01637nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245007600055210006900131260004200200520121700242100002001459856003601479       2011                        eng d  a1913-610200aBeyond Technology: Enabling Communities Through Social Interoperability0 aBeyond Technology Enabling Communities Through Social Interopera  aOttawabTalent First Networkc08/20113 aTechnical interoperability between open source software projects is increasingly common. Applications that were designed to communicate effectively with other applications are more robust and give users the freedom to combine them with other applications that were built to interoperable specifications. Projects such as Apache, Linux, and other development platforms, have helped fuel this move to interoperability in unique ways, including the capability of building further applications upon their foundations. They also encouraged the development of new communities and ecosystems of users and developers.

The OSGeo Foundation has taken advantage of these powerful open source platforms with several open source projects focusing on technological interoperability. However, there is also significant social interoperability taking place within the organization. What seem to start as ad hoc communities, in turn, create further opportunities for both social and technological advances. This article uses OSGeo as a case study to show that, when individuals contribute to the community and join together with other likeminded members, new technology and relationships pave the way to further innovation.
 1 aMitchell, Tyler  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/46202299nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245005900055210005800114260004200172520190700214100002002121856003602141       2009                        eng d  a1913-610200aReassuring End Users Of Open Source: The OSGeo Example0 aReassuring End Users Of Open Source The OSGeo Example  aOttawabTalent First Networkc02/20093 aFurthering the adoption of open source software (OSS) is often seen as a natural, contagious progression as more developers and users share with others about the success of their projects. But how can an open source project even hope to compete with proprietary commercial products with massive marketing budgets and staff? Aside from not typically having large financial resources for marketing, other factors can lead enterprise users to look elsewhere for guarantees of product longevity and a robust support ecosystem around the product. Without these features, many users and businesses alike would not consider the software as an option or have a desire to become involved.

This is equally true with open source geospatial software projects which are focused on presenting freely available mapping and geographic analysis tools to the world. The Open Source Geospatial Foundation seeks to address the needs mentioned above, to promote the excellent software that is available, and to provide a model where businesses can join in promotion and development. OSGeo undertook some novel approaches to encouraging new and existing support options which boosted confidence within the business sector by helping to ensure that project code will be publicly accessible for years to come.

In this article, we discuss the factors needed to get open source geospatial products into the hands of those users willing to test, use and eventually admire them as their favourites, or to go one step further and recommend them as a corporate solution. We examine the advantages provided by using marketing to help promote open source projects and then consider how this can boost business confidence in the use of the software. The article closes with a look at how a natural ecosystem of open source users is able to create something bigger and more consequential than each project could attain on its own.1 aMitchell, Tyler  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/235