Open Sourcing Metropolitan Planning
Patrick Sunter
Standard (30 minutes) on Friday, 26 November 2010 14:00 - 14:30 in room Room 3
TAGS: Applications, Licensing, Strategy, Business Models, Case Studies, accountability, governance, interoperability, metadata, modelling, ontology, open government, open standards, planning, system integration, xml
Brief summary:
This talk will survey and discuss the potential of open source software to be used in public decision making in areas like transport and land use planning, overseas efforts to do this so far, and potential to apply this to Australian cities.
Description/abstract:
Software is an integral part of many public processes designed to guide the evolution of our cities, such as decisions about transport infrastructure management and investments, and land use zoning. Much of the software used to predict and analyse scenarios is currently proprietary :- and this has several problems regarding transparency, accountability, and ability for the public to participate in the process. Recently though a new generation of open source codes such as www.UrbanSim.org and www.MATSim.org have been launched and are in use overseas, and this talk will survey some of the most promising in this genre. Drawing on my PhD research, I'll discuss the current state of these open source modelling codes, the potential for them to be used as part of public processes and the positive changes this could bring about, and some of the software (and process) challenges in using a variety of different open source packages as part of public governance and decision-making. A particular issue addressed will be different strategies for interoperability of the multiple open-source packages needed to support real-world decision scenarios, such as metadata standards.
The contents of the talk will be based on a PhD programme Patrick is undertaking under the supervision of Prof. Marcus Wigan and others at the Australasian Centre for Governance and Management of Urban Transportation GAMUT at the University of Melbourne.
Who it might interest:
Anyone interested in issues of how the future of our cities are planned and decided, including those in local government or other public positions considering the potential of open source software.
Patrick Sunter
Senior Computational Software Developer
VPAC (Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing)
Patrick Sunter has been involved in scientific computing for over a decade, working on a wide range of projects at the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) in fields such as geophysics, spatial information processing and the life sciences. This included developing new open source scientific frameworks such as www.StGermainproject.org and www.Underworldproject.org. His latest work projects revolve around the potential of open source Python tools to give scientists new productive capabilities.
He recently completed a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning in South Australia, and his main research interest is applying open source technology to challenges in this field such as planning for urban sustainability, which he's pursuing through a part-time PhD at the University of Melbourne.
Patrick's PhD supervisor Marcus Wigan has decades of experience in transport planning, modelling and computer systems, and an active interest in urban governance & enhancing community participation. He has a long-standing interest in the expansion of open source tools for research teaching and community access.