Abstract:
All over the world, organizations are increasingly considering the adoption of open source
software and open data. In the geospatial domain, this is no di erent, and the last few decades
have seen significant advances in this regard. We review the current state of open source geospatial
software, focusing on the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) software ecosystem and its
communities, as well as three kinds of open geospatial data (collaboratively contributed, authoritative
and scientific). The current state confirms that openness has changed the way in which geospatial
data are collected, processed, analyzed, and visualized. A perspective on future developments,
informed by responses from professionals in key organizations in the global geospatial community,
suggests that open source geospatial software and open geospatial data are likely to have an even
more profound impact in the future.
