OPEN SOURCE

Open Source software provides opportunities for industry and government in terms of design, development, and distribution, but the path to successful adoption is not straightforward.

Opportunities include strategic aspects, such as avoiding vendor lock-in and enhancing sustainability of IT solutions through community collaboration. The use of open systems enhances interoperability, and sharing of code is seen as a technical enabler.

Issues linked to new licensing schemes trigger impact on economic models and allow new development processes, such as re-use of software components and sharing of code, which impact on how code is designed (coding and documentation standards, automated test practices, open bug lists , use of forges …).

Structures and platforms to exchange solutions and support collaborative development are emerging, creating market places where stakeholders meet (public and private sector, users, developers, customers,…).

Gaining momentum in the public sector, sharing of software is seen as a way to reduce costs, but also to share expertise on public administration processes and enhance IT solutions to match the public sector needs.

The IS Strategy, Architecture & Organisation Unit of Trasys provides consultancy in a range of related topics, and has been involved in such activities with the European Commission and EU Member States on the www. OSOR.eu project (Open Source Observatory and Repository).

As an integrator, Trasys implements large scale solutions including open source software, maintains expertise about key open source components and adopts the open source development practices that are most relevant to his customers.

Find out more:

• TRASYS presented OSOR at the Open The Source event on Nov. 26th. Read our consultant’s summary on OSOR.eu.
• Interview of C. Valayer, our expert consultant in Open Source on “Business of the New Media”