El software open source: un modelo de organizaciòn social para el desarollo"

In the new information revolution software has become a strategic industrial field, of enormous economic value. Software is also a symbol of post-industrial society, where knowledge is worth more than material goods. The growing importance of software in technologies and products seemed to herald a “global renaissance” based on more equal development. Today production, diffusion and use of software open source (the source code must be available), could be viewed as an opportunity to solve some tensions between commodification and cooperation in a context of responsible and socially oriented technological development . This way of developing software is neither the result of market nor public intervention, but the result of a process of mutual and social cooperation. In my paper the social and economic implications of production and use of open source software in business and public administration will be considered with particular reference to Italian projects. Firstly I’ll explain on the basis of statistics characteristics peculiar to the economic laws which regulate production and duplication of software which favour industries and countries with a more developed economy. Secondly I’ll analyse this new form of software development from a social standpoint. My work runs parallel to other research on non-profit organizations, social services and local development, which considers a new way of production that conjugates economy, ethics and solidarity. Thirdly I’ll explain quality, reliability and security of proprietary and open source software. Due to its model of production the quality and reliability of open source software are not lower than those of proprietary software while thanks to its transparency security is greater, therefore ideally suited to a public system . The advantage for Ict for the national and local industries and for sustainable development are also analysed using empirical research and case studies.