European Union makes a bold investment in Open Source Software research

July 2005

In a recently-announced European Union Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) project, two South African research entities have been included in research and the development of policy related to Global Free and Open Source Software, alongside 15 other partners from around the world. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town will work on the FLOSSWorld project, which received a total of 663 000 Euros (approximately R5 million) from the European Union, under the FP6's Information Society Technologies (IST) "Thematic Priority Two."

Both the CSIR and UWC are considered local leaders in the field of free and open source software research. They are joined in this worldwide impact study by, apart from the EU partners, countries as diverse such as Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, India and Malaysia. The project is led by the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands and will build on the past research of the EU partners: MERIT, the Oxford Internet Institute, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Madrid and FUNDECYT/Government of Extremadura, Spain. It is planned to extend this research experience beyond the EU, embedding it in a high-profile global network.

South Africa's National Contact Point for Information Society Technologies, Johan Eksteen, says the project is expected to have a high impact at the international level, as issues such as skills development and e-governmental activities have not been examined before at a global level. Locally, the significance of the project is appreciated, as it is acknowledged that Open Source Software (OSS) can make a meaningful contribution to the country's challenges in relation to economic development, service delivery innovation as well as ICT education.

OSS refers to software that is developed, tested, or improved through public collaboration and distributed with the idea that it must be shared with others. It is envisaged that Open Source Software will help reduce the digital divide through reduced software costs, while the adaptability of the code will, for example, enable program software to be written in a user's mother tongue.

FLOSSWorld is one of five FP6 IST projects, which include South African participation.