A rich treasure of open source tools awaits anyone interested in exploring the cutting edge of geospatial analysis. Tyler Mitchell, a geographer and open source geospatial advocate, surveys the breadth and depth of free software for the management, manipulation, and presentation of geographic data on the desktop or via web services. Building on open standards, the energetic open geo community is in the vanguard of mapping technologies, making these open tools a competitive alternative to GIS packages from commercial vendors.
