Following the trend of universal usage of open source software application, the Institute of Information Science of Academia Sinica (abbreviated as IIS in the following, Institute of Information Science) accepted the subsidy of Open Source Software promotional plan from Industrial Development Bureau Ministry of Economic Affairs and founded Open Source Software Foundry (abbreviated as OSSF in the following) to broaden the range of the usage and to enhance the energy of the development on open source software application in Taiwan. So far, funds are partly from the subsidy of National Science Council and partly from Academia Sinica.

 

The main purpose of OSSF is to train domestic community and talented people of open source software. The duties include:
 
1. Spread the concept of open source software.
2. Gather domestic open source software communities.
3. Enhance the cultivation of talented people and industrial cooperation in Taiwan.
4. Connect the software application models in Taiwan to globalization trend.

 

The researcher of IIS served as the leader of OSSF and is in charge of operational instruction and administrative

coordination. Members are separated into three groups which are technical supporting, application promoting, and law & policy consulting to achieve the established goals depending on their business attribute.

 

 

Building three major platforms

 

Information collecting platform

The official website of OSSF provides updated project status, community activities, intellectual property licensing

information, teaching material and the research report related to open source software…etc.

 

It is a development platform for open source software enthusiasts to discuss, edit, and manage projects. Users can

download needed open source software and report the improvement suggestion through this platform.

 

Who’s Who

Who’s Who is a diversified information network of talented people on open source software .It connects to domestic community, academic and commercial talents related to open source software. It also introduces the

community development, integrates cross-field social network and human resource, shares activity information, developing experience and personal status. Users can contact the companies who need open source software talents through this platform.  
 
Providing five major services

 

Legal services include the research on open source software licensing modes, case trace, commercial applications and governmental policies. Furthermore, OSSF also provides the consultation or the assistance on working out the controversial issues. All law and policy related information can be found in the “law and policy” section of OSSF website and in the column, “law center”, of OSSF newsletter.

 

Content of the newsletter which popularizes open source software including the introduction of domestic and

international technology on open source software, the commercial trend, columns, and community activities. There are two issues every month. And each issue comes with plain text and html version.

 

 Under this catalog, OSSF collects the website information of any organization and application related to open source

software. This information is categorized as Chinese applications, enterprise computing, embedded system, general applications, security tool…etc. It provides users a basis to dig into the rich applications of open source software.

 

Provide teaching materials and research reports related to open source software
OSSF has collated teaching materials, briefs, technology documents, and research reports which they popularized in colleges before for those people who are interested in to download freely.

Hold various activities and workshops related to open source software

OSSF irregularly schedules several meetings upon open-source-software-related issues every year. It also cooperates with domestic communities and enterprises to hold workshop upon technology information exchange. All activity-related information is posted on the official website of OSSF. Welcome everyone to check out online regularly or subscribe the newsletter of OSSF to updated this information automatically.

 
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