EXPLOITING SYNERGIES WITH SMES AND PUBLIC

ADMINISTRATIONS IN BOLZANO

Free University of Bolzano-Bozen

Gabriella DoderoOct 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 (2005-06) 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 Consortium for studying, evaluating, and supporting the introduction of Open Source supporting the introduction of Open Source software and Open Data Standards in the software and Open Data Standards in the Public AdministrationPublic Administration

www.cospa-project.org

EU FP6 funding 2004-2006EU FP6 funding 2004-2006

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