Speaker and Session Details
by Amir Nettler on 3 November 2009
Introduction
Ross Gardler
10:00 - 10:20 Introduction to Open Development
Abstract
This short presentation will define open development of software and will describe some of the benefits that it offers. We will examine the basic requirements of a so
Biography
Ross Gardler is manager of OSS Watch and a long time open source software developer, both to support his academic life and previous commercial sector activities.
Tim Francis
10:20 - 11:00 The Growth of Open Innovation
Abstract
In this presentation Tim will define open innovation, take a brief look at its history and provide some examples of it in action. He will then go on to look at some of the barriers and enabling condutions for the adoption of open innovation as a practice.
Biography
Tim manages a team of sector analysts at Pera that provide in-depth technical and market intelligence to facilitate innovation for both public and private sector clients. Previously, he led innovation consultancy and training at a wide variety of organisations from SMEs to the NHS. Prior to joining Pera, Tim worked at both pharmaceutical companies and universities, in R&D and innovation roles.
Pera is one of Europe’s leading innovation and business support organisations with a presence in eight European countries. Established in the UK over 60 years ago as an industry association owned by the companies it serves, Pera now works to improve the growth and competitiveness of industry and business in Europe by helping clients gain;
- greater access to global knowledge and markets
- more efficient business processes
- better differentiated products and services
- more effective skills development
Bertrand Delacretaz
11:20 - 12:00 Open Innovation in Software means Open Source Software
Abstract
Open source software is more than just a licence, it is also a software development methodology that allows companies to share resources and collaborate on non-core parts of their software/service offering. When managed well open development enables a reduction in cost, and an increase in innovation as a result of the convergence of the best minds in the problem space. In this presentation Bertrand Delacretaz will describe how Day Software has embraced open development by positioning itself as the leaders in both open standards and open source software. We will examine how Day’s active engagement with 25 open source projects and numerous standards groups has enabled the company to become a world leader in their market and in the open source projects they participate in.
Biography
Bertrand Delacretaz works as a senior developer in Day Software’s R&D group, using open source tools to create world-class content management systems. Bertrand is a member of the Apache Software Foundation and is active in may projects there.
Day Software was formed in 1993. Today Day has offices around the world and supports over 200 customers such as Audi, Canton Zürich, Daimler, DHL Worldwide Express, McDonald’s Corporation, National Health Service UK, Swiss Government, TNT Express Worldwide and Volkswagen. In total, Day Software contributes to over 12 Apache projects and 25 open source projects. www.ohloh.org, an independent website that tracks open source contributions, shows that over 75% of Day engineers are active committers to open source projects, with over 75% of those engineers being ranked in the top 1% of open source developers worldwide.
Professor Andrew Long
13:00 - 14:40 TexGen - an “Open Source” Story
Abstract
The Polymer Composites Group at the University of Nottingham have developed software for modelling the geometry of technical textiles over the last 12 years. The software, known as TexGen, is used to generate numerical models to predict the mechanical and physical behaviour of textiles and their composites, and underpins a number of research projects funded by EPSRC, TSB and industry. A variety of collaborations are involved in this work, involving a range of universities and companies.
Due to increasing requests from external users to access the software, in 2006 we made the code available as an open source project via the Sourceforge website. Since this time over 3000 downloads of executable and source code have been registered, and a number of new collaborations have resulted. These include projects valued at around £500,000 that have arisen directly as a result of open source provision, with another £500,000 indirectly attributable to this decision. Most importantly for the group, dissemination of the code as open source was viewed extremely favourably by EPSRC, and this approach coupled with the collaborative research that resulted were major factors in the renewal of our prestigious Platform Grant in 2009.
Biography
Professor Andrew Long is the Associate Dean for Research, Faculty of Engineering at Nottingham University. He has published over 200 papers including around 60 refereed journal papers, and has co-authored/edited three textbooks related to polymer composites. He is chairman of SAMPE UK & Ireland Chapter and co-organiser of several international conferences including the 8th International Conference on Textile Composites (TEXCOMP-8). In 2006 he was awarded the Institute of Materials Rosenhain Medal in recognition of distinguished achievement in materials science.