The Local Chapter “OSGeo-Europe” was officially established at FOSS4G Europe last summer. Till Adams, co-founder of terrestris, was elected to the Board of Directors.

OSGeo-Europe is a local chapter on the same level as other regional OSGeo chapters, but is increasingly focusing on European institutions.

One of the goals of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is the distribution and promotion of open source software for geoinformatics. Further goals are knowledge transfer, OpenData and open cooperations. These goals are pursued both globally by OSGeo and at the regional level by the so-called Local Chapter. For example, the official German-language local chapter, FOSSGIS e.V., hosts the German-language FOSSGIS conference once a year and acts as a contact for FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) enthusiasts and community in German-speaking countries.

A corresponding counterpart at European level has been missing so far. This gap is now to be filled by OSGeo-Europe.

Through this article by the Copernicus Support Office about the OSGeo community, the contact between Till Adams and the Support Office came about. The first official inaugural visit was last Thursday in Brussels. Till Adams was accompanied by OSGeo-Europe President Dirk Frigne. In an initial meeting, potential points of contact and possible joint activities between the European Copernicus programme and OSGeo were discussed.

All participants agreed that it makes sense to use such a cooperation as a medium to bring the Earth observation and OSGeo communities closer together. This goal was already pursued by Till Adams for the FOSS4G 2016 in Bonn with the definition of core topics. One of these core contents was the topic “Earth Observation” and is now to be consistently continued.

In addition to improving mutual perception, topics such as the development of sustainable open source technology with the support of OSGeo or know-how transfer for tools and data were discussed.

Following the successful kick-off date, further meetings and joint activities will follow in the coming months.