ESRI has a perception problem. It is similar to the one that Microsoft and other commercial software firms have developed vis-a-vis open source software projects. ESRI is perceived by many in the open source world as being opposed to open source software. While I think ESRI has fed this perception to some extent, the open source community has also cultivated a “David vs. Goliath” approach that encourages an adversarial relationship with the larger software companies that I don’t think it terribly helpful either.

But as Paul Ramsey recently pointed out in his address at the FOSS4G 2009 conference in Sydney, most of the mainstream commercial software firms now support open source software platforms, melding commercial and open source business models. Commercial software firms contribute to open source projects for a myriad of reasons including:

• As a critical component of their platform
• Low cost R&D
• Build a broad constituency for a standard
• Increase the number of developers focused on a particular platform
• Retire a platform while still enabling customers to receive support

ESRI has pursued at least three of these approaches in its work with open source projects, and while projecting a competitive attitude about some open source projects (and justifiably so), they also deserve some credit for supporting open source projects in a variety of areas including:

• Using and supporting GDAL raster I/O in ArcGIS
• Using Python for Geoprocessing
• Integration of the R Project in ArcGIS 10
• Founding contributor to 52 North around OGC Sensor Web Enablement

ESRI also gave us an open specification on the now venerable shapefile and looks set to do the same (after some years of delay) for the File Geodatabase. And ESRI has contributed resources to development as well as platform support for many of the OGC standards. I would also argue that many of the most successful open source projects could not exist without substantial support from commercial software companies.  PostGIS would not have got off the ground without early and ongoing support from Refractions. Apache and many Java projects gained from substantial investments by IBM.  In other words, I don’t think we gain by having open source software seen as being in opposition to commercial software.  It’s simply part of a complex software development ecosystem.

But I opened by saying that ESRI has a perception problem. In addition to continuing to support select open source projects when it makes strategic sense, I’d like to make a pitch for ESRI supporting the OpenStreetMap project. OpenStreetMap is really multiple projects. It does include open source (GPL) software that would probably be of limited interest to ESRI, but it’s primary output is an open map of the planet. Just as ESRI has helped to encourage the broad use of free government data sets like the Census TIGER and USGS data sets, it should help promote the OpenStreetMap effort.

Why support it?

• More data means more use of GIS: In the same way that free distribution of TIGER, USGS, Dept of Defense and other data sets catalyzed GIS development in the 1980′s and 1990′s, more data in more parts of the world will encourage more sophisticated uses of GIS, where ESRI really shines.
• PR value: Support for the OpenStreetMap project will give ESRI some of the street cred that companies like AutoDesk have gained by contributing software projects to the open source community.
• Free data for ArcGIS Online: The OpenStreetMap data set offers a free, global data set with distinctive cartography that covers some parts of the world even better than the commercial providers. Providing an OSM map service to ArcGIS Online will only make it more attractive for ESRI’s customers.

How should it be supported?

• ArcGIS Desktop: Enable ArcMap to both display data from OSM and be an editor. The ESRI desktop GIS community are some of the most skilled and knowledgeable people engaged with map production. By enabling them to use the software tools with which they are already familiar (rather than the capable, but clunkier tools like Mercartor and JOSM), they will be able to make valuable contributions to OSM that will make the map better in every part of the world.
• Toolboxes: Create tools that convert OSM data formats to feature classes.
• ArcGIS Online: Provide an OSM-based map tile set.

The OSM project is not public domain, so there are important license considerations, but even with the currently proposed revisions, it’s a pretty open license with only attribution and share-alike provisions limiting its use.  But as the Haiti earthquake response demonstrated, OSM is an important and evolving piece of infrastructure that will only be better with ESRI’s support.

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UPDATE: 3/22/2010

I should have also cited a recent ESRI blog on some techniques for incorporating OpenStreetMap into ArcGIS Server that are possible now.  These include:

• Use the WMS extension
• Use the Data Interoperability Extension (a nice package from Safe Software that is an extension for both the ArcGIS desktop and ArcGIS Server) which now support the OSM XML file directly.  Export the data from OSM to shapefiles or a geodatabase and serve it up.
• You can also use an extension Azavea (that’s us) created for the ArcGIS Flex API that supports direct integration of the OSM tile structure for Flex apps.