Floss in Cadastre and Land Registration

Driven by competition

During the prototype and planning phase different scenarios were discussed 

before we decided on the actual architecture of the software. The functional re-

quirements were not met by any system we evaluated, most specifically related to 

the support of the ISO19115 metadata standard that was only available in a draft 

form at the start of the project. Alternative solutions supported other metadata 

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standards, were not available as open-source software and did not meet the web 

based requirements of a distributed system. The technical requirements asked for 

a suitable solution to process XML based metadata documents that was independ-

ent from the underlaying database system and was written in a computer lan-

guage that was platform independent, free to use and well known by developers. 

This resulted in the choice to develop in Java, using available libraries to process 

XML documents and JDBC drivers to connect to the database system. The system 

was developed as a web application running in the servlet container Apache 

 Tomcat.

The choice to start from scratch with the development of GeoNetwork was not 

taken lightly. We expected other solutions to be under development or to be 

 started, but we didn’t know for sure and didn’t want to wait to find out. Instead 

we made it clear from the start that our intend was to create an open-source 

 solution that was free to use and that offered room for others to have influence 

on or participate and contribute to. Presentations were given at relevant confer-

ences and workshops were organized for users and other interested parties. A lot 

of effort went into communication with potential or existing users.

New solutions have been started over the years. Some of these have come up 

and disappeared, others are still out there and that is a good thing. It offers new 

ideas and insights to the GeoNetwork community and keeps the project devel-

opers sharp to ensure the majority of the community of users is happy with the 

 resulting software. New requirements come up on a regular basis. They are proto-

typed in solutions for clients and are added to the core software when considered 

appropriate.