postgis/doc/introduction.xml

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<chapter>
  <title>Introduction</title>

  <para>PostGIS is developed by Refractions Research Inc, as a spatial
  database technology research project. Refractions is a GIS and database
  consulting company in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, specializing in
  data integration and custom software development. We plan on supporting and
  developing PostGIS to support a range of important GIS functionality,
  including full OpenGIS support, advanced topological constructs (coverages,
  surfaces, networks), desktop user interface tools for viewing and editing
  GIS data, and web-based access tools.</para>

  <sect1 id="psc">
	<title>Project Steering Committee</title>
	<para>
		The PostGIS Project Steering Committee (PSC) coordinates the general direction,
			release cycles, documentation, and outreach efforts for the PostGIS project.  In addition
			the PSC provides general user support, accepts and approves patches from the general PostGIS community
			and votes on miscellaneous issues involving PostGIS such as developer commit access, new PSC members
			or significant API changes.
	</para>
	<variablelist>
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Mark Cave-Ayland</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Coordinates bug fixing and maintenance effort, alignment of
		  PostGIS with PostgreSQL releases, spatial index selectivity and binding, loader/dumper, and Shapefile GUI Loader, integration of new
		  GEOS functionality, and new function enhancements.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>

	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Paul Ramsey</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Co-founder of PostGIS project.  General bug fixing, geography support, 3D, geography, geometry index support, underlying geometry internal structures, GEOS functionality integration and alignment with 
		  GEOS releases, loader/dumper, and Shapefile GUI loader.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>

	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Kevin Neufeld</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Documentation, Hudson automated build, advanced user support
		  on PostGIS newsgroup, and postgis maintenance function enhancements.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Regina Obe</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Documentation, general user support on PostGIS newsgroup, windows production and experimental builds, and 
		  smoke testing new functionality or major code changes.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	</variablelist>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="credits">
	<title>Contributors Past and Present</title>

	<variablelist>	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Sandro Santilli</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>Bug fixes and maintenance and integration of new GEOS functionality and alignment with GEOS releases. Raster support.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Dave Blasby</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>The original developer/Co-founder of PostGIS. Dave wrote the server side
		  objects, index bindings, and many of the server side analytical
		  functions.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	 <varlistentry>
		<term>Jeff Lounsbury</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Original development of the Shape file loader/dumper. Current PostGIS Project Owner representative.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Mark Leslie</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Ongoing maintenance and development of core functions.  Enhanced curve support. Shapefile GUI loader.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Olivier Courtin</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>Input output XML (KML,GML)/GeoJSON functions, 3D support and bug fixes.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	 <varlistentry>
		<term>Pierre Racine</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>WKT Raster overall architecture and programming support</para>
		</listitem>
	 </varlistentry>
	  
	 <varlistentry>
		<term>Mateusz Loskot</term>
		<listitem>
		  <para>WKT Raster support</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Chris Hodgson</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>General development</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Nicklas Avén</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>Distance function enhancements and additions, Windows testing, and general user support</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Jorge Arevalo</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>WKT Raster development</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	  
	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Stephen Frost</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>Tiger geocoder development</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>

	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Other contributors</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>In alphabetical order: Alex Bodnaru, Alex Mayrhofer, Barbara
		  Phillipot, Ben Jubb, Bernhard Reiter, Bruce Rindahl, Bruno Wolff
		  III, Carl Anderson, Charlie Savage, Dane Springmeyer, David Skea,
		  David Techer, Eduin Carrillo, IIDA Tetsushi, George Silva, Geographic Data BC,
		  Gerald Fenoy, Gino Lucrezi, Guillaume Lelarge, Klaus Foerster, Kris Jurka, Mark
		  Sondheim, Markus Schaber, Maxime Guillaud, Maxime van Noppen, Michael Fuhr, Nikita Shulga, Norman Vine,
		  Ralph Mason, Steffen Macke, Vincent Picavet</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>

	  <varlistentry>
		<term>Important Support Libraries</term>

		<listitem>
		  <para>The <ulink url="http://trac.osgeo.org/geos/">GEOS</ulink>
		  geometry operations library, and the algorithmic work of Martin
		  Davis in making it all work, ongoing maintenance and support of
		  Mateusz Loskot, Paul Ramsey and others.</para>

		  <para>The <ulink url="http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/">Proj4</ulink>
		  cartographic projection library, and the work of Gerald Evenden and
		  Frank Warmerdam in creating and maintaining it.</para>
		</listitem>
	  </varlistentry>
	</variablelist>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
	<title>More Information</title>

	<itemizedlist>
	  <listitem>
		<para>The latest software, documentation and news items are available
		at the PostGIS web site, <ulink
		url="http://postgis.refractions.net">http://postgis.refractions.net</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
		<para>More information about the GEOS geometry operations library is
		available at<ulink url="http://trac.osgeo.org/geos/">
		http://trac.osgeo.org/geos/</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
		<para>More information about the Proj4 reprojection library is
		available at <ulink
		url="http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/">http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
		<para>More information about the PostgreSQL database server is
		available at the PostgreSQL main site <ulink
		url="http://www.postgresql.org">http://www.postgresql.org</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
		<para>More information about GiST indexing is available at the
		PostgreSQL GiST development site, <ulink
		url="http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/">http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
		<para>More information about MapServer internet map server is
		available at <ulink
		url="http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/">http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
		<para>The "<ulink
		url="http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/sfs">Simple Features for
		Specification for SQL</ulink>" is available at the OpenGIS Consortium
		web site: <ulink
		url="http://www.opengeospatial.org/">http://www.opengeospatial.org/</ulink>.</para>
	  </listitem>
	</itemizedlist>
  </sect1>
</chapter>