The lack of visibility and structured discovery options is one of the key choke points holding back European Open Source adoption. There is a thriving market of Open Source software in Europe, yet private and public procurers struggle to find suitable software, support options and success cases. All major proprietary software vendors help procurers with a catalogue of their offerings, yet with the European Open Source software market being dominated by SMEs an equivalent is missing making it difficult to understand for procurers what software is available beyond those major vendors. We propose to develop an Open Source software catalogue, providing structured information on available software, thus supporting European software businesses and public procurers. This will create visibility for EU-based open source software publishers and provide to stakeholders critical information for assessing available solutions, including adoption by private and public actors.

This idea was first developed at the European Commission Open Source Observatory (OSOR) workshop in March 2019. Such a directory was voted the most pressing and promising solution the European Commission could provide at panel 6.2 of the European Commission Open Source Beyond 2020 workshop in November 2019.

• develop mockup of eventual platform
• define data model and sources
• get commitments from key stakeholders
• build momentum for larger initiative

Task 1: Create prototype for presentation (W6-W8)

Create a mockup and prototype presentation outlining the project's objectives and benefits 

Task 2: Develop concept presentation and pitch (W6-W9)

Improve the prototype to a concept presentation and pitch to present to stakeholders.

Task 3: Create specification for required data (W8-W20)

The first objective of the project is to define the eventual data specification and sources - what type of information should be collected, how is it structured, from which sources.

• Define initial specifications based on afs.one (W10)
• Refine specifications based on stakeholder feedback (W18)
• Finalise specifications after approval of EC (W20)

Task 4: Engage stakeholders for data collection (W7-W24)

The second objective is to build a European-wide initiative with support from a wide range of stakeholders, most importantly the European Open Source business associations.

• Define group of stakeholders (W9)
• Setup meetings and calls with stakeholders (W12)
• Achieve commitment for data collection and upkeep (W24)