A team in the Future Networks arm of the European Commission has released a report on the impact of open source software and hardware on a series of areas
“The objective of the study was to investigate and quantify the economic impact of OSS and OSH [Open Source Software and Open Source Hardware] on the European economy,” the study’s authors, working for the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission, explain.
“The study also identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of open source in relevant ICT policies, such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), digitising European industry, the connected car, high performance computing, big data, distributed ledger technologies, and more.
“The main breakthrough of the study,” its authors note, “is the identification of open source as a public good. This shows a change of paradigm from the previous irreconcilable difference between closed and open source, and points to a new era in which digital businesses are built using open source assets. This information is essential to develop policy actions in the field. The study also values the economic impact of open source commitments on the EU economy.”
