Strategic Buy-In For FOSS4G

Embracing Open-Source Geospatial Technology is easy as an individual but what if you want your organization to use FOSS4G

How do you get strategic buy-in?

It turns out that the software does not sell itself and that even in the age of AI we still have to convince a human if we want organizational change to to happen.

I think the temptation is to say hey look at this long list of specifications and notice how FOSS4G is often better or equal to the close source equivalent.

Or hey look at the price tag … it costs nothing which is way cheaper than this other thing which costs more than nothing.

While this might be all the argumentation you need in some cases … in general, making change happen is hard, and it's going to require more than that.

That's why I have invited Todd Barr back on the podcast to walk us through what it takes to get an organization to Embrace Open-Source Geospatial Technology.

Here are a few of the key points

• Getting buy-in for open-source software and addressing concerns about security and IP protection
• Perspectives of External and internal stakeholders on open-source Software
• Importance of collaboration, empathy, and understanding in decision-making and stakeholder management
• Challenges of implementing open source technology in a corporate environment
• Benefits of using open source solutions, such as faster analysis, increased stability, and flexibility for innovation
• Accessibility and support in open source communities, including direct interaction with developers and availability of external consultants
• Customization and development work required for creating vertical solutions with open-source components
• Finding skilled developers and training them in geospatial technology
• Cost-saving advantages of open source technology in cloud computing
• Leading arguments for implementing open source software: cost savings and freedom to modify and customize
• Advocacy for supporting and integrating with the open source community.

The last time Todd was on the podcast we talked about Leadership and Mentorship in the Geospatial community

https://mapscaping.com/podcast/skills-leadership-mentorship-and-the-geospatial-community/

If you are interested in FOSS4G you might enjoy these previous episodes

A Business built on Open Source GIS

https://mapscaping.com/podcast/a-business-built-on-open-source-gis/

Monetizing an open-source geospatial project

https://mapscaping.com/podcast/monetizing-an-open-source-geospatial-project/

Or just scroll through the archive to find episodes about QGIS, PostGIS, Geoserver, Geonode, Python, and a bunch of other open-source projects

I could use some support! please consider supporting this podcast on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/MapScaping

Some more episodes you might enjoy

ESRI, GIS careers, Geospatial Data Science

QGIS, Geospatial Python, ArcGIS Pro

Google Maps, Geomatics, Cartography

Location Intelligence, Mapping