The conference focus was on highlighting the strengths and challenges of Open Source Software, the state of the market, and future trends.

Because of its capacity to boost innovation and competitiveness, Open Source Software (OSS) could act as a catalyst for restructuring the entire industry, acting as a lever for the transformation of the economy towards a service-based model. Being innovative, flexible and ultra-accessible so it can be skillfully adapted for both high-end solutions or low-cost software for the general public means OSS could contribute to a profound transformation of the IT ecosystem.

However, despite many successes, OSS uptake remains slowed by certain myths and misconceptions in the industry, and some barriers are still perceived by mainstream users, most notably: security, availability of services and support, TCO, legal/IP issues and viability. OSS stakeholders will have to overcome these barriers for mainstream adoption.

All these points will involve not only the provision of new tools, but also a cultural shift in projects, for software vendors, integrators and end-users alike.

For this transition to take place, new approaches are needed to create synergies between traditional OSS players (communities, academics and research) and new actors (industry and public administrations), with co-operation and cross-fertilization needed between all types of organisations.

Challenges to be taken up include:

• Trust and Certification issues: it will be necessary to set up methods and tools to demonstrate the quality of the software being produced. If some methods already exist (OpenBRR, etc.), a common approach to OSS and traditional software would be of prime interest for a mainstream adoption of OSS across the industry.
• Legal issues: The current OSS legal and IPR situation needs to be clarified, focusing on a limited number of licenses. More attention paid to internationalization and compliance with local regulations (notably in Europe) is of prime importance. More formal procedures to manage legal and IP issues should be set up both in communities and end-user organisations.
• Business model issues: Reasonable business models will be key to encourage the development and mainstream adoption of Open Source Software. It appears that the 'Product + Services' model may become the most common business model in the near term. From a global point of view, OSS and traditional business models will share more and more common practices. Capacity to bring together a large stakeholder ecosystem will be key to success.
• Development and Interoperability issues. As OSS grows into the mainstream, new initiatives in OSS development methods and environments (software forges, document management and interoperability) are needed to satisfy a broader set of user requirements. This is all the more important as Open Source methods will increasingly be applied to enterprises¿ development processes, changing the way business applications are developed.

During the Keynote speech, Diego Lo Guidice, principal consultant at Forrester, also presented some of its research on OSS.

According to a December 2007 Forrester report, "Open source middleware, tools, and technologies continue to evolve and mature" and become more mainstream. Furthermore, "its use as a key tactic for application development can provide tactical advantage for application developers" ("Enterprises View Open Source as a Key Tactic for Strategic Software Initiatives").

In a December 2007 teleconference, Forrester also pointed out five future trends for OSS:

1. Open source is becoming a major ingredient for commercial software.

2. Commercial products emulate open source.

3. Products plus their services are becoming the dominant model.

4. Open source puts downward pressure on commercial software license pricing.

5. Open source development will be applied to internal development processes.

The Qualipso report details some of these analyses and covers insights on the state of the OSS market, opportunities, challenges and future trends by various players, including large ICT vendors, IT analysts, SMEs, research, public sector bodies and academics. It also highlights key directions Qualipso research is taking to try and resolve these issues.

The report can be downloaded at: http://www.qualipso.org/qualipso_conference

The next Qualipso Conference will be held within a new international event: The Open World Forum, FLOSS, Innovation and Competitiveness, Paris, 1-2 December 2008

Founded by a heavyweight group of communities and IT players (including Qualipso) at the hub of the FLOSS (Free Libre and Open Source Software) movement, the Open World Forum will provide an international venue where FLOSS community members, politicians, IT decision makers, software project managers and leading-edge researchers and academics can meet to strengthen collaboration, cross-fertilize ideas and consolidate research and initiatives in FLOSS. The Open World Forum programme will be formally announced in September 2008 at http://www.openworldforum.org