FOSS4G Observatory

@OSS4gEO
89 Followers
80 Following
74 Posts
The FOSS4G Observatory (ex-OSS4gEO), is a 2- year activity funded by ESA through the permanently open call Future EO-1: EO Science for Society and carried out by Terrasigna. It is part of a wider ESA initiative to actively support and contribute to the open source community and it is intended as a seed action to better understand, represent and harvest the geospatial open source ecosystem.
FOSS4G Observatoryhttps://www.oss4geo.org/
Project pagehttps://project.oss4geo.org/
APIhttps://gitlab.terrasigna.com/ESA/oss4geo/api/-/wikis/home
It is admirable to observ how the #FOSS way value&the πŸ’ͺ of building πŸ’» solutions following the #FOSS principles is gaining momentum within 🌍 organisations. In 2025, πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡³ UN officially πŸš€ the Open Source United, a UN-wide initiative to coordinate and scaleπŸ“ˆ open source efforts across its entire system. This week, the United Portal πŸš€ πŸ‘‰ https://opensource.un.org/en. When it comes to geospatial, we can only encourage πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡³ to blend in the already mature #FOSS4G ecosystem as can be easily seen in the @OSS4gEO
#FOSS is expensive πŸ’Έ ... when you don't do it right. According to one of the latest reportsπŸ“ of the @linuxfoundation the #ROI for companies that contribute back to the #FOSS projects they depend on is between 2-5X, while for the ones passively consuming (and forking privately) it actually turns into technical debt on the medium-long term. Check out the report and the data πŸ“š it relies on πŸ‘‰ https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/contribution-roi?hsLang=en
Since @CopernicusEU was known as #GMES, there was a❓in the back of everyones' 🧠: will we have the capacity to fully benefit from the Sentinels? A lot has happened since the S-1AπŸš€ and 2 decades later, the direction of full exploitation of Copernicus data is driven by #FOSS πŸ’ͺ
@developmentseed, EOX& thriveGEO, supported by @esa launched the #EOPF #Sentinel @zarr Explorer, an ecosystem supporting cloud-native exploitation and visualisation of Earth Observation data! πŸ“– πŸ‘‰ https://developmentseed.org/blog/2026-02-13-eopf-explorer-launch/
February is a special month πŸ’Œ but for the geospatial community it is even more. It is @osgeo month! Yet this year is special πŸ‘‘ OSGeo turns 20! πŸŽ‚ It is hard to imagine what the #FOSS4G ecosystem would have looked like without OSGeo and it is definitely worth looking at the almost incredible achievements, obtained guided by the founding principles:
πŸ‘‰πŸΏOpenness and transparency 
πŸ‘‰πŸΏActive Contribution and collaboration
πŸ‘‰πŸΏInstitutional Neutrality
Happy birthday, @osgeo πŸ₯‚πŸ₯‚πŸ₯‚ πŸ“―https://www.osgeo.org/foundation-news/happy-birthday-osgeo-celebrating-20-years-of-free-and-open-source-software-for-geospatial/
#BiDS25 is a πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί conference happening every 2 years under the joint β˜‚οΈ of the @EUCommission JRC, #ESA and #satcen . In 2025, the conference was held in the beautiful city of Riga πŸ‡±πŸ‡» and brought together βž• 700 participants, with a multitude of ✨ great talks, keynotes and satellite events. The wonderful thing is that the recordings are now available. Enjoy! πŸŽ₯ 🍿 πŸ—’οΈ πŸ‘‰ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnSE1oBkkODeDtMnIjKSVuQ8J-0rMms_
@fosdem 2026 held in #Brussels πŸ‡§πŸ‡ͺ has just concluded and even thought it is not #geospatial dedicated, it is definitely worth browsing through its sessions πŸ‘‰ https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/, such as the 'CRA in practice' or 'Funding the FOSS ecosystem'. If one is too curious and can't wait for the processing, the raw πŸ“Ή are available to download from the video recordings archive. πŸ‘‰ https://video.fosdem.org/2026/
πŸ“―πŸ“―πŸ“― The call for workshop πŸ’» submissions @foss4geurope is open! πŸ‘‰ https://talks.osgeo.org/foss4g-europe-2026-workshops/cfp
In the western 🌎 part of the world, πŸ—“οΈ 14th of February is celebrated as β™₯️Valentin’s day β™₯️ @fsfe put a wonderful spin ✨ πŸ’ž on it and made it the β€œI Love Free Software Day” Check it out πŸ‘‰πŸΏ https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/
The critical importance 🧨 of the foundational #FOSS in the digital infrastructure on top of which we build our services and products, be it geospatial or not, is no secret and we are still to find the βš–οΈ between community sustainability and commercial viability. πŸ†˜ Yet another example, this time from the #CNCF world 🚧 🚨 #minIO πŸ‘‰πŸΏ https://medium.com/@heinancabouly/minios-maintenance-mode-a-wake-up-call-for-the-cncf-ecosystem-38add3bc6c4f
Podcasts have gained πŸ“ˆ popularity in the last years and not without good reason.πŸ‘‚πŸΎ to experts sharing their experiences&views can be a wonderful way to spend a commute πŸš— or a relaxing πŸšΆβ€β™€οΈπŸŒ³. One great πŸŽ™οΈ that we can’t recommend enough is @MapScaping. Highlighting today is the πŸ—£οΈ with @jodygarnett. Drawing from his decades-long experience with @geoserver, he talks about the pressure of security vulnerabilities in the open-source ecosystem and lays down potential solutions. πŸ‘‚πŸΎπŸŽ™οΈπŸ‘‰πŸΏ https://mapscaping.com/podcast/free-software-and-expensive-threats/