\title{GRASS GIS}
\author{Markus Neteler, \url{http://grass.osgeo.org}}
\maketitle

\begin{figure}
	 \includegraphics[height=0.7in]{annual_report/projects/logo/Grasslogo_vector_small.png}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Key Accomplishments}
Major software releases:
\begin{itemize}
\item  GRASS 6.3.0 released -- a technology preview (\href{http://grass.osgeo.org/announces/announce_grass630.html}{announcement})\footnote{\url{http://grass.osgeo.org/announces/announce_grass630.html}}
\item  GRASS 6.4.0 prepared and release candidates published (\href{http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/WikiStart#Releases}{details})
\item  Work on \href{http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/Grass7Planning}{GRASS 7} started
\item  Integration of GRASS into the \href{http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/wiki/pkg-grass}{OSGeo4W installer} now active and productive
\item  In total \textbf{22 TB of downloads} from grass.osgeo.org in 2008: (detailed \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/logs-bin/awstats.pl?month=all&year=2008&output=main&config=grass.osgeo.org&framename=index}{statistics}; not including downloads from mirror sites)
\end{itemize}

Users and developers:
\begin{itemize}
\item  New developers acquired: \textbf{5} to main archive, \textbf{12} to AddOns repository.
\item  More than 1000 subscribers in the grass-user mailing list
\end{itemize}
\begin{description}
\item[] (470 in grass-dev, many more in the other \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/community/support.php}{GRASS mailing lists})
\end{description}
\begin{itemize}
\item  Three \href{http://code.google.com/soc/2008/osgeo/about.html}{Google Summer of Code} projects awarded and completed.
\item  \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/devel/i18n.php#statistics}{Translations}: more than 10 languages are well supported
\end{itemize}

Books and book chapters:
\begin{itemize}
\item  \href{http://www.grassbook.org/}{3rd edition of Neteler and Mitasova's GRASS Book} published by Springer, an important milestone for the community that such a book has been published (repeatedly) by a major scientific publishing house
\item  Chapter about GRASS published in \href{http://www.springer.com/geography/gis+cartography/book/978-3-540-74830-4}{Open Source Approaches in Spatial Data Handling}.
\end{itemize}

Visibility at conferences and workshops:
\begin{itemize}
\item  29 Sep-3 Oct 2008: \href{http://www.foss4g2008.org/}{FOSS4G 2008 Conference}, Cape Town, South Africa 
\item  18-19 Sep 2008:  \href{http://geoinformatics.fsv.cvut.cz/wiki/index.php/Geoinformatics_FCE_CTU_2008}{Geoinformatics FCE CTU 2008 Conference}, Prague, Czech Republic 
\item  8-9 May 2008: \href{http://www.perseo.lettere.unipd.it/workshop08/doku.php}{3rd Workshop Open Source}, Free Software e Open Format nei processi di ricerca archeologica, Padua, Italy
\item  1-3 Apr 2008: \href{http://www.fossgis.de/konferenz/wiki/2008}{FOSSGIS 2008}, Albert-Ludwigs-Universit\"at, Freiburg, Germany 
\item  3-5 Mar 2008: \href{http://www.sigte.udg.es/jornadassiglibre}{II Open Source GIS Users Meeting} (Spanish FOSS)
\item  21-22 Feb 2008: \href{http://www.grassmeeting2008.unipg.it/}{IX Meeting degli Utenti Italiani di GRASS -- GFOSS}, Perugia, Italy
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Areas for Improvement}
\begin{itemize}
\item  An automated build environment, especially for the OSGeo4W installer is desired
\item  Development of a framework for efficient and \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Updating_GRASS_Documentation#Translations}{semi-automated translations of the 400+ module help pages}
\item  Unrelated to the GRASS development: a SVN history "annotate" ability for Trac source code browser would be helpful
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Opportunities to Help}
\begin{itemize}
\item  Find more \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_Translation_Team}{translators} among the (power) users
\item  Publish more "GRASS use cases" in the \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/}{GRASS Wiki} to inspire newcomers
\item  We require more volunteers for \href{http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/wiki/pkg-grass}{help with native MS Windows packaging} and testing
\item  Crossover with QGIS: QGIS \href{http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/GrassCookbook}{grass-plugin} and \href{http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/Adding_New_Tools_to_the_GRASS_Toolbox}{toolbox} maintainer(s) required
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Outlook for 2009}
\begin{itemize}
\item  Vector topology speedup
\item  Overhaul of raster library
\item  Partially addition of parallelization (mostly using openMP)
\item  Cartography GUI extension programmed
\item  \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_SoC_Ideas}{Further participation} in Google Summer of Code (we hope)
\item  Stability on MS Windows leading to incredible gain of new users
\item  Move/removal of \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/gdp/index.php}{web-svn} documentation to our \href{http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Main_Page}{MediaWiki} site; move/removal of development material from MediaWiki to our \href{http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki}{TracWiki} site
\end{itemize}
