The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open

geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also call ...

technologies Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

and data. The foundation was formed in February 2006 to provide financial, organizational and legal support to the broader Free and

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources. OSGeo draws governance inspiration from several aspects of the

Apache Foundation The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is an American nonprofit corporation (classified as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States) to support a number of open source software projects. The ASF was formed from a group of developers of the ...

, 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 Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

to government produced geospatial data and completely free geodata, such as that created and maintained by the

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...

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. ''se
FAQ
'. The OSGeo community collaborates via a

Wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

Mailing List A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...

s and

IRC Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...

Projects

OSGeo projects include:

Geospatial Libraries

* FDO – API (C++, .Net) between GIS application and sources; for manipulating, defining and analyzing geospatial data. *

GDAL/OGR The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software library for reading and writing raster and vector geospatial data formats (e.g. shapefile), and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the Ope ...

– Library between GIS application and sources; for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats (GDAL) and simple features vector data (OGR). *

GeoTools GeoTools is a free software (LGPL) GIS toolkit for developing standards compliant solutions. It provides an implementation of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) specifications as they are developed. GeoTools is a contributor to the GeoAPI projec ...

– Open source GIS toolkit (Java); to enable the creation of interactive geographic visualization clients. * GEOS – A C++ port of the Java Topology Suite (JTS), a geometry model. * MetaCRS – Projections and coordinate system technologies, including

PROJ PROJ (formerly PROJ.4) is a library for performing conversions between cartographic projections. The library is based on the work of Gerald Evenden at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), but since 2019-11-26 is an Open Source Geospatial F ...

. * Orfeo ToolBox (OTB) – Open source tools to process satellite images and extract information.
OSSIM
Extensive geospatial image processing libraries with support for satellite and aerial sensors and common image formats. *

PostGIS PostGIS ( ) is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. PostGIS follows the Simple Features for SQL specification from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Technicall ...

– Spatial extensions for the PostgreSQL database, enabling geospatial queries.

Desktop Applications

QGIS QGIS is a free and open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system (GIS) application that supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data. Functionality QGIS functions as geographic information system (GIS ...

– Desktop GIS for data viewing, editing and analysis — Windows, Mac and Linux. *

GRASS GIS ''Geographic Resources Analysis Support System'' (commonly termed ''GRASS GIS'') is a geographic information system (GIS) software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, producing graphics and maps, spatial and ...

– extensible GIS for

image processing An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

and analysing

raster Raster may refer to: * Raster graphics, graphical techniques using arrays of pixel values * Raster graphics editor, a computer program * Raster scan, the pattern of image readout, transmission, storage, and reconstruction in television and compu ...

topological In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing h ...

vector and

graphic Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...

data.
OSSIM
– Libraries and applications used to process imagery, maps, terrain, and vector data. *

Marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

– Virtual globe and world atlas. *

gvSIG gvSIG, geographic information system (GIS), is a desktop application designed for capturing, storing, handling, analyzing and deploying any kind of referenced geographic information in order to solve complex management and planning problems. gv ...

– Desktop GIS for data capturing, storing, handling, analysing and deploying. Includes map editing.

Web Mapping

Server

MapServer MapServer is an open-source development environment for building spatially enabled internet applications, built in the C language, and is widely known as one of the fastest Web mapping engines available. It can run as a CGI program or via MapSc ...

– Fast web mapping engine for publishing spatial data and services on the web; written in C. * Geomajas – Development software for web-based and cloud based GIS applications. *

GeoServer In computing, GeoServer is an open-source server written in Java that allows users to share, process and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards. GeoServer ha ...

– Allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Written in Java using

. *

deegree deegree supplies the building blocks of a Spatial Data Infrastructure, while implementing the standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and ISO/TC 211. The Java-based deegree framework is the most extensive implementation of OGC/ISO st ...

– Java framework * PyWPS – implementation of the OGC

Web Processing Service The OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) Interface Standard provides rules for standardizing inputs and outputs (requests and responses) for invoking geospatial processing services, such as polygon overlay, as a web service. The WPS standard defines ...

standard, using Python

Client

* GeoMoose – JavaScript Framework for displaying distributed GIS data. *

Mapbender Mapbender is a graduated project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. It was awarded OGC web site of the month in 2008. It is used by PortalU and several federal states to implement the INSPIRE regulation. Many municipalities use Mapbender a ...

– Framework to display, overlay, edit and manage distributed Web Map Services using PHP and JavaScript. *

MapGuide Open Source MapGuide Open Source is a web-based map-making platform that enables users to quickly develop and deploy web mapping applications and geospatial web services. The application was introduced as open-source by Autodesk in November 2005, and the cod ...

– Platform for developing and deploying web mapping applications and geospatial web services. Windows-based, native file format. * MapFish – Framework for building rich web-mapping applications based on the Pylons Python web framework. *

OpenLayers OpenLayers is an open-source (provided under the 2-clause BSD License) JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers as slippy maps. It provides an API for building rich web-based geographic applications similar to Google Maps an ...

– AJAX library (API) for accessing geographic data layers of all kinds.

Specification

* Tile Map Service (TMS) – a specification for tiled web maps.

Metadata Catalog

* GeoNetwork opensource * pycsw – Lightweight metadata publishing and discovery using Python.

Content Management Systems

* GeoNode

Outreach Projects

* Geo for All – Network of educators promoting Open Source geospatial around the world. * OSGeoLive – Bootable DVD, USB thumb drive or Virtual Machine containing all OSGeo software. * OSGeo4W – a binary distribution of a broad set of open source geospatial software for Windows

Retired Projects

* Community MapBuilder

Events

OSGeo runs an annual international conference calle
FOSS4G
– Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial. Starting as early as 2006, this event has drawn over 1100 attendees (2017 Boston) and the tendency is to increase this number every 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. The FOSS4G ribbon, part of every FOSS4G event logo, symbolizes the flow of ideas, innovation, and sharing within the Open Source geospatial community. The event history dates back to an important face-to-face meeting of the 3 original founders of the event (Venkatesh Raghavan, Markus Neteler, and Jeff McKenna), who met initially in Bangkok Thailand in 2004, and planned to create a new annual event for the whole Open Source geospatial community, with the event named " FOSS4G"; the event would go on to help change the history of the geospatial industry. There are also many regional and local events following this FOSS4G philosophy.

Community

The OSGeo community is composed of participants from everywhere in the world. , there were 35,176 unique subscribers to the more than 384 OSGeo mailing lists. , 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.

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 have contributed significantly through their activities to advance open source ideals in the geospatial realm.

References

External links

*
OSGeo Wiki

OSGeo Linux VM

Open Source GIS History

Recordings of FOSS4G conferences
in the AV-Portal of

German National Library of Science and Technology The German National Library of Science and Technology (german: Technische Informationsbibliothek), abbreviated TIB, is the national library of the Federal Republic of Germany for all fields of engineering, technology, and the natural sciences. I ...

{{Authority control Open data Free GIS software Free and open-source software organizations Geographic information systems organizations Organizations established in 2006