GeoNode is a web catalog of geospatial data that allows users to share, access and visualize geospatial data.
GFDRR’s Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) began supporting the GeoNode project in 2009 and continues that support to the present. Over the past seven years, OpenDRI’s involvement has helped GeoNode grow, in both technical and organizational terms, to become a major geospatial data platform with many different applications and stakeholders. OpenDRI has been particularly focused on GeoNode’s applicability to disaster risk management, but GeoNode is now a public good that addresses many different applications.
OpenDRI & GeoNode: A Case Study for Institutional Investments in Open Source examines the history of the GeoNode software project from its inception, tracing how GFDRR contributed to the project’s success. We look closely at the technical and the social aspects of creating and participating in an open source ecosystem, paying particular attention to how OpenDRI’s investment strategy encouraged the arrival of outside institutional investment, by both non-profit and for-profit organizations.
By choosing an open source development strategy, and successfully creating a selfsustaining open source community, GFDRR obtained a much greater return on investment than it would have otherwise/
