govt. funding has absolutely nothing to
do with the expertise required to carry a project through, and it seems
rather unusual for the two to coincide (as evidenced by the track record
of dismal failures in public-sector projects).

Having said that, it looks from here as if the US govt has a better track
record (with the make-it-free-to-the-public philosophy) than ours.

> Clearly, there was/is a need for this kind of thing. 
> 	As far as the commercial software goes, I think many companies are
> seeing the writing on the wall. When IBM takes Data Explorer (DX), one
> of the slickest visualization packages around, and hands the source
> code over to the development community it tells me that something is
> going on...

A big name vendor can market their product, whether or not it has
anything to offer over someone else's.  Smaller/unknown developers
without sharp suits must offer somthing that's *visibly* unique.

Publicly funded developments up the ante, and make non-funded
innovation harder and riskier than in a free market.

Some years ago, my own first attempt at such a product happened to
coincide with the announcement of an EU-funded and marketed competitor.
Despite serious problems with their system, I couldn't hope to compete.
Basically it was an idea whose time had come, and some pointy-hair had
convinced them to fund it.

Once burned .. HyperLens avoids competing with the 'big boys' including
WebWinds, by offering capabilities that are a good deal more novel.
You would use it alongside - not instead of - your mainstream GIS,
and image processing software.  Now the difficulty is that people
get budgets for mainstream GIS and image processing, not for something
they've never heard of...

As for IBM, they have moved heavily into consultancy and support
(like offering commercial support for the free Apache webserver).
I guess releasing their own product is part of the same strategy.

-- 
Nick Kew