README.md

Why AFS.one?

We wanted to create a collaborative repository highlighting success cases of Enterprise Free Software Publishers with a focus on those companies that actually create it and a bias towards real Free software - software that users can actually modify, fix, improve or share.

The resulting repository can be accessed here: http://www.afs.one

Target Audience are Enterprises willing to implement Free Software with all the warranties and long term commitment provided by a Commercial Software Publisher.

The idea of AFS was not create yet another directory of Open Source/Free Software such as freecode or another guide of supposed Open Source Software, that uses the term "Open Source" as a marketing argument to promote proprietory software that cannot be modified, fixed, improved or shared.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure that Enterprises can take control of their IT through Free Software and reduce their risks thanks to this model of publishing.

How to contribute?

Submit pull requests following the JSON scheme described below.

JSON Schema

All JSON text entries must use UTF-8 encoding.

Each publisher has a single JSON file with straightforward properties. Notable properties::

• country: origin country of the publisher (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
• presence: countries the publisher has a presense (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
• source_code_download: link to an archive with all source code available under a Free Software license
• source_code_profile: link to the openhub source code profile
• commercial_support: link to a page describing the type of commerical support provided for the respective Free Software (empty if commercial support is only available for another (version of the) software than the one that can be downloaded using source_code_download).
• wikipedia_url: link to the wikipedia page of the Free Software
• language: the language of a success case (ISO 639-1)

The full JSON schema is here:

{
        "title": <<company title>>,
        "logo": <<url to company logo>>,
        "country": <<origin country of the publishe>>,
        "presence": <<countries the publisher has a presense, e.g. ["us", "gb"]>>,
        "website": <<url to company website>>,
        "founded_year": <<year company was founded>>,
        "kpi_dict": {
          "2018": {
            "staff": <<staff 2018>>,
            "earnings": <<earnings 2018>>,
            "total_assets": <<total assets 2018>>,
            "revenues": <<revenues 2018>>,
            "public_source": <<data from a publicly accessible source>>
          },
          "2017": {
            "staff": "",
            "earnings": "",
            "total_assets": "",
            "revenues": "",
            "public_source": ""
          },
          "2016": {
            "staff": "",
            "earnings": "",
            "total_assets": "",
            "revenues": "",
            "public_source": ""
          }
        },
        "free_software_list": [{
                "title": <<software title>>,
                "logo": <<url to software logo>>,
                "website": <<software website>>,
                "category_list": <<list of categories, e.g. ["Developer", "Communication"]>>,
                "source_code_download": <<link to an archive with all source code>>,
                "source_code_profile": <<link to openhub source code profile>>,
                "commercial_support": <<link to a resource/page describing the type of commerical support provided>>,
                "wikipedia_url": <<link to the wikipedia page of the Free Software>>,
                "success_case_list": [{
                        "title": <<title of success case>>,
                        "description": <<description of success case>>,
  						"image": <<url to screenshot of success case>>,
                        "industry": <<industry, this success case is from>>,
  						"customer": <<name of client/customer>>,
                        "country": <<country of origin of customer>>,
                        "language": <<language of success case>>,
                        "url": <<url to success case>>
                }, {
                        <<...next success case...>>
                }]
        }, {
          <<... next Free Software ...>>
        }]
}

Software Categories

Free Software is categorized using the following terms:

• Communication (email, chat, videoconferencing, etc.)
• Database (SQL, NoSQL, etc.)
• Application (ERP, CRM, e-commerce, project management, etc.)
• Analytics (big data, machine learning, data visualisation, etc.)
• Developer (text editor, IDE, frameworks)
• Gis (map editor, map visualisation)
• Desktop (desktop operating system, desktop web browser, desktop VM, etc.)
• Mobile (mobile operating system, mobile web browser, mobile VM, etc.)
• Middleware (ESP, ETL, ELT, etc.)
• Infrastructure (public cloud, private cloud, software defined network, hyperconverged OS, IOT management)

The following industries are used to categorize success cases:

• Aerospace
• Appliances
• Commerce
• Construction
• Entertainment
• Finance
• Housing
• Insurance
• Life Sciences
• Manufacturing
• Media
• Public Administration & Government
• Research
• Retail
• Software
• Telecommunication
• Tolling
• Tourism
• Travel
• Transport
• Web

Categories have been chosen on purpose taking into account the increaing convergence in IT:

• application convergence (ERP, CRM, Web, Project, Big Data)
• infrastructure convergence (server OS, networking, routing, hyperconverged OS)
• desktop convergence (desktop OS, web browser, VM)
• mobile convergence (mobile OS, mobile browser, VM)
• middleware (ESB, ETL, etc.)

The difference between application and communication, for example, is that application is intended to be primarily persistent and communication is not. Online messaging can thus be considered in some cases as communication (such as SMTP email) and in other cases as application (such as in a CRM).