If you are interested in open-source software, check out the latest MapScaping episode:
Host Daniel O’Donohue1 sits down with Marco Bernasocchi, one of the founders and the CEO of OPENGIS.ch, initiator of QField (or “QGIS on Android” as it was once called) and chair of the QGIS PSC2 and board.
The 54 minutes conversation covers the revenue model of QField and of OPENGIS.ch, different avenues for funding open-source software development, the mindset change required when switching from a project-driven business to a SaaS3 business model, the need to ask people to pay for useful software (and the difficulty of it), and much more.
I like how Marco stresses the distinction between “just-for-fun” projects and projects that enable a community and thus ideally should be more sustainable without putting maintainer burden on individuals. I also appreciated the nuanced thinking around making a software (and a software-centric business) sustainable by, for example, explicitly asking for funding by large actors (and thus being able to provide valuable software also to people and organisations that can’t (yet, maybe) afford to contribute) and by positioning open-source software as “serious software” (Marco’s words, with audible quotation marks) that can appeal also to (financial) decision-makers.
Footnotes
I appreciated the transparency note in the beginning of the episode (where Daniel disclosed that he is employed by OPENGIS.ch) – which unfortunately is not a given with all geospatial vlogs and podcasts.↩︎
The QGIS Project Steering Committee (PSC) is a group of elected representatives of the QGIS community that advises the QGIS board, oversees legal and financial management, and provides strategic direction.↩︎
Software as a Service.↩︎