[OSGeo-Discuss] Activist campaign of open source projects to protest against policies of the US government

[Luí­s Moreira de Sousa]

Dear Even,

when I was a child, the priest in our parish used to say that everything we do in life is political. I am not certain such direct confrontation is the best way to dissuade regular folk from voting for autocratic movements, but doing something is certainly better than doing nothing. The SpatiaLite project, for instance, is taking things even further [0]. If I am allowed to give advice on the matter, just be careful not to undermine a project for little influence on the public discourse.

Take care.

P.S.: as much as I am troubled with the cahos spawned by the US government, to what open source is concerned, the CRA still appears to me as the greatest challenge in the coming years.

[0] https://www.gaia-gis.it/gaia-sins/index.html

--
Luís Moreira de Sousa
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@luis_de_sousa
URL: https://ldesousa.codeberg.page

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On Thursday, 20 February 2025 at 19:17, Even Rouault via Discuss <discuss at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've started an activist campaign of open source projects want to join the protest against the US government stupid, cruel and dangerous politics that affect the whole world ?
>
> I've initiated the move with GDAL (https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/11865 , with follow ups in https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/11875, https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/11876, https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/11877) , and also pushing for PROJ (https://github.com/OSGeo/PROJ/pull/4406) , MapServer (https://github.com/MapServer/MapServer/pull/7233) and GEOS (https://github.com/libgeos/geos/pull/1243) .
>
> Anyone else ?
>
> I don't agree that we should stay away from politics. Our projects only make sense in the context of a free society, and this freedom is at high stake. We have admittedly little power, but we can and should exercise it with the tools at our disposal. The addition of small little acts might end up having visible consequences.
>
> Even
>
> --
> http://www.spatialys.com
> My software is free, but my time generally not.
> Note to current US government: stop messing with the world!
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