| Countless QDGC started out as a refinement of the observation
database at Tanzania Mammal Atlas Project. You may read more about this process here:
The system is now moving into a phase where it is generalised so that it can be used with any
biodiversity mapping projects. The rationale is that a bigger user group might provide more feedback,
possibilities for funding further development and more opportunities for more people.
A work in progress
Countless QDGC is very much a work in progress. Some of the work has been funded by Dept.
of Biology, NTNU, whereas most of it has been done as a by Ragnvald Larsen without any funding. For
more information about contributors have a look at the credits page.
Funding issues
Although Ragnvald Larsen has some funding from Dept of Biology, NTNU,
he needs more funding to be able to keep the speed up starting next year. Contributions are welcome.
Would you like to use the system?
Countless QDGC is Open Source software under the
GNU General Public Licence. As such the software can be
downloaded by anyone, used, changed
and redistributed. If you are confident with PHP, Apache, MySQL and MapServer then it is highly likely you
will be able to install the system yoursel. If not Ragnvald Larsen would be happy to help out on
a per hour or per project basis. Contact
Ragnvald Larsen for details on consulting.
Optimizing Countless QDGC
Countless QDGC relies on MySQL, Apache, MapServer and PHP. While the system is quite effective for
observations in the low numbers (<30.000) and QDGC covered with less than 2.000, it is evident from
testing that the system has it's limits. Speeding up the system could be done in several ways. Here
are suggestions to some paths forward:
- MySQL spatial extensions
- Start using PostgreSQL
- Adding some new indexes to the database
- Optimizing current scripts by using the development tool profiler
- Pre-processing
- Caching
- Faster server
The system is currently running fine, although some users might at times experience the system as
a bit slow. Ragnvald Larsen is working on it.
| 
