Guest article: Free maps, free software — The FOSSGIS Conference 2025

The FOSSGIS conference — an overview

The FOSSGIS conference is the leading conference in the D-A-CH region for free & open source software in the geosector as well as for the topics of open data and OpenStreetMap. Users, developers and interested parties exchange views on application, work and development opportunities, as well as the latest developments.

The FOSSGIS Conference 2025 is organized by the non-profit FOSSGIS e.V, the OpenStreetMap community in cooperation with the Institute of Geoinformatics at the University of Münster. The conference is not for profit and is mainly supported by volunteers, i.e. many people who are passionate about the ideas of open source and open data organize the conference with their own efforts. A successful model: Since 2006, the FOSSGIS conference has been held at a different location every year [Link: https://fossgis-konferenz.de/liste.html] — for the first time in Bonn. During the pandemic, FOSSGIS took place online, as a hybrid conference since 2023.

While around 350 people took part in 2006, the 1000 participants mark will be exceeded for the second time in 2025.

The 750 tickets to participate in Münster sold out quickly, and in addition, over 350 online participants were on the platform.

A look at the program

The program is as varied as always. Topics such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, routing, visualization of geodata, nature conservation and climate adaptation cover a wide spectrum, but everything revolves around the core topic of the conference — free software.

Most talks were recorded, the recordings are linked in the program: https://pretalx.com/fossgis2025/schedule/.

However, the conference does not only consist of lectures. Demo sessions, community sessions, workshops and lightning talks are also offered.

Social events [Link: https://www.fossgis-konferenz.de/2025/socialevents/] such as an evening event, guided tour of the map collection of the NRW State Archives, OSM Saturday and the Community Sprint provide even more opportunities for networking and round off the conference.

FOSSGIS e.V. — 25 years of commitment

There is also another reason to celebrate this year — FOSSGIS e.V. is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Originally founded in 2000 as GRASS Anwender-Vereinigung e.V. (GAV), the association has been operating as FOSSGIS e.V. since September 2008.

FOSSGIS e.V. aims to promote free software from the GIS sector and free geodata and to support their dissemination.

The most important goals of FOSSGIS e.V. are:

• Provision of free GIS software and free data and promoting their availability
• - Fostering education, exchange of views and collaboration between users, developers and researchers
• - Organization of congresses, conferences, lectures and workshops
• - Research and discussion on the effects of free information works on society
  

In addition, FOSSGIS e.V. represents the OSGeo Foundation as a local chapter in German-speaking countries and is an official local chapter for the OpenStreet map project in Germany.

In addition to the annual FOSSGIS conference, the association organizes regular community and work meetings, get-togethers and topic-specific working groups to promote networking. In addition, the association actively supports various open source projects financially and organizationally and provides a platform for exchange between community, science and industry.

Working with Free Software

With GoGeoGo, there is also a Job board at FOSSGIS 2025 around the conference.

Here you can find exciting job offers related to open source and open data — it's worth taking a look at the digital bulletin board! It shows how diverse career opportunities are in the area of open source and open data.