Description:

This service provides a laboratory, which is used to examine FOSS solutions and their integration with proprietary software. Furthermore, following the paradigm “seeing means believing”, interested parties are able to directly test the performance and look & feel of FOSS solutions.

Activities:

• Test & Compare

The demonstration laboratory will serve the FOSS technology experts to test and compare FOSS solutions and systems.

• Show-Room

This lab will also serve as show-room to give decision makers of private and public institutes and companies the possibility to view and test the performance, look & feel and compatibility of FOSS solutions, applications and application bundles.

• Integrate & Collaborate

Finally, this demonstration laboratory will serve for interoperability checks of FOSS and proprietary solutions.

Description:

Provision of means to set a state of the art business in place by developing and enhancing a portfolio of tools and methodologies for FOSS-related companies and start-ups.

Activities:

• Network of trust

Setup of a community for sharing experiences, know-how and best practices between providers and users

• Migration

Method for analyzing if proprietary or free software suit best to the company operation, activities and needs. Development, testing and diffusion of migration tools for the different stages of the translation from proprietary to FOSS solutions.

• New services

Development of new services of consulting and for consultants aligned towards FOSS.

• Support of start-ups

Support the selection and setup of FOSS applications and IT infrastructure of startups and provide FOSS-related business models. Provide facilities and infrastructure in collaboration with Technoport Schlassgoart.

• Service clustering

Gather service companies around FOSS product in order to provides professional support and consulting services for FOSS solutions.

Description:

Observation of the ongoing development and changes in the domains of FOSS and evaluation and recommendation of suitable FOSS solutions.

Activities:

• Technology watch

Evaluation of new technology, tendencies and trends in the field of FOSS. Creation of state of the art reports for certain (requested) fields.

• Software selection and recommendation

Selection of the best suitable solution or combination of solutions for given requirements or including the identification of requirements for a given task.

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Description:

A set of FOSS-related courses and workshops will be provided that can be ordered by the target group. The knowledge transferred by the courses and workshops emerges at the competences creation of the FOSS innovation platform. This service reflects one of the main goals of the CRP Henri Tudor, the transfer of knowledge.

Activities:

• Training of top management

Presentations and workshops that provide an overview of FOSS, its approaches, its philosophy and its possibilities on a meta-level that consolidates the core information for the interested top management.

• Courses at universities and schools

Courses and workshops that are targeted to pupils and students.

• Event participation

The requested provision of workshops and presentations at special events that are not accomplished by the FOSS innovation platform.

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Description:

By providing transparence of services, key personnel and solutions, a decision basis is set up that supports the decision making of a company who is about setting up or migrating an IT infrastructure or toys with the idea of establishing an open source business model.

Activities:

• Label software, people and providers

Evaluation of software, people and providers of solutions and support. Enable the validation of software solutions and the test of the qualification of service providing individuals and companies that are providing solutions and support by the use of standardized evaluation catalogues. This leads to a comparable and thus transparent market overview. Tools like the business readiness rating tool support these endeavors.

• Certification

The FOSS innovation platform will collaborate with FOSS certification providers like LPI, RedHat and SUSE in order to be able to offer the respective certification. The certification will take place in terms of a FOSS innovation platform event like the LinuxDays, where the possibility of certification will be provided.

• Demonstration

The demonstration of the software systems will be accomplished by the demonstration laboratory

• Solutions catalogue

The solutions catalogue will be provided in terms of the yellow pages

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Description:

The FOSS innovation platform of the CRP Henri Tudor as a neutral institution supports the companies in the identification of their needs and generates specific solution recommendations. Besides that the procurement process will be adjusted towards FOSS criteria where necessary.

Activities:

• Software selection support

Identification of the needs of the decision makers and recommendation of the appropriate software solutions. To accomplish this, the labeling service described in chapter 10.5 at page 35 and the yellow pages described under chapter 10.8 at page 37 are used.

• Procurement process comparison

Comparison of proprietary and FOSS procurement processes. Analysis of weaknesses of FOSS procurement processes.

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Description:

Support for content creators and developers in form of juridical and/or management advisory activities focused on any issues linked to intellectual property and the life of software projects.

Activities:

• Licensing help

Help at valuating FOSS projects (IP assessment, business model creation, licensing issues). Advices on intellectual property linked to FOSS (all type of FOSS licenses, industrial property issues)

• FOSS License database creation

Creation of a database of essential licensing issues based on the experience from former cases.

• License selection tools setup

Provide license selection tools like a license compatibility matrix that evaluates if selected licenses can be legally mixed.

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Description:

Information database that is accessible online and provides FOSS-related information like the diffusion of FOSS, available “products” or supplying companies. This information database will be consistent with the information database of the Spiral network and will be updated on a regular basis.

Activities:

• User ranking

Users have the possibility to share their FOSS experiences by rating software solutions and FOSS supplier companies.

• Catalogues

Catalogues of FOSS solutions regarding different fields like office, accounting, information integration or security.

• Directories of supplier companies

Provides a list with diversified information regarding suppliers of FOSS solutions and support.

• FOSS references

Meaningful references help decision makers to justify the introduction of certain software and thus are common practice in the field of proprietary software. This database will provide references for FOSS solutions in order to support the same approach for the FOSS market for which such information are often hard to get hold of.