A rich case-study analysis of open source software adoption by public organizations in different countries and settings. Government agencies and public organizations often consider adopting open source software (OSS) for reasons of transparency, cost, citizen access, and greater efficiency in communication and delivering services. Adopting Open Source Software offers five richly detailed real-world case studies of OSS adoption by public organizations. The authors analyze the cases and develop an overarching, conceptual framework to clarify the various enablers and inhibitors of OSS adoption in the public sector. The book provides a useful resource for policymakers, practitioners, and academics. The five cases of OSS adoption include a hospital in Ireland; an IT consortium serving all the municipalities of the province of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy; schools and public offices in the Extremadura region of Spain; the Massachusetts state government's open standards policy in the United States; and the ICT department of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The book provides a comparative analysis of these cases around the issues of motivation, strategies, technologies, economic and social aspects, and the implications for theory and practice.

Open source software has emerged as a major field of scientific inquiry across a number of disciplines. When the concept of open source began to gain mindshare in the global business community, decision makers faced a challenge: to convert hype and potential into sustainable profit and viable business models. This volume addresses this challenge through presenting some of the newest, extensively peer-reviewed research in the area.

From cloud computing to data analytics, society stores vast supplies of information through wireless networks and mobile computing. As organizations are becoming increasingly more wireless, ensuring the security and seamless function of electronic gadgets while creating a strong network is imperative. Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Network Architecture, Mobile Computing, and Data Analytics highlights the challenges associated with creating a strong network architecture in a perpetually online society. Readers will learn various methods in building a seamless mobile computing option and the most effective means of analyzing big data. This book is an important resource for information technology professionals, software developers, data analysts, graduate-level students, researchers, computer engineers, and IT specialists seeking modern information on emerging methods in data mining, information technology, and wireless networks.

We are very pleased to introduce Open Source Development, Communities and Quality. The International Conference on Open Source Systems has come to its fourth edition – OSS 2008. Now, Free, Libre, and Open Source software is by all means now one of the most relevant subjects of study in several disciplines, ranging from information technology to social sciences and including also law, business, and political sciences. There are several conference tracks devoted to open source software with several publications appearing in high quality journals and magazines. OSS 2008 has been organized with the purpose of being the reference venue for those working in this area, being the most prominent conference in this area. For this th reason OSS 2008 has been located within the frameworks of the 20 World Computer Congress, WCC 2008, in Milan, the largest event of IFIP in 2008. We believe that this conference series, and the IFIP working group it represents, can play an important role in meeting these challenges, and hope that this book will become a valuable contribution to the open source body of research.

Intelligent Decision Technologies (IDT) seeks an interchange of research on intelligent systems and intelligent technologies which enhance or improve decision making in industry, government and academia. The focus is interdisciplinary in nature, and includes research on all aspects of intelligent decision technologies, from fundamental development to the applied system. This volume represents leading research from the Second KES International Symposium on Intelligent Decision Technologies (KES IDT’10), hosted and organized by the Sellinger School of Business and Management, Loyola University Maryland, USA, in conjunction with KES International. The symposium was concerned with theory, design development, implementation, testing and evaluation of intelligent decision systems. Topics include decision making theory, intelligent agents, fuzzy logic, multi-agent systems, Bayesian networks, optimization, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, expert systems, decision support systems, geographic information systems, case-based reasoning, time series, knowledge management systems, Kansei communication, rough sets, spatial decision analysis, and multi-criteria decision analysis. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize decision making in many areas of management, healthcare, international business, finance, accounting, marketing, military applications, ecommerce, network management, crisis response, building design, information retrieval, and disaster recovery.

Open source software (free software) has emerged as a major field of scientific inquiry across a number of disciplines. When the concept of open source began to gain mindshare in the global business community, decision makers faced a challenge: to convert hype and potential into sustainable profit and viable business models. This volume addresses this challenge through presenting some of the newest, extensively peer-reviewed research in the area.

A global collection of experts in social, natural, and human sciences, with contributions from researchers and practitioners in both developing and developed countries, cover the theoretical and practical implications of FOSS technologies. While FOSS development, education, and business potentials may appear as a phenomenon for the developed world, a sizable number of developing countries have implemented FOSS policies of their own. Empirical and anecdotal evidence continues to demonstrate the potential of FOSS technologies for giving people the opportunity to participate actively in the development and shaping of their own technology, stimulating the growth of indigenous software industries, creating local jobs, and lowering technology acquisition and deployment costs.