The Nordic Open Source Initiative Network

"The Nordic Open Source Initiative Network" (NOSIN) is a forum for general cooperation on open source software used in national spatial data infrastructures in the Nordic countries. The initiative is used for exchanging experience and reducing costs. The results are shared freely with everyone interested. Consequently, development in open source projects goes back in the main branch. Meetings in NOSIN are hosted by the participating countries, and an online forum is used for discussing and prioritizing topics of cooperation.

The creation of NOSIN was motivated by successful cooperation on GeoNetwork. This cooperation was based on a current requirement to implement national geoportals within the Nordic countries in order to support spatial data infrastructures meeting the requirements of the INSPIRE Directive. INSPIRE shall ensure compatibility of spatial data infrastructures among the member states of the European Union. It was early recognized that the national geoportals have similar architectures and common requirements. In 2009, the mapping authorities in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark agreed that development of national geoportals was a subject of cooperation. This lead to the creation of “The Nordic initiative“ which focus on use and further development of GeoNetwork for implementation of the national geoportals. The initiative prioritize common requests for features and share costs of development done by GeoCat. This makes it possible for different countries to fund open source development together. The cooperation on GeoNetwork is not limited to the Nordic countries. The Netherlands has shared experiences, and Scotland has also contributed.

This presentation accounts for experiences from cooperation on the developments of GeoNetwork and explains how national mapping agencies in different countries benefit from such cooperation. Moreover, is explained how the initiative was adapted, via establishment of NOSIN, to encompass a wider range of projects and topics regarding open source, and examples of projects are given.