Risk Management in Open Source Procurement

In this presentation Ross will provide an overview of what it means to engage with open source. We will take a high level look at the various support options available for typical open source projects, what to look for in a sustainable open source project and support organisation, and how to engage with the developers of the project where appropriate. At the end of this session we will have examined some of the myths surrounding open source such as:

Ross Gardler is the manager of OSS Watch, the JISC funded open source advisory service to UK HE and FE. Ross has a long history of engagement with open source, both as a consumer and a developer. He is a member of The Apache Software Foundation, a position of merit given in recognition of significant contributions to the success of the Foundation. Prior to taking up his post in OSS Watch Ross was an independent contractor assisting companies engaging with open source products.

Ufi was created in 1998 with a mission to provide educational services to hard to reach learners. The *learndirect* system is believed to be the largest online learning system in the world and is at the heart of the Ufi operation. In 2005 Ufi commited to a multi-million pound project to breath new life into this key service and elected to migrate *learndirect *from a Microsoft to an open source Java platform as part of the work.

During this presentation Simon will describe how Ufi have undertaken this programme of work over the last two and half years, the contribution open source software has made, and the part this has played in modernising the organisation.

Responsible for architecture and development of the companies financial systems and its flagship online learning system "learndirect". This is a long standing and highly successful service funded by the UK Government to compliment more traditional educational methods. With more than 2 million registered learners it is quoted as being the largest online learning system in the world.

In this presentation Mark will introduce the Open Source Consortium (OSC) which represents the Open Source business community in the UK. The OSC currently have over 80 members - more than any other FOSS business consortium in Europe.

As a not-for-profit organisation, we guarantee the quality of Open Source deployments by setting professional standards and bonding our members. In doing so our aim is to help our members win more business within the UK's public and private sectors.

Mark Taylor is the President of the Open Source Consortium, the UK's Open Source Trade Association. He has been instrumental in some of the largest Open Source deployments in the UK, working with household names in both Private and Public sectors. Mark advises Government Departments, Educational Agencies, Public Bodies and Political Parties, helping them understand Open Source, the implications of it's adoption, and accelerating it's uptake.

This presentation will demonstrate the manner in which Open Source is being used within Imperial College to standardise the software platforms available across business and academic departments. However, the user community within a University environment is far from homogeneous which is reflected in varying attitudes to risk and, as a consequence, varying platform requirements. So, there must be some flexibility around the standardisation process, and the manner in which this is being approached in order to attempt to square the stability versus 'bleeding edge' circle is described.

John Lane is Unix Technology Team Manager within Imperial College's ICT service. He heads up a team providing platform support for Unix and Linux systems across the College. He has worked in a variety of organisations all using a mix of open source and proprietary technologies. This included a stint with Cygnus Solutions, the Open Source support company later subsumed within RedHat.

This panel consists of members of the Open Source Consortium. This session is your opportunity to ask specific questions about how Open Source Consortium members can assist your procurement exercises.

Example questions include, but are not limited to:

5.2.1. Chris Kenyon

Chris Kenyon is Director of Business Development at Canonical Ltd, the company behind Ubuntu, the world's most popular desktop distribution used by over 6 million users in 200+ countries including Google, San Francisco Airport and over 650,000 pupils across Europe. He leads the team that handle Canonical's relationships with hardware, software, training and education partners. Chris joined Canonical in 2006 and has driven forward key initiatives with Dell, Intel and SUN in addition to helping partners work with Ubuntu in countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China.

5.2.2. Matthew Linden

Matthew Linden is Projects Director at Sirius Corporation, the UK's leading integrator of Open Source infrastructure solutions. He is responsible for management of the company's major projects and service contracts for large clients in both the public and private sectors. He has managed some of the UK's largest open source deployments in education, such as Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning's e-mail, directory services, web proxying and content filtering infrastructure for a quarter of a million users.

5.2.3. Ian Lynch

Ian Lynch is a Director of The Learning Machine Ltd, an Awarding Body accredited by QCA, DELLS and CCEA. Ingots are certificates endorsed by eskills and accredited by the UK regulators with a completely new way of managing assessment using the internet and open source Web 2.0 technologies. Launched in September 2007 the company already has more than 10,000 learners registered on its certification site. Ian was a member of the teams that set up the first City Technology College and the Specialist Schools programme. As a Registered Inspector with OFSTED he founded the professional association for school inspectors, IRIS.

5.2.4. Vince Blogg

Vince Blogg is a Director of Hubstone, UK leaders in Open Source Customer Relationship Management, Data Integration and Business Intelligence. He is an experienced technology consultant with a background at IBM and PwC Consulting. As a Director at Hubstone he takes responsibility for the technical direction of the business and client solution architecture.

5.2.5. Andy McKay

Andy McKay is a lead developer at Blue Fountain, the UK's leading specialists in the design, development, implementation and support of Supply Chain & Content Management Systems. He is a core developer of Plone, an open source content management system, and author of 'The Definitive Guide to Plone'. Clients include Cambridge University and The Department for Education and Skills.

5.2.6. Olli Aro

Olli Aro is head of technology and product development at Clicks and Links Ltd, a company that transforms businesses in the public and private sector through innovative and leading edge technology. He is responsible for the company's portfolio of Open Source based solutions including RSS aggregation for locally produced content, 'Web-in-a-Box' website toolkits, personalized community portal and content production platforms, and Second Life based services.

This panel consists of representatives of people engaged with open source in the UK HE and FE sector at all levels from a software development project, through to a software foundation and on into funding bodies. This session presents an opportunity to explore real experiences of engaging with open source from an academic perspective.

Example questions include, but are not limited to: