Open source geospatial software powers critical infrastructure, research, and decision-making around the world — yet the question of how to sustain it remains one of the most pressing and underexplored challenges in our community. This presentation offers an experience-driven look at the business models behind open source sustainability, drawing on the lived experience of organisations that have built their work around open source libraries.
We examine three broad sustainability strategies — consulting-led, product-led, and hybrid approaches — exploring the trade-offs, tensions, and unexpected lessons each model brings. What does it actually take to keep a widely-used open source project healthy over the long term? Where do community interests and commercial realities align, and where do they diverge?
The conversation is made more timely by the European Commission's Cyber Resilience Act, which introduces the concept of open source stewardship as a formal responsibility. For organisations that develop, maintain, or depend on open source software, this represents both a new compliance consideration and a genuine opportunity to articulate and formalise the value of what we do.
This session is aimed at developers, project leads, and organisational decision-makers who are navigating these questions — whether just starting out or well into the journey. We aim to leave attendees with a clearer framework for thinking about sustainability, and a more honest picture of what each path demands in practice.