WPI logoLOUIS@ City Lab

Local On-line Urban Information System

 

City Lab is developing a web-based information system called LOUIS (Local On-line Urban Information System), which is based on OLIVER (On-Line ViewER), an open-source viewer supported by MassGIS.   Currently, we are working primarily on LOUIS V (pr. Louis the 5th), which is the LOUIS Viewer.   In the meantime, the inner workings of the full-fledged LOUIS system are being re-written (mostly in Java and C++) according to OpenGIS standards.  The final system will be a fully operational web-based, open-source urban information system targeted primarily to municipalities and other local authorities.  The development of LOUIS has been supported by small grants from towns participating in City Lab’s Hometown Initiative as well as by other support from global project sponsors at our international project centers.  Once the LOUIS platform has been fully developed, we plan to develop specific higher-level applications targeted to individual municipal departments, such as the Roadway Information System shown below.  The LOUIS development schedule will depend on the generosity of our City Lab supporters, but we hope to release the basic viewer (LOUIS V) by the summer of 2006 and a more advanced interactive version (LOUIS IV, Louis the 4th) by the end of 2006.  Editing and Thematic mapping features will follow in 2007, when the full LOUIS will reach its beta-testing stage.

LOUIS is being designed to be fully OGC-compliant and it meant to be embedded in municipal information systems that adopt the City Knowledge approach to urban data farming.  For more information, you can download a powerpoint presentation containing additional examples of upcoming LOUIS implementations as well as some diagrams outlining the inner workings of LOUIS. 

Installing LOUIS

You need to install a small java program to make the system work on your internet-connected computer.  LOUIS uses Java Web Start Technology, so that LOUIS and the most recent version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) can be downloaded with a single click.

                                                                                                             

To run LOUIS again in the future, you can either bookmark this page and click here, or you can click START on your Windows computer, then select RUN then type JAVAWS and hit return.  You will be asked to select from a list of Java applications, from which you should select LOUIS.

 

Since LOUIS is a work in progress, you may occasionally experience slow-downs or other difficulties accessing our City Lab servers.  If that happens, try again at a later time.

 

If you computer is not connected to the internet, none of this will work.

 

For more questions you can contact Prof. Fabio Carrera, director of City Lab.

 

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