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As of June, Jody Garnett strengthens the GeoCat team as Technical Director. Jody loves the impact geospatial technology can have for our customers and the world. He is excited to apply his enthusiasm and customer focus to GeoCat Bridge and GeoCat Enterprise offerings.

You may already know Jody Garnett as a prominent community member, participating in the Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation and attending FOSS4G conferences. He has over twenty years of experience with geospatial solutions and open source development and training.

GeoServer expert

Jody is a core contributor on the GeoServer project. He lead one of the first professional development teams to work on this project delivering the first GeoServer user interface in 2003. He is proud of the success of the GeoTools ‘DataStore’ API which contributes to GeoServer’s ability to integrate with local, enterprise and cloud data sources. Jody also serves on the steering committee of the GeoServer, GeoTools and ImageN projects, and committed to additional projects including JTS Topology Suite, GeoGig, uDig, GeoWebCache and more.

When it comes to explaining, Jody appears to have the patience of a saint. He is very supportive and enthusiastic. You might even call him stubborn sometimes. ‘I enjoy creating things. Every year I try to take up a technical challenge that is important for the long term. This year I’m working on the image processing library for GeoServer.’ His GeoServer expertise will surely be a benefit for existing and new GeoCat customers.

Photo: Jody Garnett

Advantages of open source solutions

Jody also has an extended knowledge of Java development and OGC standards. ‘I have joined a lot of OGC testbeds. The team work in the open source community shows that by working in larger groups, you can solve bigger problems. The core values are respectful relations and reciprocity. Open source development demands partnership arrangements, benefitting both parties.’

Corporate investments in open source solutions is beneficial, says Jody. ‘Open source offers greater control, ability to customize an existing solution, or a running start when creating new applications. This approach is great for a hybrid architecture, combining Esri and open source components to open up additional opportunities.’

More opportunities against lower costs

He is also very enthusiastic about GeoCat Live, about how easy and quickly you can use it, its high service level and opportunities. ‘Also organisations without a large IT department, like municipalities, can easily work with it. By helping them to use open source solutions, they get more opportunities at a lower costs.’ You can try GeoCat Live very easily yourself, to see GeoNetwork and GeoServer for yourself, by asking for an evaluation license.

Jody will be joining our team from Canada. In August you can meet him in Bucharest (Romania) at the FOSS4G 2019 conference. To contact Jody, e-mail him at jody.garnett@geocat.net.