Open Source Brainstorming Repository

One downside of a lot of brainstorming activity is that once a path is chosen, the unused ideas are often abandoned or forgotten.

Open source software is in keeping with European goals for free software development and deployment, and the model for collaborative research and development there is particularly strong. Although preference is often given in business tenders to certain vendors with mostly proprietary software at national and international levels, the outlook for open source in Europe is rosy. It is more mature and popular there than elsewhere else and has plenty of take-up.

Thanks partly to collaborative brainstorming.

One positive sign is the Open Source Observatory, launched in 2003. The observatory sees itself as a ‘clearinghouse’ for information on the use of open-source software by public administrations in Europe. Another is the Commission’s Good Practice Framework which documents many European cases using open source.

That one move could become an 'open source brainstorming' model for others to adopt.