It is with great pleasure that we would like to welcome COSS as our latest flagship sustaining member!

The COSS National QGIS collaboration launched in Finland to safeguard the sustainability of critical geospatial technology.

About COSS

COSS aims to ensure the sustainability of the open source QGIS geospatial software that is essential to many public organizations’ operations, maintaining up-to-date security updates, and realizing productivity benefits from coordinated development. The collaboration is based on coordination among public authorities and on supporting the international QGIS community.

In the first phase, the following organizations have joined the national QGIS collaboration: the National Land Survey of Finland, the Finnish Forest Centre, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), and the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). QGIS is a key part of daily geospatial work for many public authorities.

The main objectives of the national QGIS collaboration are:

• Coordinating national cooperation: active discussion of needs and practices, and information exchange between organizations
• Ensuring sustainability of the software in collaboration with the international QGIS community
• Monitoring development priorities and evaluating participation in crowdfunding initiatives
• Expanding the use of QGIS in the public sector: especially promoting adoption in cities

The purpose of the national QGIS collaboration forum is to enable deeper joint discussion on QGIS development needs and to ensure that this essential technology remains vibrant and secure over the long term.

How to get involved

Going forward, Finnish organizations can participate in QGIS’s international activities and funding jointly and in a coordinated manner through the Finnish Centre for Open Systems and Solutions – COSS, which is a non-profit association that promotes the use of open source and open technologies in both the private and public sectors.

COSS centrally manages the administration related to the membership, communications, and liaison with the international QGIS community, so individual national organizations do not need to build separate connections of their own. 

For more information:

Timo Väliharju
Executive Director, COSS ry
[email protected]
+358 50 330 3339
www.coss.fi