This is the 1st of several planned events being hosted by the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) and the Young Professionals Group (YPG) that considers Open Source knowledge/skills gaps across HM Government with a Panel of Open Source Software suppliers. Part 1: Business Intelligence Software will be held at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA (http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf) on Thursday 21st April 2011, from 1800 to 2100 hours.

This bookable event is free and open to all with buffet and refreshments. To book a place to attend please contact Mark Elkins via mark_elkins@bcs.org

Panel

Chair Mark Elkins, OSSG

Ben Bryant of Voodoo-IS – a Pentaho Partner

Bryan Drexler  of Jaspersoft

Martin James of Talend

James Noble of Mazepoint – a Jedox Palo Partner

Malcolm Newbury of Guildfoss will give an overview of the Debate questions (set out below) to be considered by a Panel of Open Source Software suppliers and the assembled audience.

Debates

1. What Business Intelligence (BI) Software is HMG using at the moment (to the best knowledge of the panel and audience) and what Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) could it be using for BI? Are they better than non FOSS and can they do more for less? What are the costs? Reliability? Security?

2. What training/skills are required by HMG to use the FOSS BI versions? Are there enough people out there with the skills? Are Graduates equipped with the right training?

3. What would be the ideal way of implementing FOSS BI across HMG? For example through external Systems Integrators or direct use of HMG staff?

4. What specific barriers might exist in HMG to the adoption of FOSS BI?

This is the 2nd of two events being hosted by the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) that considers adoption of Open Source across HM Government. It will be held at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA (http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf)) on Tuesday 1st March 2011, from 1800 to 2100.

This bookable event is free and open to all with buffet and refreshments. To book a place to attend please contact Mark Elkins via mark_elkins@bcs.org

A member of the Home Office IT Team is undertaking research in conjunction with the Cabinet Office to:

(1) try and understand why Open Source is not represented better across HMG and the wider public sector, and

(2) identify and address barriers to adoption of Open Source across HMG and the wider public sector.

Context

1. The Coalition Government believes Open Source Software can deliver significant short and long term cost savings across Government IT.

2. Typical benefits of Open Source include lower procurement prices, no license costs, interoperability, easier integration and customisation, compliance with open technology and data standards giving autonomy over your own information and freedom from vendor lock in.

3. OSS is not currently widely used in Government IT, and the leading systems integrators for Government Departments do not routinely consider open source software for IT solution options, as required by existing HMG ICT policy.

4. There are significant and wide ranging obstacles to Open Source in Government. Some of these are lack of procurement guidance, resistance from suppliers, concerns about license obligations and patent issues, and a lack of understanding of open source maturity and its development ecosystem.

Debates

The debates will focus on (1) understanding the barriers to wider adoption of Open Source across HMG, and (2) potential solutions to these barriers.

We have representatives (set out in the Panel below) from major IT suppliers to HMG to help us understand the barriers from their perspective, and to help us understand how well any proposed solutions might work. The debates should be more a dialogue with the IT suppliers than amongst OSS supporters.

Panel

Darren Austin, UK Chief Engineer, Atos Origin

Dave Elcock, Secure Software Solutions, Solutions and Infrastructure Practice, Technology Services, Hewlett-Packard Limited (or colleague).

Dr Chris Francis, Technical Relations, IBM UK.

Mike Robertson, Head of Public Sector Business, Savvis.

Ravi Vitankar, Fujitsu, Government Division.

Evening Debate 1 – Tuesday 22nd February

1. Supplier Challenge – how can we incentivise the traditional IT suppliers to consider OSS when evaluating software options?

• Suitable OSS is not currently being considered equally – why?
• What are the disincentives for IT suppliers? In-house skills. New support relationships with OSS vendors and support companies. Any others?
• If they do work with OSS, how can we be sure the cost benfits are passed onto customers?

2. Procurement – how can it be better?

• What are the current obstacles? Do the existing contracts and frameworks discourage OSS – if so, how?

3. OSS Assessment Model – working with IT suppliers

• IT suppliers aren’t very open with how they select software as candidates for evaluation – not sustainable when spending taxpayers money.
• We can help make this more transparent by working with them to build an assessment model they can sign up to. What would suppliers like to include in this assessment ? A model to be developed has been started at http://bit.ly/hDuFEG
• List of top software per category (virtualisation, monitoring, email, collaboration, etc) – needs to be maintained to be useful, but will get the ball rolling in current lack of knowledge.

4. Case Studies – evidence of short and long term value for money. Where are these? Also proven examples of OSS use in high demand, volume or availability applications.

5. Other Ideas – especially for the next debate.

Evening Debate 2 – Tuesday 1st March

1. Security. OSS is insecure compared to commercial software?

• By what criteria can we select software to minimise security risks?
• Does OSS need a different approach to patching?
• Can we simply use empirical evidence when comparing OSS with closed software? Statistics for internet browsers are common – published vulnerabilities, known exploits, time to fix
• Key question for HMG is – all things being equal, open code means vulnerabilities can be discovered and exploited before there is time to fix

2. Buy-not-Build. Can OSS actually benefit HMG because HMG doesn’t want custom or re-engineered software?

• HMG generally asks IT suppliers to build systems from COTS components and minimise customisation and re-engineering – it doesn’t want to maintain special code because of cost and risk. So does a significant benefit of OSS not apply to HMG?

3. Legal advice for OSS

• OSS has some unique legal aspects compared with commercial software – where to get advice? Myths around legal obstacles and obligations are going unchallenged.
• Patents and liability issues are often raised – resolved by major OSS suppliers who will shield customers?

4. Long Term Strategy

• OSS won’t happen overnight.
• Should we work backwards from insisting on open information formats for HMG interactions with the public and other sectors? This way the use of open standards compliant software filters back into HMG organisations.

5. Other Ideas

This is the 1st of two events being hosted by the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) that considers adoption of Open Source across HM Government. It will be held at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA (http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf)) on Tuesday 22nd February 2011, from 1800 to 2100.

This bookable event is free and open to all with buffet and refreshments. To book a place to attend please contact Mark Elkins via mark_elkins@bcs.org

A member of the Home Office IT Team is undertaking research in conjunction with the Cabinet Office to:

(1) try and understand why Open Source is not represented better across HMG and the wider public sector, and

(2) identify and address barriers to adoption of Open Source across HMG and the wider public sector.

Context

1. The Coalition Government believes Open Source Software can deliver significant short and long term cost savings across Government IT.

2. Typical benefits of Open Source include lower procurement prices, no license costs, interoperability, easier integration and customisation, compliance with open technology and data standards giving autonomy over your own information and freedom from vendor lock in.

3. OSS is not currently widely used in Government IT, and the leading systems integrators for Government Departments do not routinely consider open source software for IT solution options, as required by existing HMG ICT policy.

4. There are significant and wide ranging obstacles to Open Source in Government. Some of these are lack of procurement guidance, resistance from suppliers, concerns about license obligations and patent issues, and a lack of understanding of open source maturity and its development ecosystem.

Debates

The debates will focus on (1) understanding the barriers to wider adoption of Open Source across HMG, and (2) potential solutions to these barriers.

We have representatives (set out in the Panel below) from major IT suppliers to HMG to help us understand the barriers from their perspective, and to help us understand how well any proposed solutions might work. The debates should be more a dialogue with the IT suppliers than amongst OSS supporters.

Panel

Darren Austin, UK Chief Engineer, Atos Origin.

Adam Jollans, Program Director – Open Source and Linux Strategy, IBM Systems & Technology Group.

Mike Robertson, Head of Public Sector Business, Savvis.

Gurpritpal Singh, CTO, UK Technology Consulting, Hewlett Packard.

Jon Wrennall, Fujitsu Government Division CTO.

Evening Debate 1 – Tuesday 22nd February

1. Supplier Challenge – how can we incentivise the traditional IT suppliers to consider OSS when evaluating software options?

• Suitable OSS is not currently being considered equally – why?
• What are the disincentives for IT suppliers? In-house skills. New support relationships with OSS vendors and support companies. Any others?
• If they do work with OSS, how can we be sure the cost benefits are passed onto customers?

2. Procurement – how can it be better?

• What are the current obstacles? Do the existing contracts and frameworks discourage OSS – if so, how?

3. OSS Assessment Model – working with IT suppliers

• IT suppliers aren’t very open with how they select software as candidates for evalaution – not sustainable when spending taxpayers money.
• We can help make this more transparent by working with them to build an assessment model they can sign up to. What would suppliers like to include in this assessment? A model to be developed has been started at http://bit.ly/hDuFEG
• List of top software per category (virtualisation, monitoring, email, collaboration, etc) – needs to be maintained to be useful, but will get the ball rolling in current lack of knowledge.

4. Case Studies – evidence of short and long term value for money. Where are these? Also proven examples of OSS use in high demand, volume or availability applications.

5. Other Ideas – especially for the next debate.

Evening Debate 2 – Tuesday 1st March

1. Security. OSS is insecure compared to commercial software?

• By what criteria can we select software to minimise security risks?
• Does OSS need a different approach to patching?
• Can we simply use empirical evidence when comparing OSS with closed software? Statistics for internet browsers are common – published vulnerabilities, known exploits, time to fix
• Key question for HMG is – all things being equal, open code means vulnerabilities can be discovered and exploited before there is time to fix

2. Buy-not-Build. Can OSS actually benefit HMG because HMG doesn’t want custom or re-engineered software?

• HMG generally asks IT suppliers to build systems from COTS components and minimise customisation and re-engineering – it doesn’t want to maintain special code because of cost and risk. So does a significant benefit of OSS not apply to HMG?

3. Legal advice for OSS

• OSS has some unique legal aspects compared with commercial software – where to get advice? Myths around legal obstacles and obligations are going unchallenged.
• Patents and liability issues are often raised – resolved by major OSS suppliers who will shield customers?

4. Long Term Strategy

• OSS won’t happen overnight.
• Should we work backwards from insisting on open information formats for HMG interactions with the public and other sectors? This way the use of open standards compliant software filters back into HMG organisations.

5. Other Ideas

Sean Egan, CTO, CM-Logic http://www.cm-logic.com/ will give a talk for the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) about the Management of Open Source Software and Third Party Intellectual Property at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA (http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf)) on Tuesday 25th January 2011, from 1800 to 2100.

This bookable event is free and open to all with buffet and refreshments. To book a place to attend please contact Mark Elkins via mark_elkins@bcs.org

Many development teams have found that they can accelerate their development process by including components of open source and third party code as part of their overall solution. The use of open source and third party code creates licensing and security issues of its own. Unmanaged use of externally sourced code can compromise intellectual property rights, create unknown royalty obligations, and introduce hidden security risks.

If you manage software development, sell or export software products, or prepare to sell or buy companies with software assets, you can’t afford to be wrong about where your code originated and what licensing obligations it carries.

You are responsible for ensuring that software meets business requirements, so you need to have all the facts. This is increasingly difficult because, whether you know it or not, your software probably contains open source or third-party code components from around the world.

In a broad range of industries the need to rapidly deploy cost-effective software solutions has outstripped the capacity of traditional software development. To meet business goals, developers increasingly assemble software solutions by reusing open source and third party code.

CM-Logic services and solutions help organisations detect, track and manage the use of mixed-origin code.

Lorraine Morgan of National University of Ireland Galway will give a talk for the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG) at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA (http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf)) on Thursday 2nd December 2010, from 1800 to 2100.

This bookable event is free and open to all with buffet and refreshments. To book a place to attend please contact Mark Elkins via mark_elkins@bcs.org

Open source software (OSS) is seen as one of the most well-established examples of open innovation, resulting in changing views of the OSS phenomenon from a low cost artifact to a driver of strategic business value. In its emergent form, OSS represented a community-based software development model where geographically dispersed programmers collaborated to produce software. However, OSS has since transitioned into the realm of mainstream business and plays an important role in the business models for firms in high technology and other industries. Nonetheless, as an open innovation phenomenon, OSS raises concerns in commercial settings due to worries about the quality and suitability of external ideas, perceived competitive necessities, the challenges associated with exploiting global networks not current known to the firm, and issues relating to organisational control. Consequently, the very concept of OSS as a form of open innovation requires all types of firms to rethink their strategy. In addition, the shift of focus from ownership to one of openness requires a reconsideration of the processes that facilitate value creation and value capture.

Lorraine’s research focuses on how firms create and capture value with OSS. Additionally, her research examines the role of value networks in facilitating both processes. This presentation highlights some conclusions from previous findings of case studies conducted in this regarding. Lorraine is also interested in conducting some focus group studies at this event to draw upon the audience’s attitudes, feelings and experiences of this topic.

Bio: Lorraine is a lecturer in business information systems at NUI Galway, Ireland. She is also pursuing a PhD with University College Cork on the role of value networks in firm value creation and capture with open source software. Lorraine’s principal research interests are open innovation, open source software, open business models and value networks. Additionally, some of her research, one of which received a best paper award, has been published in journals and conferences such as Database for Advances in Information Systems, European Conference of Information Systems (ECIS), International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 8.6 and 8.2 and the International Open Systems Conference.