FOSS4G in education: a multi-disciplinary case study for the promotion of slow tourism

Centred on the values of environmental friendliness and rediscovery of cultural knowledge, slow tourism has recently emerged as a new model for sustainability which cannot be achieved without a proper balance between GIS-based technological innovation and a managerial infrastructure to operate it. This study investigated the promotion of slow tourism in the charming naturalistic area located on Lake Como (Northern Italy) around Cernobbio. The work was carried out within a multi-disciplinary MSc course given at Politecnico di Milano (Como Campus) in which students from Environmental, Management and Science Computing Engineering work in groups to develop real projects proposed by companies with the support of junior and senior academics. After an analysis of the problem from the managerial point of view, and taking into account the needs of the stakeholders involved, FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) was used to develop concrete products which could fulfill the project goals. Two Web viewers were built which display a number of suggested paths for hiking, trekking, and mountain biking, showing also the cultural points of interest available along them together with several contextual information. While GeoServer was used to serve data as WMS/WFS layers, the viewers were developed with OpenLayers, GeoExt and Ext JS for traditional computers; and OpenLayers and jQuery mobile for touch-screen enabled mobile devices. Finally a promotion plan for presenting and advertising these products was developed. Besides providing innovative tools for the promotion of slow tourism, the study represented an interesting and easily replicable example of using FOSS4G in education as a means to foster multi-disciplinary cross-collaboration.