Open source competence centers

Slide 1: Open Source software: novel approaches to OSS competence centers Carlo Daffara Conecta European Working Group on Libre Software

Slide 2: Why OSS? Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 3: ● "Open source software is the most significant all-encompassing and long- term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s" [IDC] ● Today, OSS represents 15% of the total software market, and will reach 25% in 2 years [Gartner, 2006]: Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 4: da Windows a Linux in azienda LinuxDay 2007

Slide 6: ● [CIO 07] 79% of respondents answered positively to the question "My company's experience with open source products other than Linux has been so good we plan to expand their use". ● "In a survey of 800 IT managers, InfoWorld found that of all the FLOSS adopters, those collecting the most significant benefits are those that deploy more open source products, with 24% of the "large users" (more than 100 products) reporting savings of more than 60%. It is also interesting to notice that only a very small percentage (<9%) reports that there are no savings or that costs have increased compared to proprietary software. " da Windows a Linux in azienda 7/2/2007

Slide 9: Why OSS for Europe? Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 10: ● For Europe, open source software may represent an opportunity to be relevant again in the worldwide software market ● There are only 3 European companies in the Forbes2000 global list of companies in the software&services list (SAP at position 357, CapGemini at 855 and AtosOrigin at 1663) ● “As online software, or software as a service, replaces traditional packaged software, Europe has advantages that give it a ‘window of opportunity to develop a leadership position in software,’ commented Reding. These include a large home base of demand to build on, high levels of qualified talent, and the fact that 70% of open source developers worldwide are of European origin. However, she warned, ‘the window is small and it will soon be closed if we don’t act,’ since 90% of the economic benefits of open source are being won by US companies.” (Viviane Reading, Commissario Europeo per la societa' dell'informazione e dei media) ● Since 1998 (with the creation of the European Working Group on Libre Software), the Commission has been active in researching the FLOSS phenomenon, with both horizontal studies and individual research projects (especially under the IST programme) Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 11: ● In the European project COSPA the consortium evaluated the short and long term costs of a migration to OSS on the desktop for European Public administrations ● Among the results, the demonstration that when proper best practices are adopted, OSS can bring significant cost reductions both in the short term (1 year) and long term (5 years) ● The project also demonstrated that finding support, software selection and roadmap preparation are among the significant costs (up to 40% of all costs, when intangibles are counted) 9000 16000 8000 14000 7000 12000 6000 10000 5000 OSS 8000 4000 Proprietary OSS-5yrs 6000 Prop-5yrs 3000 2000 4000 1000 2000 0 0 SGV BH (phase 1) BH (phase 2) Estremadura BH (phase 2) SGV BH (phase 1) Open Source software: Esperienze Europee e nuovi centri di competenza 7/2/2007

Slide 12: ● From the EU study on the Economic impact: a 36% reduction in R&D costs can be obtained through the use of OSS ● Results confirmed by the European INES project: Economic benefit % of companies: Internal Replications 100% Increased Profit 100% Reduced Time to Market 84% Reduced Development Costs 79% Reduced Product Costs 79% Improved Code quality 79% Improved Design Re-use 79% ROI > 200 over 3 years 74% Increased Product Reliability 68% ● But if OSS has so many advantages, why its presence is not perceived more? What are the difficulties in the adoption process, especially for SMEs? Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 13: Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 14: ● There is limited information on what has already been researched, and access to the information is difficult and fragmented ● Among the initiatives, IDABC created an OSS observatory, that lists several results and provides a list of local competence centers.. ● .. but most centers just provide lists of “useful” software, with limited support for selection and adoption ● Most centers do not provide results from other centers, or from other EU initiatives ● Large companies (or public administrations) can find support in large scale consulting companies (IBM, Atos Origin, Engineering, CapGemini) but this option is not viable for smaller companies or smaller administrations ● Even finding companies that provide OSS services is not easy: most companies DO NOT advertise their specific open source support services in their web page ● Can we do better? Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 15: ● An experiment is the OpenTTT project, that tries to bring the “IRC” approach to open source software ● In OpenTTT we created the OSS mediator, that provides several complementary services:  Creating software catalogs, using an integrated evaluation model (QSOS, also a byproduct of EU research). For selectede projects, finds local support companies with competence in the identified solution  Collect the needs of potential OSS users, using standardized forms (Technology Request/Technology Offer, TR/TO) to identify IT needs  Find the set of OSS projects that together satisfies the Technology Request  If there are still unsatisfied requirements, join together several interested users to ask (with a commercial offer) for a custom-made OSS extension or project  Aggregate and restructure the information created by other actors, like IST, IDABC, individual national initiatives (OSOSS, KBST, COSS, ...)  A first example: the OSS guide for SMEs, that aggregates results from COSPA, INES, OpenTTT, FLOSSMETRICS, and more (http://guide.conecta.it) Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 17: ● This models helps in overcoming several hurdles to OSS adoption: ● Correctly identify needs, and through analysis of already published TR can help in aggregating demand ● Helps in finding appropriate OSS solutions, even when solutions are created through combination of individual pieces  Helps in finding actors that can provide commercial support or know- how ● It does have several potential advantages over traditional mediation services: ● The center does NOT participate in the commercial exchange, and in this sense acts as a pure catalyst. This way it does not compete with existing OSS companies, but provides increased visibility and an additional dissemination channel ● It remains a simple and lean structure, reducing the management costs ● By leveraging competences and information from many sources, it can become a significant learning center even for OSS companies (for example, in the field of business models for a specific OSS project) ● It is compatible with traditional IT incubators, and can reuse most of the same structures Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

Slide 18: Carlo Daffara cdaffara@conecta.it Novel approaches to OSS competence centers 7/2/2007

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