As part of DM Solutions Group at the time, the members of Mapgears were early adopters and contributors to the MapServer project of the University of Minnesota and were among the instigators of the open source movement that took off over the last decade in the geospatial field.
In 2006, the Chicoutimi (Quebec) team of DM Solutions Group spins off Mapgears to explore new avenues in the open source geospatial world.