The Polis Center is pleased to announce SMARTEDGE: Smart Government, Smart Environment, Smart Communities, a series of presentations on the positive role of science and technology in support of sustainability and quality of life.

The first of these free public events, “The Evolution of Open Source GIS and Its Applications for Big Data Analysis and Smart City,” will be held Friday, May 6, from 12:30-3:00 p.m. in the Ambassador Meeting Room at Sleep Inn & Suites and Conference Center, 1244 W. 16th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202. Check-in will be held at 12:30, with the program beginning at 1:00 p.m. Register here.

Featured Presentation:

The use of open source geographic information system (GIS) software is increasingly considered one of the GIS implementation options for local governments and companies in the USA. Over the past few years, the market share of open source GIS based solutions has gained momentum as more competitors are entering the field, providing better IT integration opportunities, and addressing such issues as the lack of proper software support.

This presentation will shed light on the current state of technology in open source software, and answer questions related to current situation and future technology trends in open source GIS. Topics include strengths and weaknesses of open source solutions, the extent to which open source GIS software is used in local government operations, big data, cloud architecture, and crowd sourcing. The talk will also feature technical demonstrations of successfully implemented real-world solutions based on open source GIS platforms.

Internationally-Recognized Open Source GIS Leader Presenters:

Anthony Calamito is the Federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Boundless, which is based in Canada. Anthony has more than 12 years of experience as a Lead Solutions Engineer and Solutions Architect with GIS for the Defense and Intelligence communities. He is also an adjunct instructor at George Mason University in Virginia, where he teaches Introduction to GIS and Geographic Theory and Analysis, and is an American Geographical Society Fellow.  Anthony received his Bachelors of Science in geography with a focus on GIS from The Pennsylvania State University. In his role as CTO, Anthony helps guide the overall technical strategy for the company and serves as a bridge between customers and engineering to ensure development tasks and enhancements are documented and properly meet customer requirements.  In addition, he helps to identify and qualify business development opportunities, as well as develop marketing materials in conjunction with overall marketing message framework.

Ahmed Osman is the founder and chief technology officer of Cartologic, based in Giza, Egypt, which is focused on bridging the gap between proprietary GIS and the freedoms offered by open source GIS. He has been involved in all phases of GIS-based information system development since 1993, including database automation development and management, and applications development and maintenance, database design, application and system design, systems integration, project management, and consulting. Prior to founding Cartologic, Ahmed worked at Esri–the market leader of GIS–for 10 years as an application developer where he implemented several successful applications and enterprise GIS-based projects.

About the Series

SMARTEDGE: Smart Government, Smart Environment, Smart Communities is sponsored by the Polis Center at IUPUI and its partners. The presentations are designed to share and discuss ideas and issues and/or expose the audience to solution and technologies pertaining to smart cities and their linkage to sustainability and resilience, policy and governance, and the overall well-being of communities.

SMARTEDGE guest speakers are thinkers, idea-generators, and implementers of smart city initiatives from industrial, research, governmental, and community entities. The series is geared for those with interest in any of the issues surrounding the concept of the smart city, whether technologic, economic, policy, service, or impact-wise.

Series presentations are expected to cover one or more of the following topics:

• Issues and concerns related to the data infrastructure underpinning smart city solution (e.g. big data, standards, data interoperability, data privacy, security)
• Capability of technologies (state-of-the-art, trends, integration, service scales, implementation issues, e.g.)
• Economics of implementation (cost of infrastructure and technology, return of investment, e.g.)
• Governance of the systems and adaptability to the changing demands of citizens, business, and political leadership
• Technical demos
• Any other topics that are deemed relative