Commercial Open Source Software

I have just received an email from the Agency for Digital Italy answering my self-candidature to join the working group aimed at defining the technical and economical assessment criteria for open source procurement.

Apparently they received an high number of requests, and my resume wasn’t good enough, says Francesco Grasso, Coordinator of the working group and sci-fi writer.

I have been commenting few times the evolution of the Italian “Code for a Digital Administration” - Codice dell Amministrazione Digitale (CAD) in Italian -  either on this blog or when interviewed by journalists, and to date nothing has really happened.

The last major change to the law occured this summer, and at least in theory it has been reinforced the obligation to consider open source solutions, as Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz has noticed in his article about the news:

Only when a technical and economical analysis demonstrates that it is not possible to obtain at a lower price an open source solution or to reuse a solution developed internally, then it is allowed to purchase a proprietary licence of use.

The good news is that the new-born Agency for Digital Italy has just put out a call inviting interested parties to join a working group aimed at defining the technical and economical assessment criteria.

People interested in joining the working group have to submit an application by sending a certified email to pareri@pec.digitpa.gov.it.

ICANN about 10 years ago shared a proposal for a redemption grace period for deleted domains, in order to simplify the management of unintentional domain deletions. As a result the Redemption period rules for all .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net and .org domains. So far, so good.

Unfortunately many registrars are now billing outrageous domain redemption fees, nearly 200 Euros in my case.

The next Focus Group Open Source meeting will focus on how to select open source software and the case for Joomla!

After a walk through topics like Social Media and Open Data, it’s time to get back to our roots. This time to talk about Joomla! we invited Ryan Ozimek, one of the leading world Joomla! experts, former President of Open Source Matters and CEO and founder of PICnet Inc, a company that develops innovative solutions for public and nonprofit organizations around the world.

The event will feature also Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona’s keynote about how to evaluate and select open source software. Barahona is Professor at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid and founder of Bitergia, a startup that specializes in the development of open source projects.

For more information and to sign up for the event, see the Focus Group Open Source blog.

ForumPA has video-interviewed me about the past and upcoming Focus Group Open Source meet-ups. I wish to publicly thank Gianni Dominici, ForumPA General Manager, to both promote and join our events, bringing his knowledge and understanding of Italian Public Administrations. Since we enjoyed his talk about the Italian Open Data state of the art, we look forward to have him opening the next event that will be held on the 14th of March.

If you plan to come, don’t forget to sign up by sending an email to our host.

The next Focus Group Open Source meeting will focus on Social Media and Citizenship 2.0, and it will take place on the 14th of March 2012 in Rome, at IBM’s office (sponsor of the event). Among invited speakers Gianni Dominici (ForumPA), Paolo Coppola (Comune di Udine), Stefano Epifani (Università di Roma), and Alessandro Chinnici (IBM).

For more information and to sign up for the event, see the Focus Group Open Source blog.

The next Focus Group Open Source meeting will focus on Open Data, and it will take place on the 25th of January 2012 in Rome, at IBM’s office (sponsor of the event). Among invited speakers Gianni Dominici (ForumPA), Federico Morando (Apps4Italy), Salvatore Marras (dati.gov), Ernesto Belisario (Italian Association for Open Government),  and Guido Vetere (IBM).

For more information and to sign up for the event, see the Focus Group Open Source blog.

SUSE Italia celebrates Linux 20th birthday on the 15th of November 2011 in Rome, and on the 17th of November in Milan. The event is aimed at unveiling SUSE Italia’s new structure and the distinguishing features of SUSE Linux.

The event is tailored to the interest of actual and potential partners.

The second event of the Focus Group Open Source series has been held yesterday in Milan, at the IBM Forum, all presentations have been uploaded. Sergio Sansonetti - IBMer and host -  welcomed the audience talking about the Focus Group initiative and presenting all the speakers.

After presenting some quick facts of the historical background of Linux I invited Fiorello Cortiana to share his experience and vision around open source for Public Administrations. Andrea Trentini later gave a talk about how free software is taking at the Milan university.

Massimiliano Belardi - Sales Specialist at IBM - joined us for the second time with his talk about IBM continued engagement with Linux, providing the audience with more insights and case-history details. Marco De Felice - Delphis Informatica CEO - gave a speech around his experiences with helping customers to evalute and eventually perform z Series migrations.

Read more at the Focus Group website.

During the first meeting of the Open Source Focus Group 2011, held in May at the ForumPA, I have been interviewed by the organizers to take stock of how Linux and Open Source are doing in the Italian public administrations. During the interview, I mentioned how SOS Open Source can eventually help organizations, both public and private, to start their open source journey.