[Freegis-list] OSS Funding

[Paul Ramsey]

I thought I should share this with others on the list, because we need
all need as much help as we can get to keep up with the ESRIs and
Oracles of the world.

OSS GIS software is being worked on by alot of different groups, with
alot of different motives. Some of it is being done by individuals,
others by companies, others by academics. Some of it is being done for
free, some with government funding, some for commercial clients. 

As developers, it is important that we be aware of the funding sources
available to us, and make an effort to stretch outside our domains,
using partnerships with others to leverage the funding available. For
example, DM Solutions has sucessfully used the Canadian GeoConnections
funding organization to get funding to develop Mapserver and provide all
sorts of critical enhancements, like WMS compliance. We (Refractions of
PostGIS fame) are working with academics at the University of Victoria
and with another company here in Victoria (Vivid Solutions, who did the
Java Topology Suite) to get matching funds for R&D from a provincial
technology research fund here.

We often assume that in order to do OSS software it is necesary to
labour in penury, but there are alot of ways to make OSS development
less of a financial burden.

I would encourage any company working on OSS projects to consider
academic partnerships. The advantages are several: many governments
offer incentives to encourage university/private sector joint R&D
projects; using academic resources like graduate students in projects
increases the number of developers with a "critical mass" understanding
of the project, and therefor the health of the project in general; many
hands make light work, it is not always possible to do everything
yourself.

Similarly, I would encourage academics to approach private companies in
the field. If they can leverage contributions to an OSS research project
through government matching funds, establish relationships with quality
potential staffers (graduate students), and get good publicity by
providing cash and in-kind funding, that is alot of positives to being
part of an OSS project.

I encourage all Canadian OSS GIS people to be sure to check out the
GeoInnovations and GeoConnections projects, which are very favourable in
terms of funding OSS projects. Also the federal SRED program which
provides tax credits for pure R&D. I am sure other people have info on
their respective countries too.