451 CAOS Theory 
A blog for the enterprise open source community
Europe’s open source opportunity
Matthew Aslett, November 22, 2007 @ 11:48 am ETThe US might be busy giving thanks but work life goes on for the rest of us in the ROTW, and comments made today by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for information and society, indicate that perhaps Europe should be taking advantage of the fact the Americans are having a day off to focus on its use of open source and how it could be used to bolster the European economy.
According to an announcement by Truffle Capital, Reding has called for a European Strategy for Software “that will allow the industry to develop a global leadership position in the on-line service economy” at a presentation at the European Commission. The announcements states:
“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.”
I’d be interested to know where those statistics came from, although the 70% figure may well have its roots in the Merit FLOSS Impact report (PDF). It is certainly clear from that report and other communication from the EC that it sees open source software as integral to Europe improving its position in the technology market. At the same time, the EC’s official policy on the use of open source by government and business is neutral.
This leads to difficult situations like this one, where the Commission is required to deny favoring open source despite one of its studies (the aforementioned FLOSS report) endorsing open source as a means of improving the competitiveness of the ICT sector in Europe. If the Commission is to push forward with a European Strategy for Software as suggested by Reding, it would appear that fence sitting is not a long term option.
Categories: Software
Comments RSS feed | Trackback URI
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt The US might be busy giving thanks but work life goes on for the rest of us in the ROTW, and comments made today by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for information and society, indicate that perhaps Europe should be taking advantage of the fact the Americans are having a day off to focus on its use of open source and how it could be used to bolster the European economy. According to an announcement by Truffle Capital, Reding has called for a European Strategy for Software “that will allo [...]
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
European strategy for software focusing on open source?…
…
[...] Matthew Aslett of The 451 Group quotes from Viviane Reding, European commissioner for information and society, on Europe’s need to capitalize on its open-source assets: 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.” 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, “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. [...]
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptThe US might be busy giving thanks but work life goes on for the rest of us in the ROTW, and comments made today by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for information and society, indicate that perhaps Europe should be taking … [...]
[...] Europe’s open source opportunityThe US might be busy giving thanks but work life goes on for the rest of us in the ROTW, and comments made today by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for information and society, indicate that perhaps Europe should be taking … [...]
She’s absolutely right on this, it’s a shame nothing has been put in motion sooner. America, Microsoft and “I only know Microsoft” clones will be all about protectionist measures for the next while, Now it’s payday for those of us who have made heavy personal sacrifices in the short term because we were in IT for the love of it, not just for the money.Now we can eat the hay, and Microsoft and their clones can experience what we went through - financial hardship
Well said !
I am quite tired to try to demonstrate the obvious since more than 10 years.
It is high time to dedicate our public money to the common good in place to support an enrich the richest monopoly bringing us viruses, incompatibilities and spyware. Historic analysis will surely be very critical about our current epoch.
Alain, sysaadmin at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium
[...] http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2007/11/22/europes-open-source-opportunity/ [...]
[...] Source analysts commented calling for “Europe’s open source opportunity” and claiming “Europe the leader, not the follower in open source“, bringing [...]
[...] source software can be a means of promoting the European software and services industries. Back in November 2007 Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for information and society called on Europe to build on its [...]