Maybe someday PostGIS will go to 11, but for now, we’re still shooting for 2, point oh. And happily we are getting closer and closer. We have moved to a weekly schedule of alpha releases (this week was alpha3) and have started cleaning down the list of tickets against the 2.0 milestone.

Last month, much of the time spent by me and Sandro Santilli on PostGIS 2.0 preparation was funded by the Humanitarian Information Unit of the US Department of State. So, from the PostGIS development team, and the PostGIS community in general: thanks, HIU! Why is HIU funding PostGIS? Because the kinds of tools that HIU and its partners use for humanitarian response are backed by PostGIS, and they want to see those tools get better. Funding PostGIS development is an economical way to simultaneously raise the capabilities of a whole ecosystem of tools in HIU’s space.

An interview in Directions Magazine with Applied Geographics highlights how Massachusetts and Oklahoma are using OpenGeo software to map broadband availability across their respective states to connect consumers and industry with useful information about broadband where they live and work. From the article:

Both states use the “OpenGeo” stack which includes PostgreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer and GeoWebCache. These software environments are independent open source projects comprising the OpenGeo stack. Amongst other things, OpenGeo has built a “one-click” installer that greatly simplifies establishing the software environment.

OpenGeo has a fair amount of experience with broadband maps, as the National Broadband Map also uses the OpenGeo Suite and now it seems other state broadband maps are following suit. Not only are these map useful and informative, they’re also great examples of how the OpenGeo Suite handles thousands of users and millions of requests with ease.