The OSGeo (Open Source Geospatial Foundation) is organized at a local or regional level in so-called “Local Chapters.” For example, FOSSGIS e.V. is the official German-speaking OSGeo Local Chapter and is therefore the point of contact for anyone interested in the OSGeo in the corresponding D-A-CH region or who wants to get involved.
The OSGeo has hardly any requirements for what happens in the Local Chapters, as long as a chapter supports the OSGeo mission and the goals of the OSGeo. In addition, the OSGeo especially encourages geographically or factually related groups to organize themselves. In order to obtain an official “Local Chapter” status, only recognition by the OSGeo Board of Directors is necessary as a formal act.
Typically, each Local Chapter holds its own conference once a year. The counterpart of FOSSGIS e.V. here is the FOSSGIS Conference, which takes place annually in spring.
Since spring 2016, there have been efforts by some active members to form an official Local Chapter “OSGeo-Europe.” It is important to note that although the initiators themselves are active in other Local Chapters such as FOSSGIS e.V. (Till Adams, Markus Neteler), OSGeo-Belgium (Dirk Frigne), OSGeo-NL (Marc Vloemans) or the Romanian OSGeo Local Chapter (Vasile Crăciunescu), they are not involved in the new Local Chapter OSGeo-Europe as representatives of their own national chapters, but as private individuals. In this respect, OSGeo-Europe does not see itself as an umbrella organization for the already existing European Local Chapters, but as a chapter specifically focused on European topics.
The motivation for this comes from the recognition that there is a lack of an organization in Europe that sees itself as a contact and lobbyist specifically for European organizations, e.g. in the EU in Brussels. In addition, there are special European topics, such as INSPIRE, which require a local contact person. These topics cannot be adequately addressed either by the chapters, which are mostly organized at a national level, or by the OSGeo itself.
The goals of an OSGeo-Europe were defined at several preparatory meetings. It was decided that an OSGeo-Europe should support a community specifically focused on European topics. In addition, the perception and use of open source geo-software should be promoted in the EU and in other large European projects and organizations. OSGeo-Europe also wants to promote cooperation between various national and European organizations (institutes, universities, companies, etc.) and work together with other Europe-wide organizations such as OSM-Europe, JRC, European projects, FIWARE, EUROGI, SMESpire and many more. An overview of the content and goals of OSGeo-Europe can be found in.
After several further meetings of various actors, the decision was made at the “FOSS4G Europe 2017” conference held near Paris in July to apply to the OSGeo Board for OSGeo-Europe to be granted official status as a Local Chapter. The Board accepted this application on the sidelines of the “FOSS4G 2017” conference in Boston.
Our managing director Till Adams was elected to the Board of Directors of OSGeo-Europe.
