Open Source Geospatial Foundation

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. 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 is pursuing goals beyond software development, such as promoting more open access to government-produced geospatial data and completely free geodata such as is created and maintained by the OpenStreetMap project. Also education and training are addressed. Various committees within the foundation work on implementing strategies.

Projects
OSGeo projects include:

Geospatial Libraries

 * FDO
 * GDAL/OGR
 * GeoTools
 * GEOS
 * MetaCRS

Desktop Applications

 * GRASS GIS
 * OSSIM
 * Quantum GIS
 * gvSIG

Server

 * MapServer
 * deegree (but iGeoPortal is client)

Client

 * Mapbender
 * Open Source
 * OpenLayers

Metadata Catalog

 * GeoNetwork opensource

Retired Projects

 * Community MapBuilder

Governance
The OSGeo Foundation is thoroughly community driven and has a lightweight organizational overhead consisting of 45 initial members, 9 directors including the president Arnulf Christl. It is organized in more than 20 projects. Twelve of these (March 2007) focus on software development projects (see above) or organizational matters like board issues, web site, visibility, education, public geodata and promotion. The OSGeo community collaborates via a Wiki, Mailing Lists and IRC.

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.