geGIS philosophy

Babel was beset by a tremendous confusion of tongues and the plan to build a tower reaching up into the heavens unfortunately came to naught. Any Babel-like confusion is largely cancelled out in the case of the geGIS geographical data project. Thanks to the use of open GIS standards, where available, supplemented with ISO standards, and also amplified with local (Flemish) standards, where necessary, we have developed an electronic GIS windows generator that is in a class of its own on the international scene.
Apart from the standards, the solution is also fully developed with and as an open software solution, so that all stakeholders are able to improve and adapt the code. More important even than the open software solution, new applications and supplements may easily be added to the framework. This applies to both governmental and corporate applications. All as a result of the simple and sole use of a standard browser at the client's end.

Their names and backgrounds
	Dirk Frigne - project manager
	Dirk Frigne is the manager of the geGIS project and the spiritual father of the Majas architecture. As a spiritual father he is able to look back on a whole family of "offspring" who all together form the geGIS team and the framework as a serviceable whole available to the geGIS community. Dirk is the founder and CEO of Ghent-based DFC Software Engineering. Dirk boasts wide experience in software development as a developer, architect and project manager.


	Karel Maesen - Functional Analyst/Architect
	Karel Maesen is Senior Consultant and Director of the R&D Division SADL at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, specialising in the development of space applications and data infrastructures. Karel has been focusing on the relationship between J2EE technologies and geodata. He is one of the leading developers of the open source Majas webmapping AJAX toolkit.

	Jan De Moerloose - Technical Analyst/Architect
	Jan is Senior Developer with DFC Software Engineering. As a Software Developer in several projects Jan has built up a great deal of expert knowledge about software development and design. One of Jan's many assets is his in-depth experience with Java ( J2EE ) and his familiarity with programming user-friendly customised software based on open standards. In the context of the geGIS project he was ultimately accountable for the back end part and a contributor to the implementation of the front end component.

	Pieter De Graef - front end and back end developer
	Pieter has been working as a Developer for DFC Software Engineering since October 2005. He is one of the software architects behind the geGIS project. As a Master of Information Technology, he has acquired an enviable experience in software development in Java, XML and J2EE, plus AJAX/DOJO. Against the background of the geGIS project Pieter has cooperated in the implementation of the back end and front end.

	Didier Vanbrabant - Systeemspecialist
	Didier works as Senior Developer with DFC Software Engineering, specialising in development in dotNET, XML and Java ( J2EE ) He is also ultimately accountable for system management within DFC. Didier's is a system specialist under the geGIS project.

	Bert Paepen - front end architect
	Bert Paepen is a project engineer with K.U.Leuven / research group DocArch. He is in charge of national and international projects in the fields of XML, Internet and access to information for the disabled. Under the geGIS project he works on the architecture of the front-end and communication with the back-end.

	Kris Berckmans - front end developer
	Kris Berckmans is XML developer with K.U.Leuven / research group DocArch, where he specialised in the development of Web applications with the help of Java, SVG and JavaScript. Under the geGIS project he is chiefly responsible for the architecture and development of the front-end with the Dojo framework, SVG, JavaScript and JSON.

	Jean Paul Beys - geGIS project responsible
	An assistant to the director, Jean-Paul Beys has been working for the Authorities of Flanders for a long time now. In his capacity as a surveyor he spent several years heading a team of team of topographers and surveyors. In the middle of 2003 his made the transition to the current policy area of spatial planning, housing policy and heritage to take up the task of coordinating the Vacant Plots Register. The key challenge was to streamline the vacant plots stock-taking process in view of the steady increase in the level of reusable GIS information available. Once the framework for creating a general GIS system had been formulated at in-house level the decision was taken to make the register accessible via geGIS.

(foto)	Dirk Pollier - substantive spiritual father