[Lilux-info] [Fwd: CALIBRE project -- EU boost to open source software (Techworld.com)]

Pour info, ca aurait l'air intéressant s'ils ne poussaient pas les brevets en même temps Serge -----Forwarded Message----- Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 07:06:14 +0200 "The European Union (E.U.) is hoping to give the European open source software industry a competitive boost through a Euro 1.5 million (AUD$2.68m) research project kicking off this week. The focus of the two-year CALIBRE (Co-ordination Action for Libre Software) project is to improve the way open-source projects work, through organized research and collaboration with industry, and to bring open source more into the mainstream." "The group also hopes to address the issue of software patents, which Fitzgerald and others see as having the potential to derail the progress of open-source." full text: http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;201676706;fp;2;fpid;1 EU boost to open source software Matthew Broersma, Techworld.com 06/09/2004 08:52:42 The European Union (E.U.) is hoping to give the European open source software industry a competitive boost through a Euro 1.5 million (AUD$2.68m) research project kicking off this week. The focus of the two-year CALIBRE (Co-ordination Action for Libre Software) project is to improve the way open-source projects work, through organized research and collaboration with industry, and to bring open source more into the mainstream. Ultimately this will put Europe a step ahead of the rest of the U.S.-dominated software industry, the project's leaders hope. CALIBRE will launch on Sept. 10 at University College Cork. "Interestingly, the majority of open source contributions come from Europe, but strategic thinking and leadership of many open-source projects is probably very much U.S.-dominated," said Prof Brian Fitzgerald of the University of Limerick's department of science and information systems. The University of Limerick and University College Cork are leading the project, with the National Microelectronics Application Centre and 12 academic and industrial research teams from France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the U.K. and China also taking part. Open-source software development, generally speaking, allows individuals and companies to collaborate on software that isn't owned by a single entity, and which can be distributed and modified by anyone. In recent years companies such as IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Novell Inc. have begun to back high-profile open-source projects such as the Linux operating system as a way to challenge the dominance of proprietary software vendors such as Microsoft Corp. However, the development model is still largely informally organized and remains poorly understood, Fitzgerald said. To put open source on the industry agenda, researchers need to carry out detailed analysis, massive collection of data and studies from the software engineering and economic points of view, CALIBRE believes. For example, part of the project will be to compile a database of open-source success stories and to codify and distribute best practices. In particular, Europe has competitive strengths in the "secondary" software sector -- areas such as automotive, telecommunications and consumer electronics -- but this sector doesn't currently have an effective approach to open source, Fitzgerald said. "As CALIBRE represents the leading authorities on open source in Europe, or indeed worldwide, we are in a unique position to transfer these lessons to European industry," he told Techworld. More generally, the project plans to tackle open-source issues such as ensuring code quality and supply of developer talent, and how businesses can plan strategy around open source. Researchers will even examine the socio-cultural challenges to open source projects, such as 'alpha-male' territorial squabbles and the tendency of developers to burn out. The group also hopes to address the issue of software patents, which Fitzgerald and others see as having the potential to derail the progress of open-source. "Clearly some form of protection for non-obvious innovation is necessary for industry," he said. "However, copyrights and patents come from a different era, and we need to derive more suitable versions which will work in today's software marketplace and are palatable to industry." CALIBRE will also examine two related trends currently cropping up in software development: distributed development -- factors such as outsourcing and globalization -- and unconventional, or "agile", development methods. The project's first meeting will be held in November at the Hague, which will also see the establishment of a permanent industry-research forum called Calibration. Fitzgerald stressed that CALIBRE isn't about abstract, theoretical research cut off from practical concerns. "Industry obviously do carry out a lot of research. However, the CALIBRE partners represent the leading players in this area, whose research is actually drawn upon by these companies," he said. The project partners are University of Limerick, the Business Innovation Centre of Alto Adige-Südtirol, Chinasoft, Groupe des Ecoles de Telecommunications, National Microelectronics Applications, Poznan University of Technology, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, IMRI ­ University of Paris Dauphine, University College Cork, University of Lincoln, University of Maastricht / MERIT and University of Sk"vde (H"gskolan i Sk"vde), with ITEA and Open Forum Europe as official observers. CALIBRE will coordinate with existing EU projects around open source, including COSPA (Consortium for Open Source in the Public Administration) and FLOSS-POLS, which examines the use of open standards and open source in government. _______________________________________________ bxl mailing list (un)subscribe via http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/bxl and http://aktiv.ffii.org/. If you subscribed via the latter, you can unsubscribe only by going to both. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Serge Marelli, Luxembourg E-mail : serge.marelli(a)linux.lu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LiLux, Luxembourg LUG : http://www.linux.lu/ Defending Innovation against Patent Inflation http://swpat.ffii.org/