Seek-Optimized ZIP, a new profile for ZIP files, allows random access and selective decompression. With standard ZIP files, you have to download and decompress the ZIP file before accessing its content. While fully compatible with standard ZIP tools, with SOZip, you can now selectively access files within a ZIP, so you won’t have to download the full archive if you want to access just one file.
Currently, there are two implementations for SOZip: It’s available in the development branch GDAL and as a Python module. MapServer (on the development branch) and QGIS, both applications depending on GDAL, support SOZip too.
Seek-Optimized ZIP file adds to a growing suite of cloud-native data formats and APIs, such as COGs, Zarr or GeoParquet, allowing developers and applications to access and process large selectively without the need to download complete datasets.
The FlatGeobuf community has started the process to formally adopt the specification as an OGC Community Standard. (A document linked by Bert Temme on Twitter, providing reasoning for the spec to become a standard, is not publicly available anymore.)
FlatGeobuf provides binary encoding for geospatial vector data. It is lossless, streamable, enables random feature access, and is supported by a wide range of geospatial tools and libraries, including QGIS, GDAL, Fiona, and PostGIS.
OGC Community Standards are developed outside the more formal OGC standardisation process, usually by a group of individuals who also implement reference solutions (instead of panels of representatives from large organisations).
A quick tutorial by Bert Temme about how to turn a shape file into PMTiles using Tippecanoe:
In this blog we created in a few easy steps vector tiles from shapefile of worldwide railroads in PMTile format using Tippecanoe, and deployed to a standard webserver. No complicated backend WMS/WFS mapservers are needed anymore to get this working.
How did we get to the point where there’s a need for a consortium aiming to standardise road map data? And what motivates big names like AWS, Microsoft, Meta, and TomTom to join forces?
James Killick has answers: Several providers are all building their own version of the same product leading to a fractured landscape for map data. Some providers are now looking to lower the cost of producing their data, assert control over how open data is created, and improve interoperability between data sources.
Registration for FOSSGIS 2023, the German-speaking FOSS4G event, is now open. The conference will be held from 15 to 18 March 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
If you need convincing to attend, the conference schedule is also available. The program features a mix of developer updates, case studies, and practical applications of open-source software and OpenStreetMap, as well as a series of hands-on workshops diving into the latest and greatest open-source software for geospatial.