The government of Quebec (Canada) has published a geographic information solution targeting the province’s emergency services. The tool, titled IGO (Infrastructure open geomatics) visualises cartographic information such as heat maps, heritage sites and buildings, agricultural zones and tourist attractions. The software is published under Quebec’s own, new free software licence, LiLiQ.
A Geographic Information System (GIS), IGO is a solution to manage and publish massive amounts of geospatial data, its web-interface letting users query and combine geographic criteria. IGO is intended to be used by 911 emergency centres, municipal and regional organizations and civil security and fire departments.
IGO was announced by Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security on 13 August as the “first free software in Geomatics using a free license in French produced by the Quebec government”.
The software was developed initially by GIS specialists working at the ministry together with experts from the National Public Health Institute. The community of IGO users and developers includes the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Department of Transport and ‘La Financière agricole du Québec’ - an funding agency from the province’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
New Licences
IGO is published under the Québec Free and Open-Source Licence – Reciprocity (LiLiQ-R). This is one of three new free and open source software licences written by the Quebec government. The licences will be submitted to the Open Source Initiative for approval, within the next few weeks.
More information:
Open GIS Infrastructure
Open GIS Infrastructure on Github
LiLiQ-R licence (in French)
LiLiQ-R licence (in English)
Blog post announcing Open GIS Infrastructure (in French)
Press release by the Quebec Ministry of Public Security (in French)
Quebec Public health expertise and reference center announcement (in French)
Direction Informatique news item (in French)
OSOR news item
OSOR news item