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Paris, January 26, 2006
INRIA (French National Institute for Research in Computer Science
and Control) is taking advantage of the Linux Solutions 2006 exhibition
to show its support for open source software and share its views
on the technological, economic and legal challenges posed by this
type of software and its method of organisation.
Open source software is an essential research medium favouring knowledge-sharing between scientists, and its dissemination helps accelerate technological transfers to the socio-economic world.
Faced with the growing deployment of solutions based on open source architectures in business, governments and administrations (e.g. the Ministry for Agriculture, the National Police Force and local authorities), INRIA is focusing its efforts on issues related to software quality, legal risks and methods of governance, in order to create the trust necessary for these ecosystems to succeed.
Within this context, INRIA has set two major goals:
Two goals that can be achieved through a determined policy and concrete initiatives.
In its open source policy, INRIA has chosen the path of open consortiums. Under established rules of governance, they bring together players from different backgrounds (research, major corporations, SMEs) from all over the world, to develop applications, promote and disseminate research results that have reached maturity.
Today, INRIA hosts two large consortiums whose international renown has grown significantly in 2005: ObjectWeb (business middleware platforms) and Scilab (package for numerical computations).
To favour the development, dissemination and use of open source software, users need a clear and reassuring legal framework. INRIA, CEA and CNRS have been working together since 2004 to develop CeCILL licences in response to the issues raised by the main open source licences (GPL, LGPL and BSD) in the European Union context and with regards to French law.
- 2005: CeCILL version 2 launched
- 2006: 2 other licences launched - CeCILL B and CeCILL C
INRIA and its European partners are also contemplating designing tools to help to reduce the legal uncertainty surrounding collaborative development of large-scale open source projects.
To encourage research teams to develop high-quality code from the first day a project begins, INRIA has set up a network of experienced software engineers to accompany young researchers and engineers in their work and to encourage them to adopt the best practices currently in use.
INRIA is also launching support initiatives to encourage projects to adopt open standards and even get involved in major standardisation organisations (c.f. INRIA's special feature on standardisation).
The combined action of open source initiatives and standardisation maximises the impact of research results in the socio-economic world.
In a world where knowledge production, collaboration and dissemination are increasingly linked to information and communication sciences and technologies, intellectual asset management has become vital, for both technology transfers and research work itself. This is why, in December 2004, INRIA created the Service du patrimoine intellectuel et de sa valorisation (Intellectual Assest Management and Transfer Office).
"Open source software is an excellent way
of bringing research to fruition when it is necessary to reinforce
interoperability and share infrastructures to develop new standards.
But this does not imply that all the software developed at INRIA
should be distributed under open source licences. In many cases,
the appropriate use licences are preferable. Our approach is not
ideological, but pragmatic, and has one sole aim: to maximise the
impact of our research results."
Gérard
Giraudon - Director of Development and Industrial Relations
Exhibition INRIA will be present Conferences INRIA will participate in the conference cycles
at Linux Solutions 2006 and, at the same place, at the annual
ObjectWeb conference - ObjectWeb
CON’06 |
| INRIA Vincent CORONINI Tel.: + 33 1 39 63 57 29 |
Stratéus for INRIA Matthias Le Fur Tel.: +33 1 40 41 56 66 Clémentine Duguay Tel.: +33 1 40 41 56 11 |
The mission of the French National Institute for Research in Computer
Science and Control is to carry out research in Information and Communication
Sciences and Technologies (ICST). Through six research units located
in seven major regions*, INRIA employs a workforce
of 3,500 people, including 2,700 scientists (from INRIA and associate
organisations). INRIA’s annual budget is €160 million
(excluding VAT), 20% of which comes from its own resources (contracts,
licences).
INRIA develops many partnerships with industry and fosters technology transfers
and business creation (nearly 80 enterprises) in the field of ICST, in
particular through its affiliate, INRIA-Transfert, who operates four
seeding funds.
International partnerships involve receiving and recruiting foreign students,
as well as numerous exchanges among researchers. Priority is given to geographic
regions with high economic potential: the European Research Area, Asia and North
America, while maintaining basic activity with South America, Africa and the
Middle East.
* Aquitaine, Bretagne, Lorraine, Ile-de-France, Nord Pas de
Calais, Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and Rhône-Alpes.
More information: http://www.inria.fr
