Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) Europe, the European chapter of the non profit, vendor-neutral consortium dedicated to driving the interoperability and mainstream adoption of comprehensive open solutions, announced its interim board of directors (BoD) and further details for its plan throughout Europe.

The OSA announced in January 2008 its plans to launch a global, chapter-based structure with the European chapter as its first chapter outside the United States. OSA Europe will address business users’ requirements for open solutions by federating a European open source business ecosystem, promoting interoperability and developing synergies between European software vendors.

“We are very pleased with the response we have had since announcing the European chapter,” explains Jean-Noel de Galzain, CEO Wallix. “There is a universal recognition that European open source companies have a real opportunity to play an important role in the overall software industry. To do that we need to promote our business models and work together to provide innovative and interoperable solutions to end-users.”

The European OSA has begun by electing a temporary board to govern its decision-making process as it establishes its headquarters and plans for an official launch later this year. The temporary board members include representatives from Ingres Europe, Onepoint, Openbravo, Talend and Wallix.

For the recruitment of new members to the Alliance, each EOSA board member has been allocated a geographical region:

• Josep Mitja, COO Openbravo — Southern Europe, including Italy, Spain and Portugal
• Serge Goldstein, EMEA sales manager of Ingres Europe — France, Benelux, Switzerland and Maghreb countries
• François Mero, European Sales Director, Talend — UK and the Nordic countries
• Gerald Mesaric, CEO Onepoint — Central Europe including Germany and Austria
• Jean-Noel de Galzain, CEO Wallix — General and legal enquiries

In the next few weeks, the board will decide in which European country to incorporate. At this time the competitive clusters System@tic in the Paris region of France and CENATIC in Badajoz, Spain are short listed to welcome the European organisation. Factors being considered in its choice are the attractiveness of the region and its performance in terms of innovation and dynamism.

Six initial priorities have been defined by the Alliance for immediate implementation. These are:

• Promotion and defence of interoperability as the unique standard
• Marketing, branding and European Business development for EOSA members
• Ecosystem development through software vendor, integrator & ISV recruitment
• Development of relationships with the Open Source Community
• Maintenance of relationships with other OSA chapters and global organization
• Promotion and defence of Open Source Solutions in Europe

For more information on OSA contact Christina Williams christina@pageonepr.com at Page One Public Relations.