[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

[Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au]

IMO.



Gilberto,

> 
> In 2003, I did a F00S4G market survey and published the
> results as a chapter of a US National Academy of Sciences book:
> "Open Source GIS Software: Myths and Realities"
> <www.dpi.inpe.br/gilberto/papers/camara_open_source_myths.pdf>.
> 
> We analysed 70 FOSS4G software projects taken from the
> FreeGIS list, and divided them into three categories:
> networked products (e.g. GRASS), corporate products (e.g., PostGIS)
> and individual products (e.g., CAVOR). From each product,
> we assessed its maturity, level of support and functionality.
> 


This is an interesting read.

Are you aware of any follow up work?

I'm particularly interested in perceptions of the impact that OSGeo may be 
having as an umbrella organisation.


wrt Government involvement:

- as Frank suggests, I suspect that governments would have more impact 
supporting a central group of applications rather than each one rolling 
their own. The problem is assessing and picking the appropriate 
applications and projects to support.

- governments often have a tender process that they need to follow when 
implementing new systems. If OS products aren't proposed or well 
supported, they often don't get looked at.

- many governments also have a large investment (in time, training, money, 
processes and data) in existing proprietary products and can't easily 
switch arbitrarily to a new product. 

- Having said this, I'm aware of many organisations that are disatisfied 
with the status quo and looking to the longer term to reduce vendor 
lock-in. One way that people are looking to do this is to specify support 
for Open Standards (e.g. ISO 19100 series and OGC) as a key requirement. 
Currently OSGeo projects offer some of the better support for these 
standards. I hope that this continues (though I have noticed some derisive 
comments about standards w****).


wrt the Brazillian TerraLib toolkit mentioned in your paper:

- I've had a quick look at the web site. The product appears to be quite 
mature and functional.

- Has anyone from this list had a technical look at the products and like 
to share their observations? Can they be integrated with OSGeo apps? Do 
they support OGC standards etc?


Bruce Bannerman




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