Free and open source software activities in European Information Society initiatives

Software has gained so much in importance in almost every sector of society that it has become a strategic societal resource. Moreover, in recent years the software market has shown signs of entering a much more volatile and vigorous period. This re-invigoration of the market is due to the emergence of F/OSS, which has made commercial in-roads in major segments of the software market. This development has led to some unrest with software and service providers and users alike, which may be the natural reaction of a high value market injected with new competitive offers. In terms of the market, F/OSS most likely will increase the competition in the software market from which positive fall-out for the consumer is to be expected. On the provider side, F/OSS creates new opportunities for software and service providers, which may be a new opportunity for the European software industry.
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/opensource/index_en.htm