The Spanish chapter of the OSGeo Foundation translated into Spanish an OSOR case study on Sextante. "Having access to case studies is crucial for spreading the word about open source applications like this", explains Pedro-Juan Ferrer Matoses, the chapter's liaison officer.

Sextante is an open source geographical information system (GIS) developed and used by the forestry department of the autonomous region of Extremadura. The application's numerous analysis functions set it apart from other GIS applications.

The translation into Spanish is meant for the large user base in Spain and Spanish speaking countries, says Ferrer Matoses. Sextante makes uses of gvSIG, open source GIS software, in the development of which the OSGeo foundation is actively involved and by translating the Sextante case study, the foundation also hopes to draw attention to gvSIG. "These are the two big stars of the Spanish open source GIS community."

The foundation hopes that the translation will help show other Spanish GIS users how the application is being used by public bodies. "Sextante is a inspiring example of an open source geospatial application."

Community

The OSOR project very much welcomed the contribution from the Spanish open source community. Szabolcs Szekacs from the EC's IDABC unit that is responsible for the project called it a good example of how much can be achieved with an active community. "I hope that there will be others to follow - OSOR.eu will certainly publish all translations of its case studies to reach more readers."

The Sextante case study was published by OSOR in late January. The translation into Spanish is made available on both the Osgeo wiki web site and on the OSOR.

More information:

Sextante case study (in English)

Sextante case study (in Spanish)