Perceptions and Uptake of Open Source in Swedish Organisations

There are many different ways in which Open Source ideas can be adopted by business, and influence the way in which companies do business. A number of different surveys have been conducted in different countries with the purpose of understanding the state of practice with respect to Open Source in companies. A number of different business models have been observed, ranging from the use of Open Source infrastructure products to basing a company’s entire business model on Open Source. In this paper we report on a study of the perceptions of Open Source and the uptake of open source products and development models in Swedish companies. We investigate this from the standpoint of stakeholders in those companies which have an expressed interest in Open Source, allowing a more in-depth analysis of the extent to which Open Source has influenced business thinking. From our analysis we find that uptake is much higher than reported in earlier studies, but is still concentrated in SMEs, consistent with the findings of previous studies. There is increased evidence of interest beyond the simple use of OS components at the (LAMP) infrastructure level. In particular, a significant proportion of the companies are in a symbiotic relationship with the OS community, supporting both through participation in existing projects and the release of new software under OS licences.