The State of Voralberg is sponsoring improvements to Quantum GIS, an open source solution for managing geographic information. Earlier this week Voralberg became the project's first silver sponsor of this year. The state is donating 5000 euro, paying for specific improvements.
"We're keen that by using open source, we're allowing others to benefit from the improvements that we fund", commented Martin Seebacher, head of the department. It is the second year that Voralberg, one of Austria's nine federal states, is funding developers improving the project's code. The first time it funded the project was in 2011.
That is the year that the Geo-informatics department decided to switch to using Quantum GIS, replacing a proprietary alternative. On its website, the department explains that by combining free software and the department's data, made available in open formats, it "offers ambitious GIS users, also those outside of government, a comprehensive package consisting of data, services and a complete desktop GIS application."
"By using open source, we do not force specific software solutions on others. We also avoid being locked-in by a solution provider ourselves", Seebacher said today.
Prosper
Voralberg's motivation for the open source GIS software was detailed earlier this month in an interview by GIS software developer Tim Sutton. He spoke to four of the state's GIS experts. Asked about their sponsorships, they responded: "Regular contributions ensure a prosperous development of the project. We place orders for certain developments and enhancements that are useful to us, and hopefully to a lot of others."
Sutton reports that Quantum GIS is installed on 400 desktops across the state administration. The public administration is also involving other federal and municipal governments, for instance by inviting them to the user trainings.
Voralberg's 'Landesamt fuer Vermessung und Geoinformation' is the state's internal central contact point regarding land surveying and geo-information. It creates collects and disseminates geo-data and cadastral information.
More information:
Voralberg's sponsorship on Twitter
Voralberg's sponsorship on Usenet
Quantum Gis' sponsorship and donation
Vorarlberg's introduction to Quantum Gis (in German)
Article by Linfiniti's Tim Sutton