Our services
OSS Watch is an independent, non-advocacy service. We are experts on free and open source software, but we do not insist on it as the solution to every problem, nor are we tied to any particular solutions or providers.
For organisations using, or wanting to use, free or open source software we can provide consultancy, training and support on selection and evaluation of software, engaging with open source communities, licensing and intellectual property issues.
For organisations creating free or open source software we can provide consultancy, training and support in software licensing and intellectual property, sustainability, commercialisation and business models, and building communities
For the public sector we offer consultancy services through the G-Cloud iii procurement framework for specialist advice related to procurement of solutions relating to cloud services. For more information, see OSS Watch on G-Cloud.
If you are a UK SME you can also use our services through the Technology Strategy Board’s Innovation Vouchers scheme, as our host organisation (the University of Oxford) is a registered Knowledge Supplier.
For the University of Oxford, we offer advice and support to researchers, projects and services across the University on all aspects of free and open source software. For more information, view our service information page for the University of Oxford.
For project consortia we support building new open source communities or supporting engagement with existing communities, and to work on areas including IP management, exploitation and sustainability. We are able to join project consortia as a partner via the University of Oxford, or to contribute to the development of project proposals on a consultancy basis.
Not sure if we can help? Then please just mail us!
Our content
In addition to tailored one-on-one consultations OSS watch’s advice and guidance can come via our many and varied publications. The bulk of our published content consists of general material such as briefing notes conference reports opinion pieces and book reviews. We also publish research studies and slideshow presentations. All of this content is published here on our website under a Creative Commons licence.
We take our written outputs seriously and strive very hard to ensure that our documents are both accurate and of a consistently high quality. The extensive research we perform for these documents ensures that our other outputs such as consultations presentations workshops and conferences are of a similarly high standard. Each document is governed by our document life cycle policy which is described in The life of an OSS Watch document. As a result of this policy every document produced by OSS Watch is reviewed every 6 months throughtout its life in order to ensure consistency quality and integrity. You can be assured that everything we write is revisited regularly and so represents our current thinking.