[Qgis-psc] Call for evidence - impact of open source
Régis Haubourg
regis at qgis.org
Mon Jan 26 05:10:30 PST 2026
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> 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 <mailto: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
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> --
>> Andreas Neumann
>> QGIS.ORG <http://QGIS.ORG> board member (treasurer)
>>
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>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
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