The European Commission has launched the EU Open Source Solutions Catalogue (EU OSS Catalogue) today, 31 March, making it publicly accessible through the Interoperable Europe Portal.
I think it’s good that it exists. I’ve often bemoaned that there’s no easy way to find software projects, so people keep re-implementing them. Maybe having more/better lists and indexes simply of “what already exists”, lots of duplicated effort could be spared, which would be better for everyone.
The EU has funded a bunch of such little portals for various things but no one uses them. There are also portals to share code made for/by some european governments, like France, Germany, Netherlands, and some others.
So I guess the question is… Next time someone (who?) is looking for an easy way to find software projects - will they use this portal? Will they be able to even find it, and if they do, will it help them find the software they need? Will it prevent people from re-implementing software, and if it does, will it move them to support an existing project, or just not do anything at all?
Sorry, I guess that’s actually a bunch of questions :P But I’m not optimistic about the answers to them, and then my automatic next question is: I wonder how much it has cost to build this?
I think it’s good that it exists. I’ve often bemoaned that there’s no easy way to find software projects, so people keep re-implementing them. Maybe having more/better lists and indexes simply of “what already exists”, lots of duplicated effort could be spared, which would be better for everyone.
The EU has funded a bunch of such little portals for various things but no one uses them. There are also portals to share code made for/by some european governments, like France, Germany, Netherlands, and some others.
So I guess the question is… Next time someone (who?) is looking for an easy way to find software projects - will they use this portal? Will they be able to even find it, and if they do, will it help them find the software they need? Will it prevent people from re-implementing software, and if it does, will it move them to support an existing project, or just not do anything at all?
Sorry, I guess that’s actually a bunch of questions :P But I’m not optimistic about the answers to them, and then my automatic next question is: I wonder how much it has cost to build this?
I have no idea myself. The group I would like to see this would be institutions rather than the average person.