Showing Free Software Means Business

Inaugural all-Island Conference on

Free and Open Source Software

Belfast

1 February, 2008

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Due to sponsorship of the conference, the delegate fee has been waived.

Conference Information

Open-Island is an inaugural strategic all-Island one day conference taking place on the 1
February 2008 in the Spires Centre, Belfast, on Free & Open Source Software under the
aegis of OpenIreland and OPEN-NI. The latter is a new innovative private and public sector
network whose mission is …

“To strategically promote awareness, understanding, development and uptake of free
and open source software across both the private and public sectors, as well as
enhancing the competitiveness of the indigenous software sector by exploiting the
opportunities offered by Free Software and Open Source business models.”

The audience will be public sector representatives from local government, health and
education as well as local software development companies and those involved in procuring
ICT solutions for their respective organisations.

The event will feature a key note from Bruce Perens, author of the Open Source Definition, as
well as addresses by senior representatives from large public and private sector
organisations such as SUN Microsystems and AIB, and indigenous startup software
companies such as DataHub Solutions.

The strategic importance of Free Softwarr and Open Source software to the longer term sustainability of the indigenous
software sector was highlighted by the IDC in 2006:

“Open-source software represents the most significant all-encompassing and long-term trend
that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s. IDC analysts also believe that open
source will eventually play a role in the life-cycle of every major software category, and will
fundamentally change the value proposition of packaged software for customers."

Similarly as identified by the results of a sectoral study carried out by Forfás in 2006, Martin
Cronin, Chief Executive of Forfás said:

“The open source environment is growing rapidly worldwide. As Ireland is a significant
location for software internationally, Irish Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs) cannot afford to ignore the increased importance of OSS. We
expect that embracing OSS will become fundamental to building and maintaining market
share in the future. The open source model can provide start-ups with a simple, fast and
efficient way to build a client base and thus gain market share.”