MUFICATA research 2004 EU2FOSS Interactive Co-operative Info-Space

EU2FOSS Interactive Co-operative Info-Space

Acronym : EU2FOSS

Deadline: 2004-09-22 - Date of preparation: Type of instrument: Specific support actions (SSA) Coordinator name Ferran Cabrer i Vilagut Coordinator organization name CONSEN (EEIG) Coordinator e-mail consen@CONSEN.org Coordinator

1 CONS CONSEN (EEIG) coordinated by MUFICATA

2 IOSN UN-IOSN United Nations, International Open Source Network programme associated to 16 Asian countries (7)

3 CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Open Source Centre, associated

4 BRID BRIDGES.org

5 UCLV Universidad de Santa Clara, associated with CETA research center and the Municipality of Santa Clara

6 CTI CTI, Research Academic Computer Tech. Institute

7 IAT IAT Institute Andaluz of Technology (ESP)

8 ITI Informatics and Telematics Institute

9 CIMU CIMU (Malta)

10 SIR Consorzio S.I.R. Umbria

11 UFSC Universidade federal Santa Catalina 12 TEIL Tech.Educa.Institute (T.E.I.) of Larissa 13 ISTF IST Foundation, Bulgaria

14 TUBI TÜBITAK Scientific Tech. Research Council Turkey

15 AUST M.Government.of Middle-South Australia

16 HITC HITCrown Xina

17 TSIN Tsinghua University

18 STEP STEP-C Found.Research Technol. Hellas (FORTH)

19 SKLI SKOLELINUX, SLX Debian Labs

20 IIMB IIMB Bangalore University

21 OSEC Bilgi University Open Source Enterprise Center

22 INTRS INTER-SPACE

23 SHAR Business School University Sharjan

24 AKT Association Open Source of Lithuania

25 MEID MEID P-OL Palestine On-line

26 LIC LIC Lithuanian Innovation Centre

27 ANKA ANKABT Information Technologies PRIV

28 DURH DURHAM BUSINESS SCHOOL

29 CASS Consortium Association Advanced Software Center

30 ICA IST Center of Armenia

31 MESI MESI LTD

32 CIT Center Information Technologies Belarus

33 UPAD University of Padua,

34 UNUR University Nuremberg

35 CARIN Carinthia Tech Institute

36 UMAR University of Maribor (Slovenia)

37 TUI Technical University of Asachi Iasi

38 WUT Warsaw University of Technology

39 UCOL University of Cologne

40 ASSG A.S.S. Group

EU2FOSS is a practical and strategic reinforcing action of the European Research Area in Free and Open Source Software (1), carrying out a set of workshops constituencies of common thematic interest leading to international collaboration agreements. A web-based community reusable and exploitable portal will be set up in consensus to support knowledge management among the communities. Two world entities with global impact will be formed through this cooperative process: one concerned with global institutional cooperation, sustainability and impact, and the other with FOSS certification covering all levels from end-user computer literacy to advanced systems administration.

EU2FOSS (Europeans to Free Open Source Software) proposes an interactive entity of participative workshops supported by online tools and a group of facilitators.
EU2FOSS's facilitates the creation of a sustainable information and communication environment (Info-Space) that acts like as a connector, facilitator and integrator of the experts, organizations and institutions participating with the intention to cooperate, share resources and exploit synergies.
EU2FOSS stimulates the detection of synergies and opportunities for cooperation, promotes the evaluation of common interests, the enhancement of the Information Society Technology Innovation and on the associated business markets.
EU2FOSS strategic objectives are:
1.    The on-going identification of FOSS (1) based solutions and applications that can readily be applied and of possible knowledge gaps that can be fulfilled by FOSS can facilitate their harmonization;
2.    The contribution to the development of a critical mass of European companies and organizations using and offering FOSS based solutions thereby increasing their relevance and putting in practice to new market opportunities;
3.    The contribution to the development of new capabilities, internationalization and maturity of European FOSS developers, and strengthening Europe's participation in relevant international R&D and its implementation;
4.    The contribution to the networking benefits of a FOSS business development model;
5.    The promotion of the International FOSS Professional Certification Network Entity;  
6.    Promotion of International Cooperation via demonstrations of EU2FOSS results.  

A unique EU2FOSS comparative advantage will be its versatility and adaptability to a wide range of domains such as Certification, Promotion, Standardization, Accessibility, Technology adoption, Dissemination of public sector programs and cooperation between policy and opinion-makers, Developers and End-Users constituencies. This characteristic will go a long way to ensure the benefits of various investments geared to provide maximum social benefits as applied to the IST and ERA.

Scientific and Technological objectives and state of the art

FOSS originated and flourished in the past mostly in areas of interest of software developers and programmers. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) enhances creativity and value generation for a wide range of participants. Current international governmental reports have identified these benefits and the need to use FOSS based solutions systematically for more applications.  The satisfaction of this need is obstructed by several constraints mainly, such as:
1.    The community of experts available to disseminate and apply FOSS is limited;
2.    The lack of open designs supported by networking of shared experience and knowledge with interested participants;
3.    The lack of continuity and coordination policies, programmes and projects, that could results in duplication of individual and scattered efforts and dilution of effects.
 
EU2FOSS provides a consensual world framework, with the support of enough critical mass, renowned leaders and a mainstream opinion to alleviate the above deficiencies on international co-operative relationships in eGovernment, eBusiness and eLearning sector specially.

EU2FOSS reinforces and expands FLOSSPOLS FP6-2002-IST 2.3.1.9 running project focused on three specific tracks: government policy towards open source; gender issues in open source; and the efficiency of open source as a system for collaborative problem-solving. All areas will focus on studying the impact of policy and providing policy recommendations.  The amplification sense is in the creation of thematic interactive groups of discussion and co-operation at an upper level, aspiring to reach critical mass in a world scope with a common aim to help the opinion and policy makers and organizations with representative, relevant, transparent and global information.