Open Source for Small Businesses and Startups

The Jordan Open Source Association organized a three-hour workshop to introduce small start-ups to the Open Source world.

Within the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) in Jordan, the Jordan Open Source Association organized a workshop under the name 'Open Source Business Toolkit' that targeted young entrepreneurs and guided them into the adoption of Open Source software in their projects and initiatives.

The three hour workshop was held at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology on November 11th.

The president of Jordan Open Source Association, Issa Mahasneh, started with a small introduction about Open Source, including a definition of software freedom and open source methodologies.

Several benefits of Open Source were also discussed, including how companies can control the used software in their environments and escape vendor lock-in. Open Source software are also more secure of a better quality, the Open Source methodologies on the long term and in the well grown projects will mean that security issues and other bugs are fastly and easily fixed, pointed Mahasneh.

Mahasneh ended with demystifying common misconceptions about Open Source, about the open nature of this technology and lack of support.

The introduction was followed by a technical discussion conducted by Mohammad Khamash, project lead of the Jordan Open Source Association and expert in crackers' society, in which he presented some of the technical threats that users face in the case of using pirated software.

Ziad Maraqa, an attorney and expert in Intellectual Property laws and cases, led a discussion about legal risks and law infringement for companies that utilize illegally copied software. Participants agreed that more law enforcement should be required in Jordan and that Open Source software completely solves both these technical and legal threats.

Presentations about organizations that switched to proprietary software to Open Source in both Jordan and worldwide followed the coffee break.

These organizations reduced costs that were reserved for purchasing software licenses and they escaped other issues like vendor lock-in, non-continuity and proprietary formats and standards. The two sessions were presented by Issa Mahasneh and Mu'ath Isaeid.

The final part of the workshop was reserved to share personal issues of single participants and respective companies/projects and providing technical advice and support. A toolkit consisting of several Open Source software that companies can use 'on-the-fly' was provided to participants.