News from France: new research group about Free Software and business

[David Mentre]

Hi all,

This news is not directly linked to FSF-Europe but is of interest for
people who use and promote free software in Europe. Let me know if I'm
wrong.

I would like to inform you that a French Reseach Group has been formed
on the topic of "New economy of Software". This research group is
_especially focused on Free Software_ and how firms can live and make
money with free software. This group is composed of academics (in law,
economics and computer science) and people from industry. The aim of
this group is to try to understand the evolution of software industry
and to produce documents about important factors to succeed with Free
Software products. This is a 2 years long project.

The first kick-off meeting was held last Thursday and Friday[1]. Some
discussions were started on industry needs about software.  Four firms
presented how they organized their business with free software:

 - MandrakeSoft (they make a Linux distribution)

 - Alcôve (they sell services on free software products like Linux,
   OpenBSD, Apache, ...)

 - ACT-Europe (they sell Gnat, the Gnu Ada Compiler)

 - OpenCascade (they sell a computer-assisted software to design 3D
   objects, this software uses a LGPL-like license)

This research group is especially focus on a French point of view on
free software, but I think those discussions will be valid in other
countries. I participate in that group (merely as an observer). If you
are interested and/or want more info, just tell me. I'll try to give
more info on this forum when available.

Best regards,
david


[1] (French) http://parmentille.enst-bretagne.fr/~njullien/
-- 
 David.Mentre at inria.fr -- http://www.irisa.fr/prive/dmentre/
 Opinions expressed here are only mine.