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

Mon Jan 26 23:56:12 PST 2026

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
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
>
> Saber Razmjooei
>
> CO-Founder
>
> lutraconsulting.co.uk
>
>  [image: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saber-razmjooei/]
> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/saber-razmjooei/>
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