Why is it so hard?
summary
Examines why geospatial open source lags despite mature projects like Postgres and QGIS, debunks the no support myth by pointing to commercial support firms and recent website revamps, documents vendor-driven active warfare (a European vendor spreading a “no publish” rumor) that backfires into new advocates, lists technical blockers (SIP/custom DBs, integration gaps), warns of entropy and volunteer burnout, and highlights practical wins — the 30‑day map challenge and the WMS shootout where competitors collaboratively fixed build issues.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction to open source challenges
- 2:35Myth of no open source support
- 4:00Marketing gap vs proprietary vendors
- 6:11Active warfare against open source
- 9:47Tribalism in education
- 11:58Cultural barriers in adoption
- 13:46Community and technical hurdles
- 16:50Defense department preferences
- 19:42Community over commercialism
- 20:47Open source community spirit
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