FOSS4G Conference - Free & Open Source Software for Geospatial

Author: Ian Harrison
Date: 4 November 2009

Tags: FOSS4G, open source, climate change

FOSS4G is an annual conference about open source software for geospatial systems. Each year it is held in a different city around the world, this year it was in Sydney.

Although attendance was reported to be down on last year it still attracted many of the open source industry's key figures.

One of the themes I picked up on is a narrowing of the gap between open source and proprietary software. Proprietary companies have realised making some of their software open source removes barriers for software uptake and improvement. There is also a realisation that software companies, whether they're open source or proprietary, make their money from things such as support services, training, developer communities etc; and not the actual code itself.

The talk that struck me the most was given by a Professor Andy Pitman, an Australian climate scientist. Although he talked mostly about the software they use for climate science, he predicted that if carbon emissions continue as they are we will be facing serious consequences by 2030.

Geospatial is at the core of work to manage things such as climate change.

Ian Harrison

GIS Analyst
Land Information New Zealand

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