[HanoiLUG] The impact of Free/Libre/Open Source Software on innovation and competitiveness of the European Union

[David Tremblay]

Taken from http://www.flossimpact.eu/

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Brussels, January 15, 2007

Open Source key for ICT Competitiveness: European Commission

The European Commission has released a study of the economic impact of
Free/Libre or Open Source Software (FLOSS) on the European ICT sector.
It was prepared by a consortium of research institutions led by
UNU-MERIT's Rishab Aiyer Ghosh.

Looking at the impact of FLOSS on European competitiveness in ICTs, the
study finds that such software is of great importance to the digital
industry in Europe and several other parts of the world. It has already
reached considerable market share in several fields, including web
servers and operating systems. A large share of public and private
sector organizations use at least some FLOSS.

Findings include:

    * FLOSS applications are top rung products in terms of market share
in several markets.
    * The existing base of quality FLOSS applications with reasonable
quality control and distribution would cost firms almost Euro 12 billion
to reproduce internally. This code base has been doubling every 18-24
months over the past eight years.
    * The notional value of Europe’s investment in FLOSS software today
is Euro 22 billion (36 billion in the US) representing 20.5% of total
software investment (20% in the US)
    * While the US has an edge in large FLOSS-related businesses, Europe
is the leading region in terms of globally active FLOSS software
developers, and leads in terms of global project leaders, followed
closely by North America. Asia and Latin America face disadvantages at
least partly due to language barriers, but may have an increasing share
of developers active in local communities.
    * By providing a skills development environment valued by employers
and retaining a greater share of value addition locally, FLOSS can
encourage the creation of SMEs and jobs.
    * Defined broadly, FLOSS-related services could reach a 32% share of
all IT services by 2010, and the FLOSS-related share of the economy
could reach 4% of European GDP by 2010.
    * Though FLOSS provides ample opportunities for Europe, it is
threatened by increasing moves in some policy circles to support
regulation that seeks to protect old business models of creative
industries, making it harder to develop new ways of doing business.

The study, which also provides policy recommendations, was commissioned
by the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and
Industry.

The full study, including a short executive summary, can be downloaded
from the official website of the European Commission at:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf
(pdf, 1.8 MB).

The views expressed in the study are those of its authors and do not
necessarily represent the views of the European Commission.

For more information please contact

Rishab Ghosh at UNUMERIT:
rishab.flossimpact at dxm.org, +31 6 29 07 44 87, or

Philippe Aigrain at Sopinspace, Society for Public Information Spaces:
phaigrain.flossimpact at sopinspace.com, +33 6 85 80 19 31





-- 
David Tremblay

Information Technology for development analyst

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