The consortium of the study brings together expertise and experience from cross-cutting fields, including economic impact analysis, policy analysis, Open Source Software, Open Source Hardware, community management and open innovation.
Fraunhofer ISI is a leading research institute in Europe, bringing expertise in the area of innovation research based on the synergy of the technical, economic and social science knowledge of its staff members. In its work it applies not only a broad spectrum of advanced scientific theories, models, methods and social-science measurement instruments, but continually develops them further, utilizing the empirical findings from the research projects conducted. Its assessments of the potentials and limitations of technical, organizational or institutional innovations helps decision-makers from industry, academia and politics in making strategic decisions and thus assist them in creating a favorable environment for innovations. In particular, Fraunhofer has deep knowledge on the economic assessment of intellectual property rights including standardisation and Open Source. Within this study, represented by Prof. Dr. Knut Blind who is the research lead on the economic analysis of the impact of Open Source.
OpenForum Europe is a not-for-profit, Brussels-based independent think-tank which explains the merits of openness in ICT to policy makers and communities across Europe. The openness principles which guide all our activities are: user centricity, competition, flexibility, sustainability, and the importance of relying on the support of a transparent and open community. The main policy topics that we cover include: Open Source, Open Standards, e-Government, public procurement, copyright, cloud computing and cybersecurity. OFE also hosts an independent global network of OpenForum Academy (OFA). Fellows, an international network of experts and academics, each contributing significant innovative thought leadership on core topics in order to provide new input and insight into the key issues which impact the openness of the ICT market.
OFE has been involved in several EC funded projects, providing policy advice and input – based on OFE’s unique position within the openness community and thus its understanding of the impact of specific topics within the wider equation, as well as specialist skills both in developing stakeholder engagement strategies, and in implementing possible face to face activities such as workshops, round tables, community calls and others. The project team representing OFE:
Mirko Boehm is a part of our consortium as the Expert specialised in both fields of economic analysis and Open Source. He is the CEO of Endocode and also works for the Open Invention Network, is a researcher on Open Source at the Technical University of Berlin and a member of the United Nations’ Technology Innovation Labs’ Open Source and Intellectual Property Advisory Panel.
Andrew Katz is the Expert within the consortium who leads our work on Open Source Hardware. He is a lawyer, and CEO and Head of Technology at the UK law firm Moorcrofts LLP. He has been advising projects, businesses and foundations on open source software, hardware and data for over 20 years, drafted the Solderpad Open Hardware Licence, and is on the core drafting team of the CERN Open Hardware Licence. He is a visiting researcher at the University of Skövde, Sweden, where he researches open source and open standards, and is a member of United Nations’ Technology Innovation Labs’ Open Source and Intellectual property Advisory Panel.
