Anyone can get involved in influencing policies surrounding FOSS, either by building relationships with your policy or government relations teams within companies and organisations or by engaging directly with organisations specialising in digital policy. One of the direct ways is to participate in our study aiming to fill a major gap in the debate, as there are currently no authoritative studies on the economic impact of Open Source. Our project will focus on the influence of OSS and OSH on European economy and take lessons from comparative perspectives from around the world, all in order to serve as a scientific basis for the development of future OS policies in Europe with a potential of global importance.

OFE and Fraunhofer ISI will conduct the study together, and we want to invite the broader OS community to get involved just like we did throughout our successful Copyright Directive campaign. This is more important than ever, as there are new challenges and opportunities for FOSS on the horizon, and we all know: the community is key.