Re: An Elephant is Faithful 100% - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy
From | Joshua D. Drake |
---|---|
Subject | Re: An Elephant is Faithful 100% |
Date | |
Msg-id | 437E576D.1050208@commandprompt.com Whole thread Raw |
In response to | Re: An Elephant is Faithful 100% (elein <elein@varlena.com>) |
List | pgsql-advocacy |
elein wrote: >I can make myself available to collaborate on database >design, tuning, etc. > > Command Prompt can donate some hardware resources and database design resources. >--elein >elein@varlena.com > >On Fri, Nov 18, 2005 at 01:15:07PM -0800, Josh Berkus wrote: > > >>Folks, >> >>I recently received the following appeal from the African Elephant Database. >>They need help migrating to PostGIS and building out their application. >> >>I, personally, cannot imagine a more compelling project which deserves the >>PostgreSQL community's collective help. The elephant is our mascot! Plus >>the AED folks introduced the idea of making this a general OSS project for >>species conservation databases. >> >>Who's available? >> >>--------------------------- >>I'm writing with to explore the possiblity of a collaboration between >>Postgresql, PostGIS and the African Elephant Database (AED) of the IUCN/SSC >>African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG). Please allow me to begin by >>giving you a little background on all those acronyms, in reverse order. >> >>The AfESG is a group of elephant experts from across the African continent >>who, aside from their daily jobs, disinterestedly lend their skills to >>provide technical advice on elephant conservation and management. The >>mission of the AfESG is to promote the long-term conservation of African >>elephants throughout their range, and the group focuses its efforts on >>capacity building, alleviation of human-elephant conflict, compilation and >>dissemination of technical information, and the development of elephant >>conservation strategies. Led by a volunteer chair, the AfESG has a small >>secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya. Please see http://iucn.org/afesg/ for >>details. >> >>The AfESG is one of the most active of over 120 Specialist Groups of the >>IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC). The largest conservation grouping in >>the world, the SSC is a worldwide network of over 7,000 volunteer experts >>working to conserve the diversity of species found on Earth. The SSC is >>responsible for the production of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. >>See http://iucn.org/themes/ssc and http://www.redlist.org. >> >>The SSC is the largest of the six commissions of IUCN - The World >>Conservation Union. IUCN is the world's largest and most important >>conservation network. The Union brings together 82 States, 111 government >>agencies, more than 800 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and some >>10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a unique worldwide >>partnership. IUCN's mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies >>throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and >>to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically >>sustainable. The World Conservation Union was founded in October 1948 >>following an international conference in Fontainebleau, France. IUCN HQ is >>in Gland, Switzerland. See http://iucn.org/. >> >>The African Elephant Database >>The AED is a geographical information (GIS) system used to maintain an >>accurate and up-to-date record on the distribution and abundance of African >>Elephants. The AED is regularly updated, with data on elephant range and >>numbers constantly being solicited from wildlife authorities and experts >>across the continent, and a major report is produced every three years and >>made available in the AfESG website (see http://iucn.org/afesg/aed/). >> >>The AED currently runs in ESRI ArcGIS 9.1., in a personal geodatabase (MS >>Access) format. We obtained ArcInfo through one of ESRI's conservation >>program grants - but soon we were being asked to pay for maintenance charges >>in excess of USD3,000 per annum. Despite these costs, we are considerably >>constrained by the limitations of the set-up - including the MS Access 2Gb >>size limit. If we were to upgrade our configuration to a full geodatabase >>would involve acquiring ESRI's Spatial Database Engine (SDE) plus a >>commercial RDBMS such as Oracle, DB2 or MS SQL server, at a one-off cost of >>several thousand dollars and annual maintenance fees to match. >> >>Such costs are well beyond our reach, we are hoping to build a more >>sustainable solution using open source software. Although opensource GIS has >>not evolved as much or as quickly as opensource relational databases, we do >>have some hopes that a suitable system could be developed to maintain the >>AED. The AED is the most comprehensive species database in existence, and we >>believe there would be value in developing a turnkey solution that can be >>used to maintain monitoring information on other species for which there are >>relatively good data. >> >>We've got the elephant and the database in common. If you think a >>collaboration could be productive and mutually beneficial, please let me >>know so that we can begin to explore the options. >> >>I look forward to hearing from you. >> >>Sincerely, >> >>Julian Blanc >>Manager, African Elephant Database >>IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group >>Email: julian.blanc@iucn.org >>Web: http://iucn.org/afesg/ >>-------------------------------------------------- >> >>-- >>Josh Berkus >>Aglio Database Solutions >>San Francisco >> >>---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- >>TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster >> >> >> > >---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- >TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend > > -- The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc. 1.503.667.4564 PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support Managed Services, Shared and Dedicated Hosting Co-Authors: plPHP, plPerlNG - http://www.commandprompt.com/
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