RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Landon Blake
Markus wrote: " I have to say that I am a bit surprised that I got the impression (from the remarks by Paul and others) that the same is not possible in Northern America!?" I'm no expert, but I think most people involved in FOSS development in America would agree that the political climate for

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Dr. Markus Lupp
Gilberto and all, I would like to give some comments on this from the perspective of a GIS company with an Open Source business model, I hope you will find them of interest. lat/lon was founded in the year 2000 as a private company (in Germany) and had from its beginning an open source busin

RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Landon Blake
Gilberto wrote: "...Individual-led software (a small team of 1-3 people) have less quality and more mortality than the above." I think OpenJUMP might be an example of the opposite case. In this situation the less-than-ideal management of a FOSS GIS program by a private company led to a fork. The

RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Landon Blake
Frank Wammerdam wrote: "Perhaps due to the relentless propaganda of the "anti government right" in North America, I have some concerns about governments throwing large amounts of money into FOSS development without clear thinking about how to make that money work efficiently. It is easy to imagine

RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Landon Blake
Paul wrote: "The trouble with the geospatial marketplace is that it is relatively small, so the small proportion an open source company can monetize is smaller still." I wonder how this will change as the ability to obtain spatial information improves and becomes more affordable? A few decades a

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Frank Warmerdam
Gilberto Camara wrote: For the FOSS4G effort to be fruitful and sustainable, we need a very informed and candid assessment of our business model. My personal view, based on 25 years of experience, is that government intervention is essential for the open source model to survive beyond a handful o

[OSGeo-Discuss] summary of VGI workshop in Santa Barbara Dec 13-14, 2007

2008-01-03 Thread P Kishor
Greetings, I posted my brief summary of the recently held VGI workshop on the geowanking list, and am reposting it here as well. I hope you find this useful -- Workshop on Volunteered Geographic Information Dec 13-14, 2007 Upham Hotel, Santa Barbara, CA Approximately 30 participants. The partici

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Paul Ramsey
Xen is one of those things where the market is SO DAMN HUGE that even the very SMALL proportion of money that an open source company can wring from the marketplace is actually non-trivial in an absolute sense. If Red Hat is only monetizing 0.01% of the Linux marketplace, that's still fine,

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Christopher Schmidt
On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 10:26:51AM -0500, Lucena, Ivan wrote: > Hi all, > > I am *not* going to disagree with Andrea, Gilberto, Paul, Howard or > anybody else. I just want to point out a interesting open source > business model that is making a big impact this days. I am talking about > Xen [ht

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Lucena, Ivan
Hi all, I am *not* going to disagree with Andrea, Gilberto, Paul, Howard or anybody else. I just want to point out a interesting open source business model that is making a big impact this days. I am talking about Xen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen]. I keep reading news and more news abou

[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models

2008-01-03 Thread Gilberto Camara
Dear OSGEO Discussion List members: Paul Ramsey´s remarks are right on target. First, GIS is a large arena and there are different motivations for developers, that prevent them from joining a single project such as uDIG. Second, it is very difficult for a private company to develop a world-clas

RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [postgis-users] A bit off topic, but FOSSGIS clients...

2008-01-03 Thread Miguel Montesinos
Markus Lupp said: >Paul Ramsey schrieb: >>> Also, wasn't there a FOSS4G presentation about >>> consulting as a way to further FOSS GIS development >>> and make a living at it as well? >> >> Bit of a myth, as far as I can tell. This open source technology >> wedge is still so small that the busin

Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [postgis-users] A bit off topic, but FOSS GIS clients...

2008-01-03 Thread Jacolin Yves
Le Thursday 03 January 2008 02:27:56 Dr. Markus Lupp, vous avez écrit : > Paul Ramsey schrieb: > >> Also, wasn't there a FOSS4G presentation about > >> consulting as a way to further FOSS GIS development > >> and make a living at it as well? > > > > Bit of a myth, as far as I can tell. This open s