Washington, D.C. ● April 21-22, 2008

“…[open source is] the most significant all-encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s” IDC, 2006

Each year open source software (OSS) – software components which can be freely acquired or downloaded and adapted to suit one’s own needs – becomes more prevalent and has an increasing impact on software acquisition and development. Over 87% of US business and governmental organizations are using open source software, led by banking institutions and government intelligence organizations. Over $16 billion in open source software is available, an amount that is estimated to double every two years. The 2006 DoD Open Technology Roadmap, which called for the increased use of open technology to speed new systems and capabilities to the warfighter, sees the spread of OSS as being critical to success in this regard.

This outstanding conference brings together the government and industry experts in open source software. They will provide you with first-hand insight on how OSD, the Services and DHS are dealing with OSS. They will also offer you expert assessments of how OSS is impacting the software industry. OSS promises lower costs, accelerated development time, reduced software complexity, and better security visibility, while minimizing the maintenance burden. However, there are many challenges that must be effectively managed — in acquisition, migration, and integration, as well as in incorporating OSS into an effective software management process. What are the risks associated with OSS? How can they be managed? What are the legal and contractual gotchas you must be aware of in dealing with OSS vendors? How do you deal with potential current and long-term intellectual property rights issues? What industry standards are most effective? How do you ensure interoperability with existing proprietary and second source soft are? OSS, COTS, GOTS – what are the differences and similarities? How do you effectively handle change management? What business models work best? How do you manage compliance? These and many other critical questions will be examined during this important event.

Our Panel of Prominent Experts:

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