Free/Libre and open source software: survey and study FLOSS

Overview of the FLOSS project

This project remedies the lack of information on Free/Libre/Open Source Software [1] starting at the very beginning: by conducting surveys to generate a unique base of primary data on Free/Open Source Software usage and development; identifying indicators to measure value creation and dissemination in the OS/FS arena; identifying business models based on these indicators; identifying the impact of and recommending changes in government policy and regulatory environments with regards to OS/FS; finally, the development of a base for extending these to the broader economic measurement of non-monetary and trans-monetary activity in the information society, beyond the domain of OS/FS.

The specific features of this project are:



The collation of a base of hard data (until now no such data exist) on the importance and role of OS/F software in today's economies and an impact assessment for policy and decision-making.



The development of indicators for the measurement of value creation within the OS/F software communities, especially in order to identify the distribution patterns of contribution within OS/F software communities and projects .



The measurement of contributions and identification of dependence on such contributions as are provided by user organisations OS/F software, including government/international institutions, on the developer community and on project development at large.



The evaluation and identification of business models and best practices in the OS/F software community, especially the transition to and from commercial software operations.

 

This document forms the final report for the FLOSS project. It is by no means a complete compendium of all the output of the project. The databases and source code resulting from this project are published as separate deliverables. Furthermore, various aspects of the project have been published in separate documents, the final versions of some of them being included in this final report. As a guide to the entire output of the FLOSS project, the list of publicly available deliverables is provided here, together with a Pert diagram showing their interdependencies.

List of Deliverables









Deliverable
No.



Deliverable title



Dissemination
level







D 1



Indicator definitions - working paper



Internal





D 2



Survey methodology & implementation plan



Internal





D 3



Indicator definitions/assessment - final



Public





D 4a



Developer survey - database format



Public





D 4c



User survey - database format



Public





D 5a/b



Survey findings/effectiveness - summary



Public





D 6



Data from source code analysis



Public





D 7



Analysis methodology/findings - summary



Public





D 8



Software tools developed for analysis



Public





D 9



Software analysis findings final paper



Public





D 10



User-level analysis - working paper



Internal





D 11



Developer-level analysis - working paper



Internal





D 12



OS/FS best practices - working paper



Internal





D 13



OS/FS Best practices and user-developer interaction - final paper



Public





D 14



OS/FS and policy impact - working paper



Internal





D 15



OS/FS and policy impact - final paper



Public





D 16



Implementation of project web-site



Public





D 17



Interim report



Internal





D 18



Final report/book (this document)



Public