Open Source Geospatial Foundation

Open Source Geospatial Foundation
Abbreviation OSGeo
Motto Your Open Source Compass
Founded February 4, 2006 (2006-02-04)
Founders Arnulf Christl, Chris Holmes, Gary Lang, Markus Neteler, Frank Warmerdam
Founded at Chicago
Type NGO
Purpose Open source geospatial software and data
Region served
global
President
 Venkatesh Raghavan [1]
Volunteers
1000+
Website www.osgeo.org

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation was formed in February 2006 to provide financial, organizational and legal support to the broader Free and open source geospatial community.[2] It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit.

OSGeo draws governance inspiration from several aspects of the Apache Foundation, including a membership composed of individuals drawn from foundation projects who are selected for membership status based on their active contribution to foundation projects and governance.

The foundation pursues goals beyond software development, such as promoting more open access to government produced geospatial data and completely free geodata, such as that created and maintained by the OpenStreetMap project. Education and training are also addressed. Various committees within the foundation work on implementing strategies.

Governance

The OSGeo Foundation is community driven and has an organizational structure consisting of elected members and nine directors, including the president. Software projects have their own governance structure, by requirement. see FAQ. The OSGeo community collaborates via a Wiki, Mailing Lists and IRC.

Projects

Several OSGeo projects can communicate with each other and other geographical tools.

OSGeo projects include:

Geospatial Libraries

Desktop Applications

Web Mapping

Server

Client

Metadata Catalog

Content Management Systems

Outreach Projects

Retired Projects

Events

OSGeo runs an annual international conference called FOSS4G – Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial. Starting as early as 2006, this event has drawn over 900 attendees (2011) and is expected to bring in even more each year. It is the main meeting place and educational outreach opportunity for OSGeo members, supporters and newcomers - to share and learn from one another in presentations, hands-on workshops and a conference exhibition.

Community

The OSGeo community is composed of participants from everywhere in the world. As of August 2012, there were 19,160 unique subscribers to the more than 180 OSGeo mailing lists.[3] As of September 2012, OSGeo projects were built upon over 12.7 million lines of code contributed by 657 code submitters including 301 that have contributed within the last 12 months.[4]

Sol Katz Award

The Sol Katz Award for Geospatial Free and Open Source Software (GFOSS) is awarded annually by OSGeo to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in the GFOSS community. Recipients of the award will have contributed significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals in the geospatial realm.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New OSGeo President and Updated Board of Directors". Open Source Geospatial Foundation. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  2. ↑ "Open Source Geospatial Foundation Created to Strengthen Collaborative Development of Open Geospatial Technologies" (Press release). OSGeo. March 6, 2006. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
  3. ↑ "[OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo's new "Community section" in OSGeo's Wikipedia article". Lists.osgeo.org. 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  4. ↑ "Project Stats - OSGeo Wiki". Wiki.osgeo.org. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
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