[Gvsig_english] Brief history of GIS OSS (bit off topic?)

[George Silva]

Hello lists,

As you can i see im mailing this message to some lists around the web 
(im sorry if thats a problem).

At the moment i am writing my BSc thesis (Geography) focusing the 
development of a open source software and database for logging and 
analysing traffic accidents in Uberlândia, MG - Brazil.

I am dedicating a chapter in my thesis to explaining Open Source 
Software, and OSS for GIS. i searched the web for some history of OSS in 
general, but i found too many different sources. So i come to you, 
developers of GIS OSS, to see if you can give me references of where to 
search for the history and process regarding this theme.

I am using to build this system PostgreSQL + PostGIS, QGis and PHP. In 
advance i would like to thank David Bitner who helped me alot by letting 
me use his geocoding function for PostGIS.

Im sorry to take up your time like this, and as soon the thesis is ready 
i will translate bits off it and put it on the web for anyone 
interested. (if someone can help me translate portuguese to english i 
can release it completely)

Thanks to you all!

George R. C. Silva
georger.silva at gmail.com