Europe archive

Europe

Welcome to the wiki page of the Europe OSGeo chapter.

Introduction

FOSS4G Europe is rooted in the FOSS4G Central and Eastern Europe conference series, back in 2012. The latter evolved in 2014 as the first edition of FOSS4G Europe in Bremen. The conference is now becoming the main european FOSS4G event, gathering people and OSGeo local chapters from all over Europe and beyond.

Since the conference in Bremen, thoughts and ideas where exchanged to organise OSGeo more on a European basis. The Industry group was started, a platform of people supporting the idea arose, but there was no real initiative for action.

This year we (OSGeoEU) have the ambition to organise a legal entity OSGEO-EU to create a stronger software group in Europe to defend the rights of open source from the perspective of the Geo-ecosystem.

In preparation for this official expression of interest, a couple of meetings have already taken place. a physical BOF @FOSS4G 2014 in Bremen, some mails, a BOF @FOSS4G 2015 in Como and some one physical meetings. (todo: put meeting minutes on the wiki)

Why should an OSGeo European local chapter be important

• more than 99% of all the European businesses are SME's
• software industry in Europe is as big as the software industry in the US, but the driving forces are more divided
• FLOSS can be used as an opportunity to create a strong industry leadership in Europe
• OSGeo.EU can play a coordinating role in this process

Mission and objectives

After discussion amongst the active local chapter members we come to the following list of mission objectives:

• Community-building and networking around specific European themes.

• promote the use of open source software in the geospatial industry (PR, training, outreach)

• support the European SME's using FOSS4G software, help them to organise and bring into contact with governmental agencies and research institutes.

• encourage interoperability in European projects

• support open standards and European directives such as INSPIRE

• provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via curriculum development, outreach, and support

• to encourage communication between the different European local chapters

• to encourage different communities to work together where relevant

• Organisation of events

These two mission statements are working together. We believe it is important to meet people face2face. To help them to start open source initiatives, to start using open source solutions, to establish an eco-system that benefits from the cooperation, the sharing and the co-creation open source delivers.

• promote the use of freely available geodata - free software is useless without data

• Lobbying

We think it is important to speak as one voice, and to get involved with other organisations: administrations, industries, user groups, ... OSGeo.eu will actively speak as an organisation to defend the OSGeo open source spirit in the broader European community (government, academic, industry, other open initiatives).

• Networking with other organisations and groups (notably OSG, OSM, JRC, European projects)

• Support to OSGeo.org and other European Local Chapters

We believe that OSGeo only can grow if supported from the base. So OSGeo Europe is willing to help OSGeo where necessary, to leverage idea's or act as an advisor if appreciated. We aim at bringing the different local initiatives together, creating a stronger group that is able to speak as one voice. To promote open source in the European administrations and their member states. To help the European geo-ict industry, learning them to promote and reuse open source technology and solutions.

• Support to OSGeo in lobbying European Union Institutions (Commission, Parliament, etc) related to specific EU-Themes (INSPIRE, H2020, Procurement policy, ...)

• Provide resources for foundation projects - e.g. infrastructure, funding, legal

List of initial members

The European OSGeo Chapter has the support of the following initial founding members (alphabetic - first name):

• Dirk Frigne - founding member of the Geomajas community
• Vasile Crăciunescu - board member
• Jáchym Čepický - board member

Contribution of OS Geo members to FP6, FP7, H2020

ToDo: add your contributions! still very early draft! preparation ToDiscuss

collected regional support

(R&D financing, startup projects, funding)