[OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] How big is the Open Source Geo developer and consultancy community?

[Steven Feldman]

I have updated the survey to take account of feedback from several people.

The provision of employee numbers and revenues are optional and in bands rather than seeking precise information.
Options added for non monetary contributions

Survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xZaq6Z4NMOuXm6jOEifScBS6qW0FSMt47AKb3Fm6JmA/edit?usp=sharing <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xZaq6Z4NMOuXm6jOEifScBS6qW0FSMt47AKb3Fm6JmA/edit?usp=sharing>
______
Steven


> On 7 May 2016, at 15:26, Dave McIlhagga <dmcilhagga at mapsherpa.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Steven,
> 
> Re. The Supply side - I'd suggest you include anyone who actively contributes effort to the development of OS software regardless of how they monetize the activity.
> 
> For instance, if you don't include companies working on the software that then gets monetized via proprietary solutions and commercial packaging, you would be missing what I expect are the silent majority of OS software contributors. It would also make your survey more black and white in terms of whether one qualifies as being part of the open source economics. Essentially if you contribute you're in.
> 
> Dave
> 
> Sent from mobile
> dmcilhagga at mapsherpa.com <mailto:dmcilhagga at mapsherpa.com>
> 
> On May 7, 2016, at 2:53 AM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com <mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>> Apologies, the link to my explanatory blog post was wrong. Should be http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/blog/size-matters/ <http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/blog/size-matters/>
>> 
>> Steven 
>> 
>> On 6 May 2016, at 19:09, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com <mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I have wanted to try to pull together some very basic economic numbers about open source geo for a while now. Then when I got the good news that my talk on “There is no such thing as a free lunch” had been accepted for FOSS4G 2016, I decided to have a crack at crowdsourcing some numbers which I hope to include in my talk in August. There are two elements to this exercise
>>> Supply – How big is the business of Open Source Geo? i.e the companies and full time or near to fully time consultants working in  this space
>>> Usage – How much Open Source Geo software is deployed and what value does it create or displace?
>>> At the moment I am focussing on the supply side because it feels like a more manageable task, perhaps some others will step up and offer to help estimate the usage side.
>>> 
>>> This survey aims to gather some basic stats on companies (from one man bands to very large companies) whose activities are based on the provision of development and services in Open Source Geo (either wholly or a significant part). Even though revenue and employee numbers will often be available from public sources, I will only present the results in aggregated formats to ensure that individual company info cannot be derived from my presentation. If you are uncertain about providing information to this survey please check with a senior manager within your organisation before responding.
>>> 
>>> So why should you help me to make an estimate of the size of the Open Source Geo business? I think that size does matter when you are in the software business, potential users often gain confidence from larger numbers – more users, a larger industry with more employees and more revenues – why would this not be the case for Open Source Geo when we are  frequently facing FUD merchants. I believe that collating some economic data on the Open Source Geo business can help all of us to respond better when confronted with questions about the commercial sustainability of our community.
>>> 
>>> There is a bit more info about the survey at http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/size-matters <http://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/size-matters>
>>> 
>>> The survey is at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xZaq6Z4NMOuXm6jOEifScBS6qW0FSMt47AKb3Fm6JmA/edit?usp=sharing <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xZaq6Z4NMOuXm6jOEifScBS6qW0FSMt47AKb3Fm6JmA/edit?usp=sharing>
>>> 
>>> Thanks for any help you can offer to further publicise this survey
>>> 
>>> Cheers
>>> ______
>>> Steven
>>> 
>>> 
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