Summary
In a collaborative approach to gaining a greater knowledge of the current initiatives of energy company dealings with cyber security, the Energy Sector Security Consortium (EnergySec) has teamed with Oregon State University and the Oregon State Open Source Lab to evaluate and analyze the current role of open source software in the energy sector, other industries, academia, the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) community, and information technology policy.
Scope
This project is aimed at producing baseline data on the use of FOSS in the energy sector, especially within the area of cyber security, and producing an inventory of the knowledgeable companies and groups in this space. The aim is to build up a significant body of knowledge regarding the how and why energy companies and groups participate in FOSS, both as users and as contributors. This body of knowledge is meant to help build support for more widespread adoption of FOSS, identify best practices and solutions (especially as they relate to security, intellectual property, governance, regulatory requirements, and liability). Finally the study will consider the usefulness of open source software development methods for the energy sector to collaboratively solve shared challenges.
In order to build up a significant body of knowledge, and to span the breadth of the FOSS community and the needs of the energy sector, we will conduct 10 case studies looking at leading or influential organizations or projects in this space, the tools they use, licenses used, legal concerns or solutions, and challenges and hurdles they face or have overcome in adopting FOSS. These case studies will be analyzed and prepared as a report for publication, with the goal of identifying best practices and key challenges for the community to tackle.