Values, goals, scalability

geOrchestra is a spatial data infrastructure project whose founding characteristics are: free, modular, interoperable. This project is community driven.

By spatial data infrastructure, we mean a system that receives, transmits, stores and processes data identified in space and time.

By free, we mean a set of software that everyone can copy, use, understand and modify. We also mean that this set benefits from contributions from other free projects, and must reciprocally enrich these projects. Documentation is part of the package.

By modular and interoperable, we mean a system that is primarily designed to exchange data with third-party systems by means of standardized interfaces, and that has the ability to evolve by integrating modules that meet the same standards.

By community, we mean public administrations, research teams, private companies, software publishers, service providers, individuals, with the objective of co-managing a commons for the benefit of the greatest number, and in compliance with principles that guarantee the status of a commons.

geOrchestra is represented by a steering committee which guarantees the project’s compliance with the founding characteristics by setting the rules for contributing to the source code, by enforcing the right to speak within the community, by proposing an open and transparent decision-making process, with the systematic search for consensus.

All these values and rules took shape through a manifest validated in 2022 by the community and the creation of a process allowing the formulation of geOrchestra Improvement Proposal (GIP) which are examined by the steering committee.

Story

The geOrchestra project started back in 2009 when the Brittany spatial data infrastructure was under construction. Users and developers decided to place the source code under an open licence. An independant project steering committee was appointed to drive the project, address the emerging community, and vote changes.

Subsequently, many people studied, adapted, and translated geOrchestra modules for their own needs.

Initially hosted on a Brittany-hosted software repository, the source code finally moved to GitHub in 2012. This greatly improved code accessibility and obviously made contributions easier. The commit rates grew up dramatically.

Yearly meetings

Every year, users and developers from the community meet in a different place to share experiences, sum up good practices and elaborate the roadmap.

Previous geOcom events took place:

Steering committee

The steering committee features 8 members: