State of the QGIS project
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00:00
Multitier architectureSound effectPresentation of a groupDemosceneFile viewerOpen sourceArithmetic progressionState of matterFormal language
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Open sourceFile viewerAndroid (robot)Process (computing)Computing platformMathematical analysisData modelMobile WebSoftware developerServer (computing)UsabilityClient (computing)Source codeVolumeGoogolComputing platformScheduling (computing)Volume (thermodynamics)Flow separationCartesian coordinate systemTraffic reportingProcess (computing)Line (geometry)Serial portMobile WebWindowLetterpress printingInstallation artPattern languageFreezingRevision controlSoftware developerPower (physics)Decision theoryDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Web browserMathematical analysisEndliche ModelltheorieTablet computerUser interfaceFormal languageElectric generatorImplementationServer (computing)CubeMultiplication signState of matterSoftware development kitCellular automatonPoint (geometry)ArmLevel (video gaming)Term (mathematics)Client (computing)Field (computer science)Axiom of choiceDigital electronicsRepetitionDenial-of-service attackComputer animation
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Source codeVolumeGoogolImage registrationEstimationApproximationTotal S.A.StatisticsWebsiteComplete metric spaceSign (mathematics)WebsiteWorkstation <Musikinstrument>NumberEstimatorPoint cloudHTTP cookieMultiplication signRootProjective planeStatisticsUniqueness quantificationComputer animation
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InternetworkingNeuroinformatikTask (computing)Software developerLattice (order)CollaborationismComputer animation
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Event horizonSoftware developerCodeWebsiteSoftware testingGroup actionContinuous integrationPublic key certificateWebsiteTraffic reportingLattice (order)Continuous integrationPublic key certificateRepetitionComputer programmingEvent horizonSoftware developerCubeNeuroinformatikSoftware bugMusical ensembleLocal ringWave packetSelf-organizationAnalytic continuationComputer animation
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Revision controlRegular graphVideo gameData managementSymbol tableHash functionMathematicsLine (geometry)Visual systemBlogFeedbackGreatest elementOpen setProgrammable read-only memorySign (mathematics)Server (computing)Group actionNetwork topologyDigital filterData storage deviceRegulärer Ausdruck <Textverarbeitung>Fluid staticsCore dumpLarge eddy simulationState of matterData Encryption StandardShared memoryMultiplication signOrder (biology)WeightOcean currentNeuroinformatikSelf-organizationArithmetic meanComputer clusterLattice (order)Service (economics)Software developerDependent and independent variablesSoftware testingState of matterVideo gameQueue (abstract data type)Sound effectMedical imagingCovering spaceMetropolitan area networkMathematicsBitElement (mathematics)Product (business)CASE <Informatik>Core dumpWebsiteSystem callOperating systemForm (programming)Line (geometry)Greatest elementLevel (video gaming)Interface (computing)Projective planeInstallation artCausalitySlide ruleControl flowSoftware bugVisualization (computer graphics)Plug-in (computing)Revision controlLoginLibrary (computing)CodeSoftware frameworkStructural loadVideoconferencingMeeting/InterviewXML
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Core dumpExecution unitSoftware testingSocial classProcess (computing)Suite (music)CodeCondition numberContinuous integrationComa BerenicesGoogolPeer-to-peerINTEGRALCondition numberMathematicsCASE <Informatik>Theory of relativitySoftware testingSuite (music)Process (computing)Port scannerCodeUnit testingGreen's functionContinuous integrationArithmetic meanComputer animation
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ExplosionDesign by contractCore dumpSoftware developerGraphical user interfaceACIDMereologyTouchscreenLimit (category theory)Point cloudVideoconferencingData managementDecision theoryWhiteboardVotingWave packetSoftware developerSoftware bugPublic key certificateComputer programmingCore dumpLattice (order)Compact spaceWeb 2.0Group actionDiagram
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Slide ruleSoftware developerSpacetimeWireless LANCore dumpComputer networkGroup actionComputer animation
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MereologyCentralizer and normalizerSelf-organizationData structureCubeKey (cryptography)XML
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Event horizonCASE <Informatik>Strategy gameLattice (order)NetbookSelf-organizationConnected spaceWeightBitHecke operatorArmPay televisionComputer programmingGroup actionPoint (geometry)AdditionMobile WebTouch typingDomain nameData storage deviceSpacetimeAddress spaceInformationMereologyPresentation of a groupMultiplication signRevision controlTouchscreenLocal ringMaterialization (paranormal)Shooting methodSoftwareWebsiteSlide rule
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:07
This presentation is not going to show the newest shiny QGIS feature. If you expected that, please leave and come back in half an hour. But it's more about how we work as a project and behind the scenes work
00:23
and some of the progress we have in QGIS and challenges we have and so on. So QGIS started in 2002 as a post-GIS viewer. And today it is the most popular open source desktop GIS. It's also the second most popular GIS after SRE ArcGIS.
00:45
And it's translated in 48 languages. Maybe it's even more now. I haven't checked lately. And the very nice thing which makes QGIS stand out also is it's available for Linux, Windows, Mac and even an Android in another version Qfield.
01:06
We release every four months. This LT releases long-term support releases every year. And that was a very good decision a couple of years back that we introduced the time-based release schedule.
01:22
Before that we always had discussions when to release. We're never going to have a perfect date for release. So now it was very clear at this date there is feature freeze and then months later we're going to release. It's an amazing cartography toolkit with atlas serial printing and report generation.
01:47
It's also a powerful analysis and model builder platform with processing. It's a mobile data collection solution. We have Qfield on Android, QGIS home, Windows and there's now also QGIS input.
02:03
And it's not just a desktop application. It's a platform for developers to build custom solutions. And if you're listening to talks here, you will often see QGIS with different user interfaces. But under the hood it's QGIS.
02:22
For example, I've seen a geology implementation today which has a different user interface for tablets. Or the Swiss Army in Switzerland is using QGIS with a couple of thousand installations but you don't see it at all that it's QGIS.
02:41
And it's also an OGC server which makes it really easy to style, label and print data. It comes with several web clients. QGIS Web Client 2, ListMap, Qiskrick and others.
03:01
If you want to measure the success of QGIS, it's not so easy to tell but what we can have a look at is from Google Trends. Have a look at the search volumes of the blue line here is the QGIS. The red line is ArcGIS S3.
03:20
And the yellow line is MapInfo. And this is the worldwide search volume. If you look at certain countries like France, we already, according to Google users, the most interesting QGIS. And that pattern repeats in many other countries.
03:43
For example Italy, Germany, Japan, Brazil. It's almost everywhere the same except for one little country,
04:02
the United States. You can see it has a very strong grip on government and also companies. So you often get the question, how many QGIS users are there?
04:27
Do you have an idea how many? A million? Four? Could be, I don't know.
04:40
Simply we don't know. There is no registration, there is no user ID, no license checks. How could we know? So maybe my estimate is more moderate. I think it's a six-figure number maybe.
05:01
But I can tell if it's 100,000 tools. What we know is we have website statistics from Cloudflare. And any idea how much traffic the QGIS website generates per month?
05:23
It's more than 100 terabytes, but it's mainly downloads of course. We have 750,000 users per month, unique visitors. And the interesting thing, even if there's not so much interest in US for searching,
05:45
it seems on Cloudflare it's the top country for some reason, I don't know. Maybe they just assign every country they don't know to the US. No, I don't know. So what makes QGIS a success?
06:02
I very much think it's the people in the project. It's you as a user, and it's you as a contributor. It's always fun to have these contributor meetings. And the other thing is certainly the internet,
06:21
which enables worldwide collaboration around the world. And all these nice developer tools we have these days, GitHub, GitLab. Without that, it would be much more difficult, I think. So QGIS is a team effort, and as a community we want to be
06:42
inclusive, friendly, respectful and welcoming. And we invite you to join, of course. So these people, they are translating QGIS, they build the documentation and website, they test and submit bug reports,
07:01
they develop new features, they fix bugs and issues, they maintain the QGIS infrastructure, some of them maintain GitHub and review pull requests, some of them maintain continuous integration,
07:21
like Travis, maintain the issue tracker, some people release QGIS and package it, that's also a lot of work always. And teaching QGIS, creating courses, reviewing training material, this is for the certification program we have,
07:44
some people write plugins, manage the plugin submissions, some donate and sponsor, some handle the accounting, some are music groups, organize local events,
08:00
developer meetings, and so on. These are some of the phases behind QGIS, some developers, some contributors. It's certainly not a complete list, but I invite you to talk to them, maybe half of them are here at the conference,
08:25
and let's discuss, because the talk is State of QGIS, what we achieved in the past year. So we release QGIS, of course, 3.4 was released as the LT version, and the in-between releases,
08:42
and they're going to release 3.10 soon, in about a couple of weeks. And a major achievement recently was that we have a new macOS installer, an all-in-one installer without the requirement to install any frameworks or libraries before.
09:03
And I think the Mac users are quite happy about it. Then one major infrastructure change we had is switching from RedMind to GitHub as an issue tracker. And the developers like that because it's better integrated with the code.
09:24
And the users like it because they can more easily copy-paste images, and it has a more modern interface. Then another achievement is
09:41
the plugin ecosystem is growing faster. Of course, some of you know we had strong API breaks between 2.0 and 3.0, and that meant that all of the plugins couldn't load anymore in QGIS 3.x, but now we have more than 400 plugins back again.
10:03
So that's nice. And we had a QGIS conference and contributed a meeting in Acronia in March, I think. And on the organization level we replaced the sponsorships
10:22
with sustaining memberships. It says there are three reasons. One reason is previously governments couldn't easily donate towards QGIS because they can't donate or sponsor, but they can be a member in an organization. So we hope that this allows
10:42
some government organizations to support QGIS better. And the other thing is it has also a tax reason. Sponsorships are subject to VAT, but memberships are not. And Tim moved to Portugal, by the way. Another achievement. He's closer to the QGIS partner.
11:04
These are releases, and of course I'd like to mention that there is a version end-of-life. 2.x is not receiving no bug fixes anymore. So if you're still on 2.x please try to move relatively quickly.
11:22
We also don't know when because QT is an older version and it might stop to work with a new operating system. So that's another reason to move to QGIS 3.x. 3.4 is the current LTR and 3.10 will be the next one.
11:44
I must keep this slide briefly because we need to catch up. I invite you to consult the visual change logs for the new releases. They have a very nice summary of what changed
12:01
with screenshots and videos. And I'd like not only to mention the successes, but also the things we struggled with as a project because we certainly have growth problems with so many new users and contributors
12:21
it's getting harder to maintain this. We have a lot of user feedback, a lot of bugs issues, reports, wishes, etc. and we are a bit overwhelmed when we compare our resources compared to what the users want.
12:40
And one issue we have it's not really a bad one but it's totally different. QGIS is developed bottom-up not top-down, so it's not the PSC that decides next version will have this in this feature but it's US users with sponsor features, so we don't know
13:01
as PSC what will end up in the next couple releases. And also we as PSC we don't have any employees so we cannot say please can you fix this issue? But we can only try to make resources available to developers to fix issues.
13:22
One issue we always have is balancing voluntary work with paid work cause some people do contribute voluntarily some as paid developers. A major issue we always have is finding people willing to contribute towards documentation
13:41
because it's a there's some hurdle to learn all the tools and it's not so easy and of course it's not always easy to understand all the new features and document. We have sometimes we struggle getting the visual change logs right in time, so maybe
14:01
they appear a couple of days after the release, which is also not nice but that's just the way it is. And we have limited resources to to our new contributors that's just a fact but we try our best to to help contributors to feel at home.
14:21
So of course the finance is always also a limited budget. Five minutes? Okay. I'd like to briefly cover our quality assurance efforts
14:41
what do we do to make sure that we don't get like a new feature doesn't hurt existing features. So we have something called QGIS enhancement proposals. Whenever something like a larger new feature is introduced
15:01
developers are supposed to open a QAP QGIS enhancement proposal. It describes what they are intending to change and then if there are any side effects then the core developers can chime in and discuss whether that's a good approach or not or whether this shouldn't end in
15:21
core but as a plugin maybe. So that's the QAPs. Then what is
15:41
we also have unit tests and a test suite for processing. We have code scans against race conditions and we have the continuous integrations where every new pull request is compiled on the CI system, continuous integration and you can see
16:01
from these check marks the red cross means some tests didn't complete successfully and green means it's okay. If that's the case either the test is broken or your change destroyed something in QGIS.
16:20
So if you have a bug don't sit and wait but if you can, you can fix it yourself or you can sponsor someone to do the fix or you can do a donation towards QGIS because most of our funds
16:41
go into bug fixing actually. And if your business relies on QGIS, consider to place a support contact with the core developers. Let me quickly
17:01
go soon. So this is our income. Any suggestions how much that would be per year? Any guesses? Not bad, yeah. It's actually 150,000
17:21
income we have and most of it comes from sponsorships, now it's the sustaining members and the other is donations. And we also have training certificates and contributions to bug fixes. And our expenses had been higher last year but this is mainly because we had QGIS
17:42
3.0 around and a lot of issues around that. But half of it goes into bug fixing and then we also have QGIS grants program and packaging work and developer meetings API documentation that's the expenses mainly.
18:07
Okay, I think I would have too much material here but I'm going to end. At the very end I would mention the user groups. Those are our local ambassadors
18:21
and if your country is not that green here, maybe you can start an initiative and create a local user group. They organize user meetings, workshops and they are a contact towards the central organization of QGIS.
18:43
We invite you to follow QGIS on Twitter, on GitHub, but better be a part of QGIS and of course it's better to be active than being just a passive follower. Thanks for using QGIS and thanks for
19:01
supporting us. Thank you Andreas. I would have loved to listen a bit more to all of this. I'm sure you would have plenty more to tell us and to tell to anyone who will come
19:20
up to you after the presentation somewhere. I'm sure there are also some questions in here so we'll have five minutes time to shoot questions at Andreas here, how to become a part of QGIS.
19:42
Everyone happy? If not I'm sure you can show us some additional slides. Someone wants to build a local user group and doesn't know how to do that. Someone wants to double up the budget.
20:05
You can show more pictures from Hackfest. Since you have the picture of the Hackfest maybe you can tell people how to
20:21
organize one. The Hackfest, basically if you want to organize a Hackfest the benefit you will have your name will appear on the splash screen that's a very nice incentive. We will have a Bucharest version of QGIS in the future. What you should provide
20:41
is a space for the contributors to meet that's maybe somewhere between 25 and 50 people who gather usually. We need proper Wi-Fi or network connection. We need coffee, some food, and evening
21:01
beer. That's basically what you need to do to organize. More or less. Also inform people how to get there and organize and how to get accommodation. There is also
21:25
user conferences once a year so that's a bit bigger to organize. Can you tell me a little bit about how to set up a local chapter in another country?
21:41
It's not very bureaucratic. What you should do is register a domain like qgist.com and you should stay independent of the company, representing the users of your country and not turning it into
22:02
a commercial thing. Try to stay in touch with qgist.com. You can approach the PSC and tell what you do. What's your website? What are your user meetings? Of course it would help if you publish the user meetings
22:21
so we can include it in our website to show when these events happen. The main thing is organizing user meetings and user workshops in your country. Try to bring them together. Hi Andreas.
22:41
Do you have an active marketing to me? Do you have an active marketing strategy to attract some funding for mainly companies who are heavily using QGIS or renewing
23:01
their subscription to a sponsorship program comes to an end? We have the sponsorship program. You can find that it's not sponsorship anymore, it's sustaining members. You can find that information on our website. Most of the cases it's the local people
23:21
or the companies who have the connections with the potential sponsor and they invite them to join our organization by being a sustaining member. Of course I also if I know someone I try to reach out personally but other
23:41
than that we have Raymond who distributes stickers and all the marketing materials. That's about it. If you have any ideas how to improve that please come and we'll discuss it.
24:02
Thank you very much for the questions and Andreas a lot for your talk. We have now five minutes to switch rooms.