GDAL & OGR: installation & basics

There are two kinds of open geo people: those who have installed GDAL/OGR, and those who haven't...yet.

So let's do this!

If you're in the first camp, then you know exactly how awesome GDAL/OGR is, and you probably want to do everything you can to spread its gospel. In that case, I strongly encourage you to come out to our April tech night and share your expertise!

And if you're in the second camp, have no fear: every first camper has been you, staring at that intimidating beast of an installation & configuration process, and wondering if it's really worth it after all (spoiler: it is). In that case, I even more strongly encourage you to come out, bring a laptop, and get ready to join the converts. And trust us: once you go GDAL/OGR, you'll never go back.

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Overview:

We're going to spend this evening installing & configuring GDAL/OGR on our own machines (laptops, probably -- but if you want to bring in a desktop system you are more than welcome to do so!). It will probably be a bit messy (some platforms are going to have a harder time than others) but that's part of the fun in doing it as a group.

Once everyone's ready, we'll then work through some basic data manipulation examples using built-in tools. We'll stick with OGR & vector data tonight, but if there's interest I'll schedule a raster-focused, GDAL-specific hack night next month.

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Q: Hey Sara, there's an RSVP limit, what the heck?!

A: I know, it's weird for us to have limited events, but just for this month I'm going to cap us at 15-20 attendees. This is only to make sure we have enough time to help each other without accidentally leaving anyone out. So, please RSVP only if you plan to attend: if there's enough interest I promise to run this same night again next quarter!