1About the Project
2=================
3
4Introduction
5------------
6
7osgEarth_ is a geospatial SDK and terrain engine for OpenSceneGraph_ applications.
8
9The goals of osgEarth_ are to:
10
11- Enable the development of 3D geospatial appliations on top of OpenSceneGraph_.
12- Make it as easy as possible to visualize terrian models and imagery directly from source data.
13- Interoperate with open mapping standards, technologies, and data.
14
15
16**So is it for me?**
17
18So: does osgEarth replace the need for offline terrain database creation tools? In many cases it does.
19
20Consider using osgEarth_ if you need to:
21
22    - Get a terrain base map up and running quickly and easily
23    - Access open-standards map data services like WMS or TMS
24    - Integrate locally-stored data with web-service-based imagery
25    - Incorporate new geospatial data layers at run-time
26    - Deal with data that may change over time
27    - Integrate with a commercial data provider
28
29
30Community Resources
31-------------------
32
33Since osgEarth_ is a free open source SDK, the source code is available to
34anyone and we welcome and encourage community participation when it comes
35to testing, adding features, and fixing bugs.
36
37**Public Forum**
38
39    The first way to interact with the osgEarth team and the user community is
40    through the `support forum`_. **Please read** and follow these guidelines for
41    using the forum. FOLLOWING THESE GUIDELINES will make it MUCH MORE LIKELY
42    that someone will respond and try to help:
43
44    * Sign up for an account and use your real name. You can participate
45      anonymously, but using your real name helps build a stronger community.
46      Sign your posts too!
47
48    * Limit yourself to *one topic* per post. Asking multiple questions in one
49      post makes it too hard to keep track of responses.
50
51    * Always include as much supporting information as possible. Post an
52      *earth file* or *short code snippet*. Post the output to ``osgearth_version --caps``.
53      Post the output to ``gdalinfo`` if you are having trouble with a GeoTIFF
54      or other data file. List everything you have tried so far.
55
56    * Be patient!
57
58**Priority Support**
59
60    If you have several questions, or need more in-depth help involving code
61    review, design, etc., consider purchasing `Priority Support`_ directly
62    from Pelican Mapping (the maintainers of osgEarth). Priority Support
63    gives you tracked, timely, personal email-based assistance!
64
65**OSG Forum**
66
67    Since osgEarth_ is built on top of OpenSceneGraph_, many questions we get
68    on the message boards are really OSG questions. We will still try our
69    best to help. But it's worth your while to join the `OSG Mailing List`_ or
70    read the `OSG Forum`_ regularly as well.
71
72**Social Media**
73
74    * Follow `@pelicanmapping`_ on twitter for updates.
75    * Add our `Google+ Page`_ to your circles for gallery shots.
76
77**Professional Services**
78
79    The osgEarth team supports its efforts through professional services. At
80    `Pelican Mapping`_ we do custom software development and integration work
81    involving osgEarth_ (and geospatial technologies in general).
82    We are based in the US but we work with clients all over the world.
83    `Contact us`_ if you need help!
84
85
86License
87-------
88
89osgEarth_ is licensed under the LGPL_ free open source license.
90
91This means that:
92
93    1. You can link to the osgEarth_ SDK in any commercial or non-commercial
94       application free of charge.
95
96    2. If you make any changes to osgEarth_ *itself*, you must make those changes
97       available as free open source software under the LGPL license. (Typically
98       this means contributing your changes back to the project, but it is
99       sufficient to host them in a public GitHub clone.)
100
101    3. If you redistribute the osgEarth_ *source code* in any form, you must
102       include the associated copyright notices and license information
103       unaltered and intact.
104
105    4. *iOS / static linking exception*: The LGPL requires that anything statically
106       linked to an LGPL library (like osgEarth) also be released under the LGPL.
107       We grant an exception to the LGPL in this case. If you statically link
108       osgEarth with your proprietary code, you are *NOT* required to release your
109       own code under the LGPL.
110
111That's it.
112
113
114Maintainers
115-----------
116
117`Pelican Mapping`_ maintains osgEarth_.
118
119
120.. _osgEarth:         http://osgEarth.org
121.. _OpenSceneGraph:   http://openscenegraph.org
122.. _Pelican Mapping:  http://pelicanmapping.com
123.. _Priority Support: http://web.pelicanmapping.com/priority-support
124.. _LGPL:             http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html
125.. _Glenn:            http://twitter.com/#!/glennwaldron
126.. _Jason:            http://twitter.com/#!/jasonbeverage
127.. _Jeff:             http://twitter.com/#!/_jeffsmith
128.. _Paul:             http://twitter.com/#!/p_levy
129.. _@pelicanmapping:  https://twitter.com/pelicanmapping
130.. _Google+ Page:     https://plus.google.com/b/104014917856468748129/104014917856468748129/posts
131
132.. _support forum:    http://forum.osgearth.osg
133.. _OSG Mailing List: http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
134.. _OSG Forum:        http://forum.openscenegraph.org
135.. _Contact us:       http://pelicanmapping.com/?page_id=2
136
137