FreeGIS

''The following text is copied verbatim from the FreeGIS Project at http://www.freegis.org/. Find all further information there.''

Aims and Services
The FreeGIS Project aims to promote the freedom in the scope of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A GIS can be defined as an information system that is designed to work with data referenced by spatial or geographic coordinates ( more definitions). It seeks to reach its aim through


 * promoting the use, development and support of Free GIS Software,
 * promoting the use and release of publicly available geographic data in the same sense of freedom as for Free Software,
 * promoting the use, writing, translation and extending of free documents in the GIS field.

The FreeGIS projects concentrates mainly on two services:


 * the website, which summarizes the said software, data and documents with additional infos and search opportunities,
 * a community discussion list, where the news and releases are announced and synergy is sought among the interested community members and projects.

Freedom
Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech" or "free markets", not as in "for free" (gratis).

Free Software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

History
The FreeGIS Project was launched in late 1999 as an initiative of Intevation GmbH, a consulting company based in Germany.