The international surveys of FLOSS (free/libre open source software) firms

SONNENBERG PALMIERI; MORERO; VÉLEZ; FERNÁNDEZ

Capital Federal

Congreso; ICSB 2017 World Conference- Argentina; 2017

International Council of Small Business

The substantial growth of the software and IT services sector in Argentina during the last decade makes its study to be of great importance in terms of development. This arises not only because of the relevance of growth a knowledge-intensive sector that allow an economic emancipation of the export of agricultural commodities, but mainly because of their capacity as industrializing industry for their potential to exert cross-effects of productivity growth over other industries or firms.From their birth, the Free Software movement has transformed the software industry. The Free Software movement arose in the academic sphere (mainly, in the MIT) in the early eighties as a reaction the proprietary software production. Richard Stallman leaded this reaction, creating the GNU General Public License, a way to license software guaranteeing the freedom to use, study, share, copy and modify the software. This license imposes that further products must enjoy the same license, and it is elaborated, supported and defended by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a nonprofit institution that gives a legal framework for the FLOSS development. By the end of 1990?s, Eric Raymond stablished the technological and economical virtues of the open source development model but still allowing a business model based on proprietary software. Since their beginnings, FLOSS has challenged the business models and strategies both for SMEs and for Large Multinational Corporations.