Ever since free software policies boomed at the beginning of the 21st century, one of the familiar mantras spelled out by any representative, while listing the benefits of promoting FOSS is the expected ability to foster the local economy. The equation is supposed to work as follows: Public administrations, companies and society promote the use of FOSS which generates license savings that can be devoted to software integration tasks including the development of new features. Those new developments are carried out mostly by local companies empowered by their capacity to manipulate the code. As a result, a virtuous circle arises with new local companies emerging around, FOSS increases its use and a positive feedback in terms of savings and employment goes back to the community.
In the study “Economic impact of open source innovation and the competitiveness of the ICT sector in the EU” contracted by the European Commission in 2007, the authors reported a strong economic impact of FLOSS in the economy and the stated that “FLOSS provides opportunities in Europe for new businesses, a greater role in the wider information society and business model that suits European SMEs”.
Far from making a review of the report and even though FOSS is present in almost any computer, one can have the feeling that, in terms of the promotion of an SMEs based innovation ecosystem, most of the predicted benefits are yet to come. Continue reading
