FLOSSPOLS. It aimed to fill in some important gaps in the understanding of open source, with a view to maintaining the European Union’s lead in this field. It was also a direct follow-on to the FLOSS project, which developed the single largest knowledge base on open-source usage and development worldwide.
Open source is in keeping with European goals for free software development and deployment, and the model for collaborative research and development. It is also directly relevant to the European Research Area. So, one project goal was to evaluate government policy towards open source.“Our study revealed that preference is often given in business tenders to certain vendors with mostly proprietary software at national and international levels,” says Ghosh. “Whether explicit or implicit, this preference is illegal under EU rules. Hardware preference is already outlawed, yet the use of specific software can often limit competition even more.”
Yet the outlook for open source in Europe is rosy. “It is more mature and popular here than elsewhere else and has plenty of take-up,” notes Ghosh, even though there are few policy initiatives for it. That said, the European Commission’s IDABC Programme has decided on a definition for open standards, though the Commission has not officially approved it. Having the right definitions for open source and open standards will help governments to move forward. “We believe standards should be defined in terms of economic impact on technology and that they should only be ‘open’ if they allow competition into a market,” he adds.
One positive sign is the Open Source Observatory, launched in 2003 by the Commission. The observatory sees itself as a ‘clearinghouse’ for information on the use of open-source software by public administrations in Europe. Another is the Commission’s Good Practice Framework which documents many European cases using open source. Read more...