Ramoncina Composition

Free Software / Open Source: Information Society Opportunities for Europe?

Working group on Libre Software1 April 2000 Version 1.2 (work in progress)

The working group on Libre Software was created at the initiative of the Information Society Directorate General of the European Commission. The members of the group are Carlo Daffara (Conecta Telematica, Italy), Jesús M. González-Barahona (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain), Edmund Humenberger (G.A.M.S., Austria), Werner Koch (German Unix User Group, Germany), Bernard Lang (INRIA, France), and Ben Laurie. Some representatives of the European Commission services have also contributed with their input to this paper. They are Philippe Aigrain (Information Society Directorate General, Unit E2), Laurent Cabirol (Information Society Directorate General, Unit 1), and Michel Lacroix (Information Society Directorate General, Unit E2). This paper was edited by Carlo Daffara and Jesús M. González-Barahona. The current version of this paper is available at http://eu.conecta.it, together with a mail list for discussion about it.

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Abstract Open source software is becoming the most interesting ‘new’ phenomenon of the entire information technology landscape, generating a level of interest similar to that of the first moments of the Internet. However, as we will show in this document, the open source software phenomenon is not historically new, although in recent years it has reached a critical mass, which has allowed it to enter the mainstream software market. The impact of open source technology is expected to be quite noticeable in the software industry, and in society as a whole. It allows for novel development models, which have already been demonstrated to be especially well suited to efficiently take advantage of the work of developers spread across all corners of the planet. It also enables completely new business models, which are shaping a network of groups and companies based on open source software development....