Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
armasuisse
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Open Source development
funding
Use case: OpenLayers 3
Cédric Moullet (@cedricmoullet / [email protected] )
geo.admin.ch vision
Gather, optimise, network
The vision and objectives of geo.admin.ch cover all of the institutional arrangements, activities and technical developments needed to
establish an information
technology platform for Swiss
geospatial data
and information in accordance with the new Geoinformation Act (GeoIG).Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Legal basis: Geoinformation Act
(1.7.2008)
Article 1: Aim
This Act has the aim of ensuring that
geodata
relating to the territory of theSwiss
Confederation is madeavailable
for general use to the authorities of the Confederation, the cantons and communes, the private sector, the public and to academic and scientific institutions ina
sustainable
,up-to-date
,rapid
and
easy
manner, in the required quality and at a reasonable cost.200+ geodataset freely accessible in
map.geo.admin.ch
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Context
• Open Source
Open Source Community Structure
Users Contributors Committers PSCCapacity to develop
Capacity to finance
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Software development challenges in
Open Source context
1. Federate developers 2. Federate funders
3. Formalize relationships: – Within developers
– Within funders
Crowdfunding definition
“Crowdfunding (alternately crowd financing,
equity crowdfunding, crowd-sourced
fundraising) is the collective effort of
individuals who network and pool their
money, usually via the Internet, to support
efforts initiated by other people or
organizations.”
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Funding models
• Feature oriented
Funding models: «feature oriented»
Funder B Feature B Bug B Commiter B D ev el ops Commits Open Source Software Funder A Feature A Bug A Commiter A D ev el ops CommitsFederal Office of Topography swisstopo
Funding models: «feature oriented»
+ Agile
+ Efficient in bugfixing/additional development phase
- Lack of coordination / global responsibility - Not efficient for new development
Funding models: «feature oriented
plattforms» - one example
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Open Source Legal Entity
(association, consortium)
Funding models: «community
oriented»
Funder B Commiter B
Open Source Software
Funder A Specifies Pays Commiter A
Commits Specifies
Funding models: «community
oriented»
+ Global responsibility by the legal entity + Coordination by the legal entity
+ Efficient for new development
- Requires consensus by the funders
- Requires agreement between the main Open Source actors
- Heavy for bugfixing/additional developments
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
1. Challenges: developers federation
Feature oriented model Community oriented model
• Risk that development is not
accepted is quite high since one developer has not the full power on the community.
• Risk that features are
heterogeneous is quite high since no global coordination occurs
• Risk that development is well
accepted is quite high since the legal entity represents the
majority of PSC members and committters
• Probability that features are
homogeneous is quite high since a coordination occurs
2. Challenges: funders federation
Feature oriented model Community oriented model
• Difficulty to define a global
feature list
• Funders focus on their specific
needs
• Possibility to agree on a global
feature list
• Possibility to encourage the
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
3. Challenges: formalize relationships
Feature oriented model Community oriented model
• No relationships between
developers
• Funders have no relationships
• Funders can request/contract
only the features they pay
• Developers are coordinated
within the legal entity
• Funders have a loose
relationships, mainly based on confidence
• Bilateral contracts between
funders and legal entity
• Possibility for the funders to
specify all the features but only to pay some of them (if the legal entity accepts it)
Funding models comparison (new
development)
Feature oriented Community oriented
0 + Perennity 0 + Cost sharing 0 - Control 0 - Ensure result 0 - Legal basis 0 + Future developments 0 +
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Funding «OpenLayers 3»
swisstopo direction decided in 2012 to finance 100 kCHF if a global amount of 350 kCHF can be found.
«Community oriented» funding model has been chosen.
100+ crowdfunders (individuals, companies, administrations) have been found in one month for 350 kCHF.
Funding «OpenLayers 3» phases
1. Initialization: discuss / feel the need 2. Objectives definition
3. Crowdfunding campaign 4. Contract
5. Development 6. Usage
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Crowdfunding tips and tricks
• Think worldwide
• Interest the Open Source community • Direct and personal contacts are more
efficient
• Important contributions can be found by companies and administrations
• Less important contributions of individuals are still important since they show the
interest/acceptance of the Open Source community
Crowdfunding issues
• An Open Source community is not a legal entity -> the important Open Source
members have to create a legal entity (like an association or a consortium) in order to be able to make a contract with it.
• Legal difficulty to bind the
contributions/requirements, particularly if various jurisdictions are present ->
possibility for swiss contributors to make a “research contract” with the legal entity.
Results from the geo.admin.ch
perspective
• New geoportal will be based on a modern web mapping library.
• Perennity of this library is ensured by the fact that the major actors have participated to its creation.
• Relatively modest investment.
• Other entities (countries, cantons, cities, companies, privates etc…) can benefit of this work.
