--- Begin Message ---
|
Subject: |
[Free-sklyarov-uk] Microsoft Research External Lecture: Dr Stefan Kooths, University of Muenster |
|
Date: |
Tue, 13 Jan 2004 15:36:06 +0000 |
|
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.3.24i |
May be of interest to those in or near Cambridge.
----- Forwarded message -----
Subject: Microsoft Research External Lecture: Dr Stefan Kooths, University of
Muenster
MICROSOFT RESEARCH LECTURE
This is a PUBLIC lecture
________________________________
TITLE: The Economics of Open Source Software - Prospects, Pitfalls and
Politics
SPEAKER: Dr Stefan Kooths
INSTITUTION: University of Muenster
HOST: Alexander Braendle, University Relations
DATE: 15 January 2004
TIME: 13:30 - 14:30
MEETING ROOM: Lecture Theatre
ADDRESS: Microsoft Research Ltd, 7 J J Thomson Avenue (Off Madingley
Road), Cambridge
Open Source Software does not represent a suitable alternative to the
commercial software market from an economic point of view, neither in
terms of creating value-added nor in terms of economic efficiency. OSS
does not create any new value-added potential, and offers only a
fraction of the opportunities of the commercial market. The impact of
OSS on sales and employment are therefore less than the effects of
commercial software. Furthermore the de facto free availability of
GPL-licensed software, and hence the lack of a market price, have
far-reaching economic consequences that are elaborated in the
presentation. As far as packaged software is concerned its free
availability very much limits the creation of profits, income, jobs or
taxes. The loss of turnover in the area of software sales cannot be
fully recovered with services linked to the software. So-called
complementary OSS-business models work in the smaller customized
software sector only. The incomes earned there are substitutive and not
additional to those created in the commercial software sector. The lack
of cost-reflecting prices for GPL-licensed standard software also has
consequences for the market process as the pricing mechanism is
associated with an important information and coordination function in a
market economy. If there is no price, and hence no decisive guide figure
for a market, it is, for example, more difficult to identify customer
requirements. Further problems can be identified when it comes to the
allocation of resources, productivity-oriented factor compensation and
incentives for innovations. The lower value-added potential and the
reduced efficiency of coordination are weighty economic arguments. They
demonstrate quite clearly that the promotion of open-source software
cannot be an economically justifiable role for the state.
________________________________
----- End forwarded message -----
--
``It's not a bomb. It's a device that explodes.''
(possibly-apocryphal statement by French spokesman,
before the 1995 nuclear tests)
_______________________________________________
Free-sklyarov-uk mailing list
address@hidden
http://mailman.xenoclast.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov-uk
--- End Message ---