EXPLOITING SYNERGIES WITH SMES AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS IN BOLZANO Free University of Bolzano-Bozen Gabriella Dodero Oct 31, 2008

Three successful examples Cooperation with SMEs to create innovative model for study programmes Collaboration with Prosecutor's Office to achieve e-government and transparency Collaboration with Public Administrations around Europe to promote Open Source Software adoption‏ >>>Research, applied research, education,....

Student In Activity programme An initiative involving University, Association of Industrialists, Unions (and students!!) Approved by Italian Ministry of Labor Partially funded by European Social Fund 44 SMEs have been involved so far (and more...) Since 2003, still on-going, spans 2 programmes (Engineering and Computer Science) Awarded 2006 Best Practice of public-private synergy by Fondazione Mai-Confindustria

Student In Activity programme 2 Students achieve a Bachelor in Computer Science alternating semesters studying at University with semesters spent working in companies Their programme lasts 4 years (as opposed to 3- year Bologna programme for full-time students) Students have regular “apprentice” contracts and salary from the first year, also during semesters in University Tutoring scheme involves both academic and company tutors

Student In Activity programme 3 The SME benefits from  Hiring young and highly trained personnell  Continuous contact with University professors  Know-how transfer flow through the student The University benefits from  Continuous contact with local SMEs  Application and validation of new research models within real life situations  Media exposure  Increasing number of students (especially talented students from low income families)

Rationalising document flows within the Prosecutor's Office Best practice in e-government activities Sponsored by European Social Fund Two-year activity ( ) in strict cooperation with local branch of Ministry of Justice Pilot experience with Open Source Software

Rationalising document flows within the Prosecutor's Office 2 Three steps: Interviewing employees to capture current practices Defining specifications for IT based tool to model current document workflow Revising workflows and rationalising them by exploiting the IT based tool

Rationalising document flows within the Prosecutor's Office 3 An open source, web based solution: Provide personalised document views Optimize times and costs of complex workflows Minimize mistakes Increase transparency Increase security

The COSPA consortium Consortium for studying, evaluating, and supporting the introduction of Open Source software and Open Data Standards in the Public Administration EU FP6 funding

The COSPA project Publications, invited talks and interviews (press releases, articles) More than 20 articles in journals 45 press reviews has been released more than 30 presentations at conferences More than 2100 downloads of the first published deliverables More than 200 back-links to COSPA web site More than 1000 documents uploaded in the KB In Europe More than 100 applications to the COSPA observer programme 70 organizations accepted ODF alliance 5811 desktops migrated to OpenOffice.org Training material translated into 7 languages (Erasmus Comenius programme), COSPA Open CD Linux migration

The COSPA project 2: COSPA results PA methodology for prioritising software requirements A framework for evaluating adoption and assimilation of OSS A framework for measuring return/losses of an OSS/ODS migration A set of guidelines for helping in the migration process comprising an extensive review of more than 200 OS applications and the most known (Open) data standards A complete training course for OOo in 7 different languages Conversion tools for databases The COSPA Knowledge Base Project Data Collection Service Catalogues of OS, ODS and legacy databases

Conclusion‏ Successful research is built around cooperation with SMEs and Public Administration Key research needs to be applied in real life contexts! High return on media exposure, stronger networks with partners Exploiting synergies as best practices Achieving complementary funds from other local, national, EU programmes beyond “pure research” funding schemes