Open Source Adoption Index

Abstract

This paper reports the preliminary results of a study conducted to assess and quantify the adoption of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) by organisations and enterprises. While almost all organisations use FOSS in some form today, there is a wide variation in the manner and extent to which they do so, and presently no quantitative measure exists that can capture the true picture. The present work has built a model with two sets of parameters that, when fed with relevant data about an organisation, generates a single number, the FOSS Adoption Index (FAI), for that organisation. The index is so defined that the higher its value for an organisation, the greater is the extent of FOSS adoption in that organisation. Beyond the single measure FAI that gives a coarse assessment, the model also allows drilling down to finer levels of granularity that provides deeper insights into the status and role of FOSS within a given organisation. Primary data collected for two classes of organisations through questionnaire based surveys and interviews have been used to demonstrate the working of the model as well as its potential usefulness for real world situations.