I’ve been talking about the rise of popularity of Open Source software for a while now. With the beginning of the Open Source Census project there may finally be more hard data to back up the idea that Open Source popularity is on the rise. The Census is designed to gather real data on Open Source software use submitted anonymously by users.

The Open Source Census is global in scope, and collects data from any platform. All Open Source software users have to do is go to the census site, OSSCensus, and follow instructions for the platform they use. The data on their Open Source programs will then be anonymously collected an added to the census data.

the site works by putting a small program on your machine. This program gathers data on Open Source programs you download, and how you use them (personal or business use), as well as information on your location and other facts. You can use the site completely anonymously, or you can register a user name and gain the ability to see your own data reports. Registration does not eliminate anonymity – your data remains private to you, and you remain anonymous to everyone else.

The Census site is the brain child of OpenLogic, a company that offer open source deployment management tools. The idea is one that will be helpful in getting momentum under the OpenSource movement. Finally being able to point to data and see how governments, companies, individuals and schools are using the OpenSource software will help OpenSource advocates convince more people to make the switch.

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Entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 10:19 am under Open source.

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