Github for geodata

by Bill Morris for VCGI Oct 28 2014

Follow along at: tinyurl.com/vcgi-github

A practical guide to web-based version control and collaboration for the GIS-inclined

• Intro
• Setup
• First Light
• Editing Data
• Hosting an application

Why use github? What's wrong with ArcSDE/ PostGIS/ Thatendlessbunchoffoldersonmydesktop?

Free

Backed-up

Versioned

Collaborative

• Intro
• Setup
• First Light
• Editing Data
• Hosting an application

1. Sign up for a github account

That's it!

(not really; we have some work to do. But is is that easy to get started.)

For good measure, install the github app (aka CodeBeGone)

(for mac & for windows)

• Intro
• Setup
• First Light
• Editing Data
• Hosting an application

Fork this repository

Sync it to your computer

Look at a dataset (try this example)

To add new data, convert from your fave format first. tools:

• Ogre
• Shapescape
• GDBFlee
• esri2open

geojson and topojson - shapefiles for the web

• Intro
• Setup
• First Light
• Editing Data
• Hosting an application

A few options:

Tiny data (<8MB): Use geojson.io

Bigger data (8MB - 100MB): Edit locally and sync using the github app

Big data (>100MB): We're not really there yet.

• Intro
• Setup
• First Light
• Editing Data
• Hosting an application

github pages - web apps, hosted for free

That repository you forked comes with a simple viewing app

updates to data are immediately available in the app

(this can get a lot more complicated, but it doesn't need to)

What's missing?

Geoprocessing (though we're getting there)

Scale - this one might require a paradigm shift

Buy-in

Thanks!

Get in touch with any questions: bill@faraday.io @vtcraghead