The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

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 Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

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

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

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 A ...

, 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 nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

to government produced geospatial data,

FAIR_data FAIR data is data which meets the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR). The acronym and principles were defined in a March 2016 paper in the journal '' Scientific Data'' by a consortium of sc ...

geodata, and geodata created and maintained by the

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (abbreviated OSM) is a free, Open Database License, open geographic database, map database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveying, surveys, trace from Ae ...

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 a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

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. Mailing lists are often rented or sold. If rented, the renter agrees to use the mailing list only at contra ...

s and

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) 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 ...

Projects

OSGeo projects include:

Geospatial Libraries

* FDO – API (C++, .Net) between GIS application and sources; for manipulating, defining and analyzing geospatial data. * GDAL/OGR – Library between GIS application and sources; for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats (GDAL) and simple features vector data (OGR). * GeoTools –

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

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 In algebraic geometry, Proj is a construction analogous to the spectrum-of-a-ring construction of affine schemes, which produces objects with the typical properties of projective spaces and projective varieties. The construction, while not funct ...

. * 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). PostGIS is ...

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

Desktop Applications

QGIS QGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) software that is free and open-source. QGIS supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data in a range of data formats. Its name comes from ...

– 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 or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...

and analysing raster,

topological Topology (from the Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, wit ...

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 the data, as in design and manufa ...

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

Marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

– 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 h ...

– Allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Written in Java using GeoTools. * deegree – Java framework * PyWPS – implementation of the OGC Web Processing Service standard, using Python
pygeoapi
- A Python server implementation of the OGC API suite of standards for geospatial data.

Client

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

– 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 – 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 The GeoNetwork opensource (GNOS) project is a free and open source (FOSS) cataloging application for spatially referenced resources. It is a catalog of location-oriented information. Outline It is a standardized and decentralized spatial informat ...

* 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 (), abbreviated TIB, is the national library of the Federal Republic of Germany for all fields of engineering, technology, and the natural sciences. It is jointly funded by the Federal Mini ...

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