[Fsf-friends] [INFO] FLOSS Project Report

[Raj Singh]

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) : Survey and Study

FLOSS FINAL REPORT (http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/report/index.htm)

International Institute of Infonomics
University of Maastricht, The Netherlands
Berlecon Research GmbH
Berlin, Germany

June 2002

Final Report
* Part 0: Executive Summary Overview of the FLOSS project
* Part I: Use of Open Source Software in Firms and Public Institutions
* Part II: Firms Open Source Activities: Motivations and Policy Implications
* Part II B: Open Source Software in the Public Sector: Policy within the 
             European Union
* Part III: Basics of Open Source Software Markets and Business Models
* Part IV: Survey of Developers
* Part V: Source Code Survey
* Raw data from Source Code Survey

Overview of the FLOSS project

This project remedies the lack of information on Free/Libre/Open Source
Software (1) starting at the very beginning: by conducting surveys to
generate a unique base of primary data on Free/Open Source Software usage
and development; identifying indicators to measure value creation and
dissemination in the OS/FS arena; identifying business models based on
these indicators; identifying the impact of and recommending changes in
government policy and regulatory environments with regards to OS/FS;
finally, the development of a base for extending these to the broader
economic measurement of non-monetary and trans-monetary activity in the
information society, beyond the domain of OS/FS.

The specific features of this project are:

1. The collation of a base of hard data (until now no such data exist) on
the importance and role of OS/F software in today s economies and an impact
assessment for policy and decision-making.

2. The development of indicators for the measurement of value creation
within the OS/F software communities, especially in order to identify the
distribution patterns of contribution within OS/F software communities and
projects.

3. The measurement of contributions and identification of dependence on
such contributions as are provided by user organisations OS/F software,
including government/international institutions, on the developer community
and on project development at large.

4. The evaluation and identification of business models and best practices
in the OS/F software community, especially the transition to and from
commercial software operations.

(1) Throughout this report and project documents the terms Free Software
and Open Source Software are used interchangeably, except where a specific
distinction between the terms is explicitly made.

This page is part of the FLOSS study (http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/).

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