Open Source can put Europe back on the world map

January 15, 2007
vicus

The large number of open source developers in Europe offers the continent an opportunity to improve its IT competitiveness against the U.S. and still become a knowledge economy. This is the conclusion of a European Commission study.

The report on FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) notes, among other things, that the number of open source developers in Europe is relatively high.

Given Europe's historical lag behind the U.S. in the ability to create thriving software companies, investing further in FLOSS developments would actually benefit that sector. Doubling investments related to open source software - now 22 billion in Europe, compared to 36 billion in the U.S. - would increase Europe's gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.1 percent. And that's not counting the benefits to the IT sector itself, according to the report.

The survey conducted by UNU-MERIT shows that 63 percent of all open source developers live in one of the countries of the European Union, while only 20 percent come from the U.S. or Canada. Looking at the active participants on SourceForge, the site where most of the important open source projects are managed, the difference is slightly less, but Europe clearly remains dominant. That potential should be able to be converted into the creation of companies that are open source related, the report states. (Freek Blankena)