Coordination: TUBITAK / UEKAE, Turkey
Project partners:
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ICT Technological Area: 2.6. Computer Software Technology
Sectors of ICT Implementation: 2.4. Software Activities
Project duration: 24 months
Project start: 01/02/2005
EC funding: 0.775 M EUR
Project aim:
Europe, as a whole, has a stake in improving the usage of F/OSS in all branches of IT and public life, in general. Although there is a strong Open Source Community in IT-strong countries of Europe, there is lot more to be done. F/OSS communities throughout Europe can achieve better results through co-ordination of their research activities/programmes that reflect the current state-of-the-art.
The main objective of the TOSSAD project is to start integrating and exploiting already formed methodologies, strategies, skills and technologies in F/OSS domain in order to help governmental bodies, educational institutions and SMEs to share research results, establish synergies, build partnerships and innovate in an enlarged Europe.
More precisely, the TOSSAD project aims at improving the results of the F/OSS communities throughout Europe through supporting the coordination and networking of these communities by means of state-of-the-art studies, usability cases, curriculum development and the development of collaborative information e-bays and web-based groupware. By conducting these actions on an international European level, with inclusion of the ACC and NMS countries, the TOSSAD project will create sufficient momentum for a general acceptance and coordinated boost of F/OSS development.
Our project proposal is in line with the EU policies that encourage wider usage of F/OSS in Europe on every platform. It also supports the objectives of the IST Work Programme 2003-2004, in particular, "The development of open standards and open source software will be encouraged when appropriate to ensure interoperability of solutions and to further innovation."
Contacts and Website:
http://www.tossad.org
kaan.erkan@uekae.tubitak.gov.tr
Mr Kaan Erkan
Phone: +90. 262. 648.1402
Fax: +90. 262. 6481100
Further information:
The detailed objectives of the project:
1. To give a clear picture of the current status of F/OSS related to technical and social barriers, opportunities and threats. The verifiable result will be a report that will demonstrate current status of F/OSS in Europe and explain the main reasons for barriers against its wider deployment.
2. To build the basis to start up national programmes for improved usage of F/OSS in "F/OSS target countries". This objective's outcome will be measured by the quality and the quantity of the intentions and initiatives of governmental bodies through adoption of F/OSS with concrete and applied national plans.
3. To integrate current applied research activities in Europe in the field of usability and accessibility. A success factor for this goal will be how much the outcomes generated from usability tests and surveys will support today’s technological needs. These outcomes are also expected to be included in the future work of F/OSS development.
4. To develop and revise F/OSS training standards and help form the infrastructure and standardization of training documents. The verification of the outcome of this objective is realization of the F/OSS trainings in a standard form in intermediary education, general public schools and universities; however the "quantity of the establishments adopting and help supporting the F/OSS curriculum" which defines the success of this objective is to be set up by the corresponding Workpackage (WP 4).
5. To disseminate the results of all CA activities. This objective should be executed and its contents are verified by tracking and validating the “to-do task list”, i.e. producing the dissemination plan, running the project’s web site, forming the brochures and other instruments (i.e. newsletter) and showing up in various media for increased awareness.