OSS Watch event to address 'crucial issue' of sustainability
Sustainability is a crucial issue facing strategic funders, open source software development projects and open source businesses. It sums up the difference between a project continuing and a project failing. But what is it that makes a project sustainable?
Senior IT decision-makers at UK colleges and universities care about sustainability too. Institutional investment in open source ICT solutions depend, in part, on the health of the underlying open source development projects. This may not be an issue for ubiquitous software such as the Linux kernel itself. But it is of particular concern in relatively niche areas such e-learning and middleware.
Knowing how to assess the sustainability of a particular open source deployment often marks the boundary between open source on the periphery and open source as part of the enterprise.
A conference organised by the Jisc-funded service OSS Watch – on ‘Open Source and Sustainability’ - will address these and other key issues facing strategic funders, open source developers, open source businesses and senior IT decision-makers at UK universities and colleges.
Speaking about the conference, OSS Watch’s Randy Metcalfe said: 'Apart from their success, it is difficult to pick one element that all open source projects share. Finding the right model for sustainability is a thoroughly pragmatic task for projects, open source businesses, and, not surprisingly, for strategic funders of open source development. Learning from successful projects is key and this conference will provide an important forum for the sharing of best practice in this field.'
Speakers at the event will include Glyn Moody, author of the book ‘Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution’, Niall Sclater of The Open University Virtual Learning Environment Programme, Simon Tindall of Sun Microsystems, Rebecca Griffiths of Ithaka, and Jisc’s Head of Development Sarah Porter.
For more details of the conference please go to: OSS Watch conference