OStatic

The tech community moves one step closer to a clearer picture of just how widespread the use of open source software is with today's launch of the Open Source Census by software vendor OpenLogic.

The Open Source Census bills itself as "the first collaborative, global project to count the number of installations for each open source software package." What can we hope to learn from the information collected? Apparently, quite a lot.

The plan is to anonymously collect quantitative data on what types and how much open source software is used in the enterprise. The aggregated data "...is not a one-shot thing," Kim Weins, senior vice president of marketing for OpenLogic, told LinuxInsider. "We will issue reports on a quarterly basis. We also have talked to some proprietary vendors and expect them to sign on as survey sponsors at some point."

Sponsors of the project include O'Reilly Media, Open Solutions Alliance, the Open Source Business Foundation, and CollabNet, with more expected to sign on in the future. Businesses are encouraged to join in the census by contributing scan reports which are easily obtained by registering anonymously and downloading a census tool that will read the necessary data. Businesses that contribute at least one scan are eligible to receive reports about their machines as well as inventory and benchmark reports.

According to Matt Lawton, Program Director, Open Source Software Business Strategies at IDC. "Open source software continues to grow in deployment, but until now the industry has relied on downloads or best guesses from enterprises as a rough measure of adoption. The Open Source Census will provide the industry with much more granular information about where downloads are being installed, enabling both customers and IT solution providers to better understand the true impact that open source software is having."

There's little doubt that a tremendous amount of valuable information will be collected with this census project. What things do you think the open source community should do with the data? How will it help further our goals?

• census
• openlogic