Ministry Funding Application

Summary

A project to develop grant proposals for InnoCenter projects. The proposals would focus on the FLOSS funding available from the Norwegian Ministry of Government Administration and Reform.

Background

The Norwegian Government has established a program to develop a set of National Competency Centers for Free Software. The first center is in Drammen (http://friprog.no) and there are more centers to follow, with the next one in Tromsø.

The main purpose of the centers is to promote the use of FLOSS in public and private sectors in Norway and to motivate more software developing vendors to build knowledge and business on FLOSS.

In order to promote the creation of a portfolio of projects to promote FLOSS use the Ministry of Renewal and Administration (FAD) has put up a fund of approx 700 000 Euros to fund projects starting in 2007.

The applicants must be public bodies. Telemark County Council, the Grenland Collaboration (collaboration between 6 Municpalities) and Telemark University College has decided to apply for some funding from this project fund.

The main goal of the Telemark project is to make the Grenland region a pilot region in FLOSS use and FLOSS-based creation of ICT employment an make the results visible by using the Open Innovation Center and the National Norwegian Competency Center as instruments in distribution of the results and as the main point of contacts for open collaboration with other national or regional efforts with similar goals.

The idea is to build on the current achievements of Telemark FLOSS-based companies like eZ Systems and Frost Innovation and their GAIA Ajax Widgets. Telemark University College is working on a training offering and a new Master study in software development (Informatics) focused on FLOSS and Open Innovation.

The draft application (in Norwegian) can be downloaded here:

  Attach:2007-11-08-InnoCenter-Proposal-in-Norwegian.pdf

The proposal will be finished on November 13th.

The Applicants and Previous FLOSS-Related Efforts

Telemark Universtity College (HiT) har been working with IKT Grenland since june 2006 to adapt current educational offerings to the needs of the IKT Grenland members. These members are dominated by software development companies and the request 2 main things:

A bachelor offering recruiting the talents of the region to a software engineering study.
A future master level offering for the same talents and for international talents for the vendors involved in export of software based solution.

The work in 2006 resulted in;:

a joint marketing effort to increase the number of regional applicants to the bachelors program.
a joint development of a trainee program.
a localised version of the bachelors program in software engineering offered in Porsgrunn fraom 2008
the establishment of a joint project group to develop the Master Program.
the idea of a joint training offering in Open Innovation and FLOSS.

In the spring og 2007 there was a new joint project between the University College and IKT Grenalnd; a Market Study in Norway, Sweden and Denmark studying the market opportunities for a training offering targeted at Nordic Municipalities and businesses.

Telemark County Council co-funded the work in 2006 with Telemark University College and IKT Grenland member companies. The County Council is a key supporter of the initiative and of the regional software industry and has stated their intention to become an advanced user of Open Innovation and FLOSS. They has targeted the educational sector as a key value opportunity. The County Council are responsible for education of talents aged 16 until 19.

The Grenland Collaboration consists of 6 Municipalities in the Grenland region collaboration on some service offerings. Currently they are cooperating to develop a joint ICT strategy. Jostein Harm, previously head of administration in the Municipality of Drangedal is the project Manager for this effort. The Grenland Collaboration has also stated the intention to become a Open Innovation pioneer. IKT Grenland has developed a cooperation with the Municipality of Porsgrunn to cooperate in the education of talents aged 10 to 16. The main goal is increasing the ICT skills of future talens and the interest in how ICT is central in all new services in the society.

Overall Project Goals 2008

To make The Telemark region a leading force in use of Open Innovation, Open Source Software and Open Content by demonstrating how Open thinking and Open Tools can make Municipalities and County Councils more efficient and more capable in enhancing the services to inhabitants and the regional businesses. The main focus areas to seek value opportunities will be Municipality services in education and health.
To establish a close cooperation between the ICT Industry, Public sector ICT users and reginal educational institutions in building a high quality training offering focusing on Open Innovation Open, Open Content and Open Source Software.
To build an ecosystem with collaborative relations to the National Competency Centers for Free Software (The first located in Drammen, Norway) and to other Open Innovation pioneers in other parts of the globe based on sharing content and software (Open Funding) under Open licences.
To build *a first software based service offering and a supporting community by offering an adapted version of the Open Funding service piloted by the eZ System global ecosystem to Municipalities to make development collaboration easier and more efficient.

Sub-projects (see separate project descriptions)

Municipality Open Innovation & Open Source Workshop (MOIOS)
Corporate Open Innovation & Open Source Workshop (COIOS)
Open Funding Service & Community Building
Pilot Training Project

Timeline - Milstones

1. Training Offering

Dec. 10th : Draft content modules
Jan. 15th : Draft content for MOIOS; Introduction to the Electronic Frontier & Introduction to Open Innovation.
Febr. 15th : Updated content and cases from first MOIOS Workshop ready.
Mar. 15th : Content and cases from first COIOS Workshop ready
April 20th : First training module finished
Sept. 5th : Second training module, partly funded by participants.
Oct. 20th: Third training module 100% funded by påarticipants.

2. Strategy Workshop for Municipalities (MOIOS)

Dec. 15th : Invitation to key participants ready.
Jan 20th : First MOIS Workshop finished
Mar. 15th : Second version of MOIOS Workshop. partly fundend by participants.
May 15th : First MOIOS Workshop fully funded by participants

3. Strategy Workshop for Corporations (COIOS)

February 1st: Participant invitation finished-
1 mars : Første workshop gjennomført.
May 15th : Second COIOS Workshop finished. Partly funded by participants.
Aug. 25th: 3rd Workshop. Fully funded by participants.

4. Open Funding Service & community

Jan. 1st : First functionality specification and basic business & revenue model ready for review. Will be one of the cases used in the MOIOS & COIOS workshops and the training.
February 1st: Agreement on adaption of the eZ System Open Funding code to an independent Open Funding service.
Mar. 15th : First version ready for demos and agreements. Draft plan on how to build a community. Will be developed as case for the COIOS and MOIOS workshops.
Apr. 15th : Issues regarding funding and ownershop to code cleared. Agreement with eZ and company to organise the Open Funding service under The Open Innovation Center.
Jun. 1st: Open Funding for Municipalities ready for introduction.
Oct. 1st : Service establised with first pilots and a business model for funding ongoing service, development and branding.