Corporate FOSS Adoption – Managing Risk

FOSS4G usage at the corporate and government levels continues to grow at a fast pace. Many organizations are reluctant to adopt open source due to perceived risk. One such risk is the availability of supporting services and long term sustainability. There is ample literature addressing this topic. Perhaps lesser known are the legal risks resulting from license terms and obligations.

In this presentation we will briefly review the taxonomy of open source licenses and examine the common terms, conditions and obligations associated with such licenses. In particular we will discuss how the intended usage of a particular open source program is critical in understanding license obligations.

Open Source Governance is a process that mitigates the risk associated with open source usage. We will discuss the elements of a solid open sources governance model that will allow organizations to adopt FOSS with confidence. In addition, we will outline some of the tools, services and resources supporting open source governance available in the market (some of the tools are open source!). As we discuss these topics we will provide many examples based on commonly used FOSS4G programs.