Open Source Blog

Trialing the open source franchise model
February 02, 2007

Any regular readers may remember a fairly recent post about the potential for the franchise model to be applied to open source software as a means of small local providers finding strength in numbers.

It appears that a group of European suppliers are giving it a go, at least on a trial basis.

The Open Forum Europe (TOF-e) has been set up to run until the end of May to “test the commercial viability of a framework that will allow for more confidence and commercial clarity of the whole Open Source process”.

What that means is that TOF-e will act as an intermediary between users and the suppliers, both of which are expected to be SMEs.

“TOF-e will provide both a market place within which business can be transacted, and the value-add services that support the needs of both user and supplier.”

The project brings together three local portals in Denmark, the UK, and Ireland as well as local providers such as Magenta, PKF, and Catpipe in Denmark, Open Advantage and WMITA in the UK, and OpenApp and Sybernet in Ireland.

The core service provider and also UK co-ordinator is OpenForum Europe (as opposed to The Open Forum Europe, which is a little confusing.

The project is partly funded by the European Commission’s e-TEN program to support the development of pan-European projects, and follows the recent publication of the European Commission’s report on the Economic Impact of FLOSS .

That reported suggested that a franchise model might be the way to encourage the growth of small open source providers, while also bringing the benefits of open source to SME users.

It stated:

"This model allows each small firm to profit from its expertise for custom solutions, while drawing on a large base of pre-written software under FLOSS licences, and draw in addition on a large community of hundreds of individual developers spread around the world, including volunteers but also other similar small companies."

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Posted by Matthew Aslett on February 2, 2007 02:41 PM

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Comments

The 'franchise model' has been successfully applied in the UK and Europe for several years now. The Open Source Consortium is proof positive of 'small local providers finding strength in numbers', as you say. Best known for our presence in the press, and campaigning on issues such as Open Source in Education (Becta, 1/5th of UK MPs supporting Open Source, etc), the OSC has also strenghtened and united the UK industry, and brought public and private sector business to our members.
This new venture from 'Open' Forum Europe, however, is a completely different beast.
OFE's little projects are seldom what they appear, and any resemblance to *genuine* Open Source is entirely cosmetic. The OSC has already provided what TOF-e claims to provide, and with the *real* emerging industry around Open Source in the UK.
OFE's 'Certified Open' is simply a cynical attempt to re-brand 'Open' as 'Closed'. Again, do not be fooled. Open as in OPEN has already been defined by the OSI and the FSF.
The 'Open Source Academy' is merely a shell being operated by the OFE to promote, er, the OFE! (not the ODPM as the website *still* claims) Again, don't be fooled.
TOF-e is not about promoting the Open Source Industry, or Open Source companies. It's about promoting OFE. We don't need, and we don't want, OFE to promote us, we're doing fine with that all by ourselves.

Mark Taylor
President
Open Source Consortium

Posted by: Mark Taylor on February 6, 2007 11:19 AM

I totally agree with Mark Taylor, you better measure twice and cut once (if) when talking about TOF-e.
The Open Forum Europe (TOF-E) is a group of European suppliers told to trial a franchisee approach. Googling around I found the following (old) news about the TOFe EC funded project:

"The Open Forum-Europe (TOF-E) raises awareness of open source software and the benefits it can bring to European public and private sectors. TOF-E will accomplish this goal by establishing Internet portals that will help users select software based upon their current and future needs."

I must admit the portal doesn’t help much, it contains a link to OpenOffice.org website, a practical course in StarOffice 8 that you can buy there 38.50€ and, last but not least, a “useful tool“:

"Certified Open™ is designed to help measure and encourage competition through the provision of a framework for evaluating technical and commercial lock-in where that may reduce the ability of suppliers to compete in the provision of software, hardware and services."

Unfortunately the site doesn’t offer any further information about the “useful tool”, so far it looks like if we can’t get much out of the portal. The EC-funded projects, started in September 2005 is supposed to close soon (February 2007) and I am afraid we have no real chance to see the TOF-E promise realized.
They're also known for their public statement in favour of a European software patent policy, as you can see reading the Red Hat press release talking about their position on software patents.
www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_openeurope.html

Roberto Galoppini
formerly President of CIRS, the Italian Open Source Consortium.

Posted by: Roberto Galoppini on February 21, 2007 11:15 AM

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Trialing the open source franchise modelFebruary 02, 2007

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Trialing the open source franchise model
February 02, 2007