Open Source Software, Open Data and Open Standards are the three vital pillars for facilitating implementation/deployment of interoperable, scalable and sustainable geospatial infrastructure. Over the last decade, Free and Open Source Solutions for Geoinformatics (FOSS4G) has supported a variety of societal needs and gained worldwide acceptance. The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) has been spearheading the collaborative development of geospatial software and promote its widespread use through several initiatives and outreach activities. This talk present about the evolution of OSGeo Foundation, its current accomplishments and avenues for future improvements. Some recent developments and opportunities for leveraging the OSGeo ecosystem for geospatial innovation will be discussed.

1. The OSGeo Foundation: New Initiatives and
Challenges
Venkatesh Raghavan
Osaka City University
OSGeo Foundation

2. Firstly, an number quiz!
12, 17, 390, 1141, 2004
What do these numbers mean?

3. 2004-2017
FOSS/GRASS User Conference 2004,
Bangkok
Jeff, Markus and ?, FOSS4G-Europe 2017,
Paris

4. FOSS4G*: A worldwide phenomenon
*since 2004
Now locally brewed in many countries
Events in Japan

5. will be a teenager next year. Let’s make our teenage years
as enjoyable and memorable as our childhood!
• OSGeo is a not-for-profit software foundation
• Provides projects financial, organizational and legal support
• OSGeo does outreach and advocacy to promote
• Global adoption of open source geospatial technology
• Partnerships for open approach to standards, data and education
• OSGeo is a community-driven volunteer organization
• Membership from around the world.
Name: OSGeo; Date of Birth: 4 February, 2006; Address: Planet Earth
Empowering everyone with open source geospatial
Thanks to Markus Neteler for the graphics

6. Foundation
• Working with Industry/Academic/Governments in:
• Open Source: a collaborative approach to software development.
• Open Data: freely available to use as you wish
• Open Standards: interoperability, avoiding vendor lock-in
• Open Education: removing the barriers to learning and teaching
• Open Science: share data & software for reproducible research

7. OSGeo Status Overview
Open, free membership:
4,886 members registered on wiki, as of 2017_08_01_24
29476 OSGeo mail server unique subscribers 2017_08_01
Thanks to for data Jeff McKenna
390 elected charter members:
developers, activists, advocates, distribution by year, region and
country
http://bl.ocks.org/jsanz/raw/779f9b9954b92461fa50/
Thanks to Jorge Sanz for the graphics

8. Website/rebranding

9. @gwf2017
Tested & mature software for meeting any geospatial need

10. Try it, Learn it and feel free to use!

11. Open Source & Proprietary Software
• We use the same language and tools
• We strive to achieve geospatial interoperability
• We Open Data
• Same goal, paths are different

12. 2017 - Conferences
17 FOSS4G Industry/Academia/Government supported events
● FOSS4G Asia, January 26-29, 2017
● GFOSS Italy, February 8-11
● FOSGIS Germany, March 22-25
● FOSS4G SE USA (Knoxville, TN) May 19
● FOSS4G Finland, May 23
● OSGeo Irish Local Chapter symposium, May 26
● SIG Libre Spain June 1,2
● FOSS4G-NL Groningen NL, June 28
● FOSS4G-JP Hokkaido - June 30
● FOSS4G Africa June 28 - July 1
● FOSS4G Europe July 18 – 22
● FOSS4G Brazil, 27-29 July
● FOSS4G -2017 August 14-19
● FOSS4G-Korea, August 30 – September 1
● FOSS4G-Tokyo/Osaka September 15-16 and October 15-16
● FOSS4G+SOTM Argentina October 23-28
Source http://www.osgeo.org/event , news and other on-line resources

13. Industry Sponsors
1Spatial
2ndQuadrant
Autodesk
Borealis
Camptocamp
First Base
Solutions Inc.
INGRES
thinkWhere
ChameleonJohn
IGN, France
INPE, Brazil
Karttakeskus
LizardTech
Metaspatial
Ordnance Survey
PCI Geomatics
WhereGroup
2017
http://www.osgeo.org/sponsorship
Previous Sponsors

15. Professional Service Providers
http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile A few logos out of many....

16. Tie-ups with Global & National Organizations
More coming…

17. United Nations Committee
UN Open GIS Initiative
• to identify and develop open source geospatial
software and services that meet the
requirements of UN operations, taking full
advantage of the expertise of mission partners
including partner nations
• technology developed by contributing nations,
international organizations, academia, NGOs,
and private sector.
• kickoff meeting in Brindisi, Italy, March 2016
Working Groups
• Spiral 1 – UN Open Geo-Portal (US DoD and
Boundless)
• Spiral 2 – Capacity Building (GeoForAll)
• Spiral 3 – Geo-Analysis (OpenGDS)
• Spiral 4 – Data Acquisition (OPenGDS)

18. GeoForAll: co-creation of knowledge
through academia-industry collaborations
 Establishing research and teaching opportunities in ‘Open
Geospatial Science’
 Build global open access teaching and research infrastructure
 Provide worldwide learning platforms and training
opportunities
 Establish collaborations between Academia, Government and
Industry around Open Geospatial Science and Education

19. How to Join
Visit http://www.geoforall.org/how_to_join/

20. 121 labs worldwide as of
13 October, 2017
Mentor organization since 2007.
Most of mentors from Industry.
GeoForAll Labs: OSGeo outreach project
Teaching open source development to students (between ages 13-17)
from around the world

21. 2017 Student Awards
1st place: Hyung-Gyu Ryoo and Soojin Kim, Pusan National University, South Korea,
“Development of an extension of GeoServer for handling 3D spatial data,” Available
at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/foss4g/vol17/iss1/6
Congratulations, Ryoo &
Kim!! Welcome to
FOSS4G-Kansai 2017!!

22. Europe Region Chairs: Maria Brovelli and Peter Mooney
Maillist http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-europe
North America Region
Chairs: Helena Mitasova, Charles Schweik, Phillip Davis Maillist
http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-northamerica
South America Region
Chairs: Sergio Acosta y Lara and Silvana Camboim Maillist
http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-southamerica
Africa Region
Chairs: Rania Elsayed Ibrahim, Serena Coetzee and Bridget Fleming
Maillist http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-africa
Asia Region (including Australia) Chairs: Tuong Thuy Vu and Venkatesh Raghavan
Maillist http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geoforall-asiaaustralia
Regional Groups

23. Software
Data
Standard
Hardware
+ + =
FREE&OPEN
FOSS4G = Free & Open Source Solutions for Geoinformatics
FOSS4G

24. •Do we need to envision a more amicable
balance between corporate culture and volunteer
driven organization?
•Can our global event be more affordable?
•Can we do more to speed up project incubation?
•How do we track status of graduated projects?
•Why is the OSGeo discuss list so quite?
Some Challenges:

25. The grammar of the FOSS4G
- FOSS4G as a noun, represents an active entity, driven
by Academic/Industry/Government Collaboration to
exploit the value created by Open Innovation.
- FOSS4G as an adjective, characterizes a technology
development model for geospatial enablement of our
planet and empowerment of citizens.
- FOSS4G(ing) as a verb, denotes the action of making
a smart choice for your Geospatial needs.
Have fun keep Open-Sourcing (verb)!!

26. • Who “Leads” Government-Academia-Industry collaboration
Equal partners on the road to geospatial innovation
• Need for broader community engagements
Sprints, publications, certification, internship for students…
• Steps required to change mindset?
Increase awareness of Open Source Licenses.
• Open Source can be commercial?
Government-Academia-Industry all can gain
• Government-Academia-Industry collaboration success stories?
OSGeo Software projects, GeoForAll, UN-OpenGIS, FOSS4G.
Few thoughts

27. Thank You!