Following over 10 years of supporting Jisc’s programmes and projects, as a national advisory centre for open source projects, licences, and sustainability, OSS Watch will be moving to a new funding model as of 1st August 2013.

In response to the Wilson review of Jisc, the latter has confirmed that it will continue to support OSS Watch until 31st July 2013 but this will be its last year of core funding. This provides us with a new opportunity to model OSS Watch to meet the needs not only of HEIs but also units outside of HE & FE, including both the public and private sector.

We are currently finalising our new business model; our goal is to expand OSS Watch’s long established portfolio of services but on a chargeable basis. Moreover we are looking at how OSS Watch can be combined with Oxford University’s other activities in the open arena (open education, open access, open data) to present a truly unique offering and centre of expertise.

We would be very interested to hear from you if you are interested in future collaborations, research projects, or other activities; or believe that OSS Watch’s traditional services (advice on open source projects, products, licensing, sustainability, etc) would be of interest to you in the future.