The 'France's Open Source Lab' series, produced by the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs of the French government's open source and digital commons department (The French government's OSPO), documents in-depth case studies on open source and digital commons projects carried out within the French government. It focuses on technical infrastructure, architectural choices, organizational and governance models, as well as the human dynamics that make these projects possible within institutional frameworks.
Its goal is to share tangible, actionable, and transferable lessons for those who design, operate, or support open infrastructure in the public sector across Europe - and beyond!
Panoramax: How a Digital Commons Scaled Up
In the world of digital commons, Panoramax has rapidly become a reference point.
Launched in 2022 by the French National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) and OpenStreetMap France as part of the Fabrique des Géocommuns initiative (now the Fabrique de la Donnée Territoriale), Panoramax is an open, sovereign street-level imagery platform that already hosts more than 85 million photographs, covering over 494 000 miles and supported by a community of more than 1,800 contributors.
Its users are primarily local authorities, public entities and private companies specialising in geospatial data. Many of these organisations both contribute to and benefit from the platform, using it for a wide range of purposes: updating road infrastructure, mapping urban trees, surveying cycle paths, maintaining address databases, or managing street names.
The benefits are equally tangible. By enabling organisations to pool territorial data, Panoramax creates significant economies of scale: higher-quality geographic information, fewer field visits by public officials, and faster processing of requests from both citizens and customers.
In just a few years, the project has established itself as a recognised component of France's digital infrastructure while also expanding internationally, with active servers already operating in places such as Taiwan and Wales.
To understand how this digital commons became one of France's most successful open infrastructure projects (and the challenges encountered along the way) we spoke with Christian Quest, a well-known figure in the free and open source software community, one of the project's pioneers, and now Product Manager for Panoramax at IGN.
Christian Quest: a career built around the commons
Christian Quest's relationship with digital commons dates back to the early days of the Internet.
His first encounter came through the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), the community-maintained web directory that operated from 1998 to 2017.
"At the time, I didn't even know it was a digital commons," he recalls with a smile. "I simply liked the approach."
That first experience marked the beginning of a career deeply rooted in the principles of open source, collaboration and shared digital infrastructure.
By the mid-2000s, Quest had become a contributor to Wikipedia before joining OpenStreetMap (OSM), the world's largest open geographic database. In 2011, he co-founded OpenStreetMap France, where he continues to serve both as a board member and as one of the administrators responsible for the association's technical infrastructure.
In 2014, he joined Etalab, the French government's open data task force within DINUM (the French government directorate responsible for digital affairs), to help develop France's first national open address database. He later contributed to several major public-interest projects, including entreprises.data.gouv.fr, before serving as parliamentary adviser to MP Paula Forteza and later as a data scientist for the French National Assembly, working on open data initiatives related to parliamentary constituencies.
In 2021, Quest returned to Etalab to revive an idea he had first championed years earlier: building a shared infrastructure for geographic commons. The project, developed jointly by IGN and OpenStreetMap France and eventually named Panoramax following a community vote, officially launched in 2022 as a French State Startup. Quest became its lead, overseeing both day-to-day operations and the long-term vision of the initiative.
When technology finally catches up with the vision
The idea behind Panoramax is not new, but the timing of the project’s launch offers a valuable initial lesson on the conditions for the success of an open initiative: “I had already proposed the Panoramax concept to the IGN in 2012, but it didn’t come to fruition,” recalls Christian Quest.
He attributes this situation to the unsuitability of the technological and economic context. “There are projects that can only be launched when the context allows it. In 2012, it was too early for Panoramax. The technology wasn’t yet advanced enough to support a critical mass of contributors. It’s the same story for OpenStreetMap; the project couldn’t have got off the ground before the 2000s and the demilitarisation of GPS.”
In 2022, stars (or rather, devices) have finally aligned: Christian says that his first surprise is just how quickly the project has taken off. He attributes this success, in particular, to an earlier success that paved the way: that of OpenStreetMap.
“I often compare my early years to trying to get a foot in the door with communities, to help them understand the value of OpenStreetMap. With Panoramax, it took us six months to do what took us four years to do with OSM. Ten years ago, the people we talked to about the project thought we were crazy; they thought we’d never pull it off, that it was a pipe dream. A decade later, that pipe dream has become a reality.”
A great success, which seems to have won over many stakeholders who were initially sceptical. As Christian Quest put it: “We demonstrated through evidence that it worked, that the utopia was achievable.”
However, despite an encouraging start, the Panoramax project naturally faces significant challenges, just like all digital commons.
Scaling a digital commons: the challenges ahead
Now entering a new phase of growth, Panoramax faces a familiar challenge shared by many digital commons: how to scale without compromising the principles that made the project successful in the first place.
Data volume & server funding: supporting growth together
Today, hosting photos on Panoramax requires terabytes of storage. “Eventually, it’s going to be petabytes of storage,” predicts Christian Quest. So, very early on in the project, he and his team wanted to plan ahead for this fundamental challenge. He sums it up pragmatically: “We thought to ourselves: if we put all our eggs in one basket, it won’t last very long.”
The solution: having as many servers as possible, to cover a wide range of areas. As things stand, there is not just a single Panoramax server, but two main instances (run by IGN and OSM France), as well as operational servers in Taiwan, Wales and a few other locations. New partners, such as the City of Paris, are exploring the possibility of launching their own servers.
And for Christian Quest, there is no reason to stop at France’s borders: “Today, our main challenge is to continue our international expansion. We want to set up local chapters abroad, drawing on the local OSM chapters in each country, and by involving government departments in other European countries.”
Opting from the outset for a decentralised system, federated via a ‘meta-catalogue’ (which lists all the photos available on each server), is therefore the solution that has been found to reduce dependence on a single instance.
System interoperability
According to Christian Quest, another key challenge in ensuring the project’s long-term viability is the interoperability of formats and protocols.
“For this to work, what’s important is that we all agree on common standards. At Panoramax, photos are in JPEG format: we haven’t invented anything new! The same goes for our API (Application Programming Interface), which adheres to a standard called the Spatio-Temporal Assets Catalogue (STAC), and our HTTP internet protocol. These building blocks are essential to ensuring the smooth operation of any decentralised and federated system.”
Funding & governance
Besides the need to ensure the project’s long-term technical viability (and, in particular, to keep pace with the growing demand for storage and servers), Christian Quest quickly moves on to the critical question that all open source projects and the commons face: who is funding it?
The long-term support of open source projects is indeed a complex issue. And, in line with the federated decentralisation strategy, it considers that the future of the project lies in the involvement of a wide variety of stakeholders. Starting, of course, with the two main bodies currently responsible for the project’s governance: the IGN and OSM France.
But also by involving a wider range of stakeholders. To this end, Christian Quest and his teams are considering how the project’s governance might evolve: “We are going to set up a Panoramax Foundation, of which the IGN and OSM France will naturally be members, which will enable us to establish clearer governance and to bring in private and public sector stakeholders, such as towns and cities in France and internationally. Something that is not currently possible within the framework of our activities as a state-run start-up...."
Contributors: fostering an engaged community around a shared project
Beyond the technical, organisational and financial challenges, Panoramax relies above all on the people who bring it to life and champion its vision.
Recruiting, uniting and engaging a community of contributors therefore remains essential to the long-term viability of a digital commons or an open source project. Christian Quest shares his views on the different types of contributors and the ways to keep them motivated and committed to a free software project.
Understanding the different types of contributors and their motivations
Theologians, believers and practitioners: varied attitudes towards the commons
“I’ve often wondered why people contribute to an open source project,” says Christian. Drawing on his many years of experience as an active contributor to numerous initiatives, he has identified several different types of contributor.
"I often say that within the commons, there are three roles, three levels of engagement: theologians, believers and practitioners. Theologians theorise about or revolve around the idea of the commons, but do not get involved in it. Believers believe in it and talk about it to those around them, but they do not take action or get involved. Practitioners are the contributors, who commit to the project through concrete actions and contributions.”
Involving early contributors in the process
Furthermore, in his view, there is a significant difference between early contributors and those who join a project at a later stage. “For them, adopting a communal way of operating based on reciprocity is a logical and pragmatic approach," he explains.
So, how can open source projects turn theologians into believers, and believers into practitioners? How can they attract contributors who are inspired by the vision, and those who see the value in launching a project?
Christian Quest offers some valuable advice: “The first contributors are essential: you need to involve them, get them to participate in the project, give them a voice and a role, and recognise the value of their contributions. Their motivation stems from a deeply emotional impulse.”
For example, the interface for browsing photos on Panoramax was initially launched in French and English. It is now available in 15 languages, thanks to a collaborative translation tool that has been taken up by a wide range of contributors.
Finding the right argument to get as many people on board as possible
Next comes the second type of contributor, motivated not only by the idea of contributing but also by the prospect of a direct benefit in return. Christian Quest advises:
“For those who come on board later, we need to identify the rationale that will motivate them and the factors holding them back from making the leap. By finding concrete arguments and removing these barriers, we can bring on board a vast number of potential contributors and scale up the commons. Be careful, however, not to fall into the trap of ‘commons-washing’ or over-promising; we must also be transparent about what contributors may potentially lose in terms of convenience, habits or features when switching to a new tool."
Panoramax demonstrates that the success of a digital community project within the public sector depends on a careful balance between a favourable context, open and interoperable architectural choices, governance designed to stand the test of time, and, above all, constant attention to the communities that bring it to life.
Far from being an unrealistic utopia, Panoramax has been built on a foundation of evidence: through use, through openness, through the ability to simplify contribution and to adhere to clear rules of reciprocity. This journey serves as a reminder that digital commons cannot be imposed by decree, but are built up over the long term, through compromise, and with the necessary infrastructure in place.