Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Denial

Given the evidence that someone is spreading the "information" that gisEIEL project is dead and that, henceforth, it is to be replaced by Open gisEIEL, we want to make it clear that BOTH STATEMENTS ARE RADICALLY FALSE.
Whoever is from now on the main developers group and what is the type of contract or collaboration of this group, the project is still being directed and led by the A Coruña Province Council, which, through the Technical Monitoring Committee of the project, will continue to have ultimate capacity of decision on the actions carried out on it.  No one outside of
A Coruña Province Council may therefore decide whether the project continues or not or if it is to be replaced by another one.
In short: gisEIEL currently is and will remain being alive.

Desmentido

Ante la evidencia de que se está extendiendo la "información" de que el proyecto gisEIEL está muerto y que, a partir de ahora, pasa a ser sustituído por Open gisEIEL, queremos dejar claro que AMBAS AFIRMACIONES SON RADICALMENTE FALSAS.

Independientemente de quien sea a partir de ahora el grupo principal de desarrollo y cuál sea la modalidad de contratación o colaboración de ese grupo, el proyecto sigue siendo dirigido y liderado por la Diputación de A Coruña, que, a través de la Comisión Técnica de Seguimiento del proyecto, continuará teniendo la capacidad última de decisión sobre las actuaciones que se realicen sobre el mismo. Nadie ajeno a la Diputación de A Coruña puede, por tanto, decidir si el proyecto continúa o no o si es sustituído por otro.

En resumen: gisEIEL está y continuará estando vivo.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Pherecyde's cloth (I): The cloth

Greek pre-socratic philosopher Pherecides of Syros (6th BC) [1] did explain the origin of the World, as we know it, by means of a myth.

Accordingly to him, in the origin there was the chaos inhabitted by two antagonistic "entities" or "forces": Chtonie (the solid materials) and Ogenos (the oceans or, more exactly, the waters) which would exist in a complete separation from one eachother, with no contact between them.

Zas (laterly known as Zeus, the father of Gods) would have put order into this initial chaos by fostering the meeting between these two entities and their later union, which is poetically described by Pherecydes as their "wedding".

As wedding present, Zas would have woven a large, beautiful cloth in which he would have represented, at a natural scale, earth and seas and all what they contain: geographical elements, animals, plants, minerals, atmosphere, as well as the sun, the moon, the stars, etc.

After the wedding between Chtonie and Ogenos, he would have laid the cloth on them, this way transforming Chtonie into Gea, and chaos into order. And, as a consequence, creating the World in which we now live.

By means of the act of covering the chaos with a representation of the "ordered" world, the model of the world would have become the world itself. Or, in other words (now mine, not from Pherecydes): The mapping of the world at a natural scale would have caused its actual creation.

Beautiful, isn it? Mainly if we read the legend from our perspective: the one of those who work with geographic information.




[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pherecydes_of_Syros