Open source now plays an increasingly important role in IT services. Companies the likes of Google, Eclipse and many others, exemplify the powerful capabilities of open source based systems, demonstrating the competitive force of efficiently applied open source technologies. Beside the flexible use, reuse and customization of freely available software, an important trend is also developing. Competitors are cooperating more and more in software implementations as open source projects.
Competitor collaboration is in itself no new phenomenon, the development of standards for data formats, processes and the like have long been widespread. What is new however, is the creation of reusable implementations of standards with open source. Not only that, open source implementations have created in themselves defacto standards. When enough competitors choose to take an active role, a user community or ecosystem naturally arises. From such a community, considerable quality, sustainability and cost benefits are generated for all.
The Open Source Business Foundation’s COSAD project (Collaborative Open Source Application Development) strives to facilitate access to new technologies and opportunities for collaborative software projects in German commerce. New open source production processes and modularization standardize and improve the flexibility of software, leading to the industrialization of software development. Here, open source methods and technologies play a crucial role in their application.
The COSAD project takes a tried and trusted approach to the creation and management of software development collaborations. Previous such projects including the successful Eclipse Foundation, attest to the functionality of the COSAD model. In demonstrating how such success can be transferred to industry specific software development, the COSAD working group plans to select an industry for an example project in Germany.
The motivation to form consortiums emerged from:
- The realization that many software applications offer no competitive advantages, rather on the contrary are associated with high costs.
- The necessity to reduce the dependence on suppliers and individuals in a complex IT world and,
- The need for standardization and improved flexibility. Through standardization, the total cost of ownership can be reduced and through improved flexibility, companies can react faster to changes in their market and environment.
It is expected that in transferring a COSAD strategy to different industries, different requirements will need to be met. With each implementation, experts should be consulted to ensure successful conception and execution. This whitepaper therefore does not propose a universally applicable approach, rather points the issues to be addressed, suggesting a solution correspondingly.
COSAD is an open source project in itself. It does not aim to develop code, instead it aims to offer industry and government assistance in forming and managing successful software development consortia. In so doing, red tape and barriers in content can be removed, and open questions with competent answers put forward.
Responses and support in the decision making process will be documented in this whitepaper, available for free use and comments. This document is available under the Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike license.
We look forward to working with you and listening to your ideas.
COSAD Founding Team,
Jochen Krause, Martin Braun, Hendrik Höfer, Richard Seibt
Annex:
