The document summarizes open source policies and markets in Belgium. Belgium has a complex federal structure composed of regions and communities with decentralized IT policies. Open source use varies across levels of government with some municipalities and regions more actively supporting open standards and free software. The document also profiles the open source industry in Belgium, finding around 150 companies concentrated in Wallonia, most providing services, and some leading open source projects originating from Belgium.
3. 3
Prerequisite: organization of
Belgium
• Belgium = federal state composed of regions (territory) and
communities (people).
• Regions (3): Flemish Region, Walloon Region and Brussels Region.
• Communities (3): French Community, Flemish Community, German
Community.
• Merger between Flemish Region and Community (= Flanders).
• Belgium also composed of provinces (10).
• Closest to the citizen: Belgian municipalities (589).
• The municipalities are autonomous but...
• Subject to the power of supervision of the Walloon region.
4. 4
Open source policies in Belgium
• No real headquaters for informatics policy.
• Consequence: widely heterogeneous policies...
• And case-by-case use of free softwares.
• Differences between federal state, Flanders,
Walloon Region, Brussels Region, French
Community, German Community, provinces and
municipalities.
• Policies in municipalties influenced by power of
supervision of the Walloon region.
• See (Viseur, 2010) for more details.
5. 5
Big picture (federal state)
• Variable use of free softwares.
• Strong interest in open standards, less for free
sofwares (FEDICT).
• Open data portal: data.gov.be.
• European context: INSPIRE, PSI, etc.
6. 6
Big picture (Brussels)
• Variable use of free softwares
• Support of free softwares by CIRB
(www.cirb.irisnet.be).
• Example: expertise in OpenOffice.org migration.
• Interest for open data :
• Open data portal for city of Brussels:
opendata.bruxelles.be.
• Availability of data from URBIS portal (CIRB).
7. 7
Big picture (Flanders)
• ICT services outsourced to Belgacom and HP
consortium until 2014.
• Some reference initiatives.
• Examples:
• Free software use in Schoten.
• Open Data in Gent: data.gent.be.
8. 8
Big picture (Wallonia and FC) (1/2)
• ICT teams and external ICT structures dedicated to
Walloon public sector (+ outsourcing: e.g. former GIEI).
• Walloon authorities in flavour of promoting free
softwares and open data.
• See « DÉCLARATION DE POLITIQUE RÉGIONALE
WALLONNE ».
• « Promouvoir l'utilisation des standards ouverts et les logiciels
libres » (p. 120)
• See « Master Plan TIC ».
• « Objectif stratégique. Libérer les données publiques pour doper
l'offre de services aux citoyens » (p. 77).
• But variable use in public sector...
9. 9
Big picture (Wallonia and FC) (2/2)
• Used by ETNIC (www.etnic.be) and SMAL
(www.smals.be) ICT centers.
• « Sleeping » forge: forge.etnic.be.
• Bottom-up project: CommunesPlone.
• Integrated with Qualicité in IMIO inter-communal
structure (www.imio.be).
• As a replacement for Agoractités and Qualicité
custom softwares.
• Open data portal (new): opendata.awt.be.
10. 10
Keep in mind
• Two lead projects:
• CommunesPlone software suite (IMIO).
• Open data in Gent.
• Soon: Hackathon eGov Wallonia the 4th, 5th and
6th October 2013 in Namur
(hackathonegovwallonia.net).
• See (Viseur, 2010) for more details.
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Sources of data
• Study mainly build on LogicielLibre.be directory (~
150 companies).
• Only for companies clearly communicating their
engagement in open source technologies (pure
players or hybrid offer).
• Less knowledge about the Flemish market.
14. 14
Size and rentability of open source
companies in Belgium (1/2)
• Low number of bankruptcies (~5 between 2004 and
2011).
• Financial indicators (from BNB figures, median):
• Solvability: 37.1%.
• Equity: 129 239€.
• Revenues: 3 256 911€ (partial data).
• Rentability on assets: 6.8%.
• Ratio « salaries / added value »: 79.7%.
(work in progress...)
15. 15
Size and rentability of open source
companies in Belgium (2/2)
• Ten open source companies in ERP sector (figures
for 2009):
• Total of 87 employees (average of 9,7 employees by
active company).
• ~45% of companies have 5 employees or more
(average in walloon ICT sector: ~25%).
• 80% of companies are profitable.
• Companies creating the largest number of jobs are
not always the most publicized.
• Example: Alfea Consulting (22,8 employees, profitable).
16. 16
Products and services available in
Belgium (1/2)
• What we looked at :
• Sale of hardware
• Certified hardware.
• Open hardware
• Open source edition.
• Services.
• Hosting, SaaS and cloud computing.
20. 20
Quelles sont les relations entre
entreprises ?
(part of the full graph ; work in progress...)
21. 21
Lead open source Belgian projects
• OpenERP.
• Claroline / Dokeos / Chamilo.
• CommunesPlone.
• Drupal.
• Ekiga.
• The DataTank (new).
22. 22
Discussion
• Comparison with France
• Lack of representative organisations such as April
(www.april.org), Aful (aful.org) or CNLL (www.cnll.fr).
• Differences between popular technologies due to average size of
companies ?
• In general
• Wide range of services for open source technologies, but...
• Lack of providers in several domains (SIG, lawyers and embedded
softwares).
• Some lead initiatives about open source or open data in public
sector, but...
• General lack of clarity about open* policies.
• Commercial activities with open hardware or open data (except
Data.be) ?
24. 24
Useful additional readings...
• Verstichel, P. (2013), Open Data – Données Publiques: Et la Wallonie
dans tout ça ?, Jeudis du Libre, Mons, 20 juin 2013.
• Viseur, R. (2013), Les modèles d'affaires des prestataires en
logiciels libres, Atelier « open source », Agence Bruxelloise pour
l'Entreprise (ABE), 27 mars 2013.
• Viseur, R. (2011), Cartographie des marchés Open Source belges et
français, Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, Strasbourg, 11
juillet 2011.
• Viseur, R. (2010), Logiciels libres et données ouvertes en Belgique:
point de situation, Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre,
Bordeaux, 08 juillet 2010.
25. 25
Contact
Dr Ir Robert Viseur
Email (@CETIC) : robert.viseur@cetic.be
Email (@UMONS) : robert.viseur@umons.ac.be
Phone : 0032 (0) 479 66 08 76
Website : www.robertviseur.be
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