View source for FreeGIS

''The following text is copied verbatim from the [http://www.freegis.org/ 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 [http://www.freegis.org/ website], which summarizes the said software, data and documents with additional infos and search opportunities,
* a [http://intevation.de/mailman/listinfo/freegis-list 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 [http://intevation.net/ Intevation GmbH], a consulting company based in Germany.