Despite the fact that software premised on open standards is deeply rooted in the history of software development, it was not until recently that the open source movement garnered a critical mass and crossed the chasm to dynamically enter the mainstream business arena. Its peculiarity as a development model has stimulated interest towards many directions, most significant being how public policy is formulated in the face of ever-complex technological disruption and business turbulence. Open source demonstrates the opportunity to reap full benefit out of minimisation of costs, customisation of software to local languages and cultures, reduced dependency on imported technology and skills and, lower barriers to entry for software businesses combined with the ability to participate in a global user - oriented interdependent network. For the implications presented by this sea of change to be managed organically and flourish, as well as the development life cycle, the sense of a local community must be implanted along with coherent mechanisms to streamline the process: aggregation points (virtual roof) to provide information centred value – added services, parallel development to harness both radical and sustaining innovation and, decentralised (modular) delegation of responsibility and control to eliminate the need for scholastic control over human resources.

On these grounds, adoption of OSS at a national infrastructure level can potentially enable efficient markets to operate under rich dissemination of information which is thoroughly scrutinised within the boundaries of the global development network to ensure that all market participants are well positioned to seize benefits and keep the market highly competitive. Paradoxically, open source is the most effective win-win strategy when the issue (project under development) is so complex and has over reaching consequences for the industry that demands for collaborative synergy and knowledge which cannot be generated by a single organisation.

George N. Dafermos is a business graduate from the Hertfordshire Business School, UK. During his studies there, he undertook extensive research into Japanese management processes and operating models and this finally resulted in a primary research paper - dissertation titled Nissan UK and Japanese Management that focused on the efficiency gains of the Nissan model whilst not neglecting to shed light on its shortcomings. The paper was assessed as distinctive. In the meantime, he fulfilled all requirements for a Certificate in English, University of Cambridge, UK. 

After completion of all undergraduate duties, he participated in a Masters programme in Management at Durham Business School, UK where he majored in Information Systems and Innovation & Technology Management. It was there that he developed a strong interest in the implications of Open Source software and Open Source development (OSSD) models for public policy formulation and organization of production and economic activity. This interest gradually evolved into a thesis, originally titled Management and Virtual Decentralised Structures: The Linux Project. It was a welcomed surprise that it was assessed as distinctive, too. The paper was later published in First Monday (http://www.firstmonday.org) - a leading online journal that is concerned with the impact of emerging technologies, notably the Internet - under a revised title: Management and Virtual Decentralised Networks: The Linux Project. 

In parallel with researching the above mentioned topic, George joined the Open Source Research Community (http://opensource.mit.edu), a community of researchers that is created and fostered by the Massachusetts' Institute of Technology (MIT), USA and investigates the effect of OSSD on a diverse stream of disciplines. He remains a member and an active researcher and most importantly, feels that interacting online with others that share the same interest is quite an exciting journey. He is convinced that open source communities hold lessons that extend well beyond the limited scope of software engineering and development. On these premises, he embarked on exploring whether implementation of OS development models in other industries is likely to be fruitful and perhaps bring innovative forms of organisational designs into life. 

His academic interests are centred on novel organizational entities and how the linkages among strategy, structure and decision-making are managed in turbulent market environments that manifest network inter-dependences. In addition, he is intrigued by knowledge intensive industries galvanized by technological uncertainty and convergence, particularly the Software, Telecoms, IT services and Media industry. 

Apart from academic research, he has undertaken full-time placements and consultancy work for several organizations, the most demanding being the two years he spent with the Scorpion International Services S.A. His involvement was focused on restructuring the entire Fire Brigade Service in Greece. 

Having been given a scholarship, he is currently continuing his postgraduate studies in E-Commerce at David Goldman Informatics Centre, UK. 

George N. Dafermos can be contacted at georgedafermos@bungo.com