Company: 52°North
Industry: GIS Software Products, Open Source GIS, Geospatial Technology
Location: Muenster, Germany

On September 21, 2006, representatives from con terra GmbH Muenster, the Westfaelische Wilhelms Universitaet Muenster, the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) Enschede and ESRI Inc. Redlands, USA met in Muenster, Germany to establish the 52°North Initiative for Geospatial Open Source Software GmbH.

52°North is an open initiative which strives to advance the development of cutting edge open source technology for Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). The current focus of our open source technology development is Sensor Web Enablement (SWE), Security and Digital Rights Management. As an innovative node within the global open source network, it attracts leading research organizations in the field of Geoinformatics to participate in the development of open source innovations for SDIs and the transformation of these into practical technological solutions. It also provides network services to its shareholders and partners to support these activities.

Our products are published solely under the GNU General Public License (GPL), but are also available – via a dual licensing model – to commercial users.

The foundation of the 52°North Initiative for Geospatial Open Source Software GmbH was a logical step in order to ensure the sustainability of all partners’ open source activities, to create legal security for developers and users of 52°North software and to support the initiative organizationally and financially. Although it is a company limited by shares (GmbH), it acts as a non-profit organization. The company’s annual surplus may only be invested in the promotion of science and research, education and training in the field of Geoinformatics, the promotion of mutual transfer of knowledge between research and practical application and the improvement of the availability of geoinformation technology and technology competence in developing and transformation countries. The shareholders receive no profit shares, nor other payments from company funds.

Ann Hitchcock (hitchcock@52north.org)
Phone: +49 (0)251 – 4747 520