[Qgis-psc] Call for evidence - impact of open source

Sun Feb 1 23:34:07 PST 2026

Cool, thanks.

I will submit tomorrow and send tonthe mailing list too.

Thanks for all the efforts

On a side note, the commission officer at fossdem working on this said thay
already had gotten over 2000 submissions

Marco Bernasocchi

QGIS.org Chair
OSGEO.org VP Europe
OPENGIS.ch CEO
http://berna.io

On Mon, 2 Feb 2026, 08:29 Saber Razmjooei, <
saber.razmjooei at lutraconsulting.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Thanks Anita, Regis and Marco for your comments and editions.
>
> There are a couple of comments from Anita, once resolved, I am happy to be
> submitted. Just for the record, it may be a good idea (similar to what
> Regis posted from software heritage foundation), to publish the final
> submitted version to the mailing list.
>
> Kind regards
> Saber
>
>
> On Mon, 2 Feb 2026 at 00:56, Marco Bernasocchi <marco at qgis.org> wrote:
>
>> Thanks all for all the input. I'm just back from Fossdem where this
>> subject was quite present.
>>
>> I've added all my points and Anita has been reviewing the whole submition.
>>
>> I would go over all corrections tomorrow evening and then submit on
>> tuesday mornings in the PSC' name. Is that ok with you (especially Saber,
>> you put a lot of work in there?
>>
>> Cheers
>> Marco Bernasocchi
>>
>> QGIS.org Chair
>> OSGEO.org VP Europe
>> OPENGIS.ch CEO
>> http://berna.io
>>
>> On Tue, 27 Jan 2026, 08:56 Emma Hain via QGIS-PSC, <
>> qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi All
>>> Though not European, I believe this will pave the way for other reqions
>>> - here are my thoughts:
>>>
>>>    1. Australia has tax incentives for R&D
>>>    <https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/income-deductions-and-concessions/incentives-and-concessions/research-and-development-tax-incentive-and-concessions/research-and-development-tax-incentive>.
>>>    In reading the response, I see mention of grants, but no tax incentives,
>>>    2. Education is super important - adaptation in curriculum and the
>>>    later Higher Education course development should be a focus on
>>>    sustainability
>>>
>>> Kind regards
>>> Em
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 at 23:19, Saber Razmjooei via QGIS-PSC <
>>> qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Regis,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for those examples. They are very concise and nicely worded.
>>>>
>>>> I think QGIS is not a generic tool and can be linked with some of the
>>>> EU specific policies (e.g. EUDR, Data Spaces, Inspire) and highlight the
>>>> importance of it from those aspects.
>>>>
>>>> The format of response can change, but first we need to gather all the
>>>> ideas/comments in one place.
>>>>
>>>> Kind regards
>>>> Saber
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 at 14:10, Régis Haubourg <regis at qgis.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi there,
>>>>> I am following the freedesktop foundations mailing list [0],  which is
>>>>> dedicated to collaboration between open source projects.
>>>>>
>>>>> They pushed a response to europe with many interesting points. The
>>>>> form of the document is really nice to read and summarized with a short
>>>>> operational recommandations.
>>>>>
>>>>> A copy of the response here :
>>>>> https://nx57269.your-storageshare.de/s/XmF44Cqx96GKibf
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> [0] see https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/foundations
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>> Régis
>>>>>
>>>>> https://nx57269.your-storageshare.de/s/XmF44Cqx96GKibf
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Le 21 janvier 2026 13:31:48 GMT+01:00, Saber Razmjooei
>>>>> <saber.razmjooei at lutraconsulting.co.uk>
>>>>> <saber.razmjooei at lutraconsulting.co.uk> a écrit :
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks for your interest. I have shared with the interested parties a
>>>>>> document for the draft response. Feel free to share further and add your
>>>>>> comments/ideas.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Kind regards
>>>>>> Saber
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 at 13:19, Marco Bernasocchi via QGIS-PSC <
>>>>>> qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>>> I've also started reading this in detail an preparing some notes.
>>>>>>> @Régis Haubourg <regis at qgis.org> you had a collaborative MD
>>>>>>> hedgehog somewhere?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I could dump my toughts there.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Cheers
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Marco Bernasocchi
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> QGIS.org Chair
>>>>>>> OSGEO.org VP Europe
>>>>>>> OPENGIS.ch CEO
>>>>>>> http://berna.io
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, 21 Jan 2026, 12:10 Régis Haubourg via QGIS-PSC, <
>>>>>>> qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>> I agree too that we need to raise our voices. I had a deep look,
>>>>>>>> and fitting into European formalism is not that easy, but worth the try.
>>>>>>>> I also think that we should debate what could be pragmatically
>>>>>>>> improved with european public policies regarding our project.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> From my corner, having been on the side of public funder,
>>>>>>>> contributor in a company, and now benevolent in a research institute that
>>>>>>>> uses QGIS, I see these bottlenecks :
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - The IT culture around open source is very low, and many IT
>>>>>>>> departement, or even public market try to fit open source business into the
>>>>>>>> mold of closed source habits. Europe could improve things by a directive
>>>>>>>> that forces countries to change their public market rules to allow open
>>>>>>>> source service buying for any contract. This would secure a lot of
>>>>>>>> contracts. And allow those contracts to be more agile, because open source
>>>>>>>> moves fast.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - The cyber stuff pushes us back into a vendor pattern, where we
>>>>>>>> are a lot more responsible of our distribution packages than the GPL
>>>>>>>> licence for our own code says.  This increases infra and administrative
>>>>>>>> tasks a lot, and only big projects can follow the flow and our obligation.
>>>>>>>>  The CRA open source stewardship stuff releases the legal pressure, but
>>>>>>>> customers will still treat open source as vendors and will expect the same
>>>>>>>> level of reactivity over disclosures. That means we need to secure our
>>>>>>>> package process, anticipate scanner issues, have a proactive security
>>>>>>>> strategy. That means more QGIS.org funded work in the long run. What can
>>>>>>>> Europe do? Find ways to secure the funding of open source stewards, but
>>>>>>>> how? Communication and budget helpers can help, but it is already done
>>>>>>>> currently. If we are in a new IT cold war, I would be in favor of a tax on
>>>>>>>> numeric giants that would be funding open source foundations.  The real
>>>>>>>> political question would then be the way this money can be redistributed (
>>>>>>>> I'd rather let the economy find its way and not depend too much on polical
>>>>>>>> choices, but I'm afraid that doesn't work fast enough) .
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - Github centralization fears me too. Funding codeberg sufficiently
>>>>>>>> so that they are strong enough to allow project have decent CI minutes, on
>>>>>>>> par features, so that open source project can grow without paying the
>>>>>>>> AI/closed system toll in Europe would also be necessary. An open source
>>>>>>>> tool, with one majors strong public funded instance.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> -  Renewing the motivation to contribute to open source in schools.
>>>>>>>> I think modern centralized IT platform, and AI move contributors away from
>>>>>>>> the project. I can only see a public educational program to mitigate this.
>>>>>>>> Open source basics, contribution basics should be pushed in educational
>>>>>>>> programs (in France, a team is doing a great job currently with a long term
>>>>>>>> strategy based on open source and commons :
>>>>>>>> https://www.education.gouv.fr/feuilles-de-route-450426 ) . To me
>>>>>>>> Europe should also launch a funded program alike the Google Summer of Code,
>>>>>>>> publicly funded.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - Finally, Europe should push rules to forbid IT tools that block
>>>>>>>> real interoperability and lock users in companies in closed ecosystem. We
>>>>>>>> have shy initiatives around RGPD data portability. Europe should go further
>>>>>>>> and set up a "vendor locking" score, added to all the IT audits I see.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> @Saber if you take the lead to write something, maybe we could
>>>>>>>> share a collaborative pad to gather our notes and ideas?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Best regards
>>>>>>>> Régis
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 1/21/26 08:49, Andreas Neumann via QGIS-PSC wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Yes - I agree it is important.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It is pretty obvious for us (and the European governments), that
>>>>>>>> the US government (with a lot of influence on the US economy) is not
>>>>>>>> anymore a reliable partner. So I believe Open Source and other European
>>>>>>>> software alternatives to US commercial software where Europe is dependent
>>>>>>>> on is probably of quite some importance.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> PSC will try to submit something before the deadline.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Andreas
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 at 05:20, Valentin Buira via QGIS-PSC <
>>>>>>>> qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hi Saber
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks a lot for bringing the topic, I submitted my feedback as an
>>>>>>>>> individual.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Now I strongly suggest the PSC to do so as well for QGIS. Because
>>>>>>>>> from the way the call for evidence is worded, it is very obvious (and
>>>>>>>>> explicit even) that it's preliminary work for a new a new law on open
>>>>>>>>> source.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> QGIS has this unique ability to trickle down on so many
>>>>>>>>> disciplines, and in the end on the life of people
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> *If the EU is putting open source software on its strategic road
>>>>>>>>> map*, this could mean securing new funding for QGIS. And it would benefit
>>>>>>>>> to the QGIS project worldwide.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> And it could also help to deter side effects of this future
>>>>>>>>> regulation. What I mean by that, it would be cool to avoid the same burden
>>>>>>>>> as the Cyber Resilience Act(CRA)
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> P.S: The deadline for submitting a feedback is on 3 February, so
>>>>>>>>> it's getting closer. [1]
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> P.P.S: I also recently suggested the creation of a Europe QGIS
>>>>>>>>> user group with potential perks for the EU [2]
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>>>> Valentin
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> [1]
>>>>>>>>> https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16213-European-Open-Digital-Ecosystems_en
>>>>>>>>> [2]
>>>>>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/2026-January/055990.html
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC mailing list
>>>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Andreas Neumann
>>>>>>>> QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC mailing listQGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.orghttps://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC mailing list
>>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC mailing list
>>>>>>> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Saber Razmjooei
>>>>
>>>> CO-Founder
>>>>
>>>> lutraconsulting.co.uk
>>>>
>>>>  [image: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saber-razmjooei/]
>>>> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/saber-razmjooei/>
>>>> <https://www.youtube.com/@LutraConsulting>
>>>> <https://github.com/lutraconsulting>
>>>>
>>>> <https://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk/>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org
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>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> QGIS-PSC mailing list
>>> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>>
>>
>
> --
>
> Saber Razmjooei
>
> CO-Founder
>
> lutraconsulting.co.uk
>
>  [image: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saber-razmjooei/]
> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/saber-razmjooei/>
> <https://www.youtube.com/@LutraConsulting>
> <https://github.com/lutraconsulting>
>
> <https://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk/>
>
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