About the Author

Michael Diener graduated from Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada, in 2001 with a bachelor of science degree in geography. He began working in 1995 with Environment Canada as a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analyst and has continued to work with GIS technologies ever since.

In 2008, he founded a company called GOMOGI that is focused on building web and mobile GIS application with open source tools. In 2011, the focus changed to indoor wayfinding and navigation solutions and building the indrz platform that Michael had envisioned.

From time to time, Michael also holds seminars for organizations wanting to explore or discover the possibilities of how GIS can increase productivity and help better answer spatial questions. He is also the creative head of new product development in his company. His technical skills include working with Python to solve a wide range of spatial problems on a daily basis. Through the years, he has developed many spatial applications with Python, including indrz and golfgis, which are two of the products built by his company, GOMOGI.

He is also lecturer of GIS at the Alpen Adria University, Klagenfurt, where he enjoys teaching students the wonderful powers of GIS and explaining how to solve spatial problems with open source GIS and Python.

I would like to dedicate this book to my family, beginning with my loving wife, Silvia, who encouraged and supported me through the writing of this book. I must also thank my three boys, Noah, Levi, and Jasper, for sacrificing many evenings and weekends of playtime for daddy’s book time. My parents, Birte and Hartwig, also deserve a big thank you for always believing in me—thank you for everything.