Call for Vietnamese Companies

FOSS Bridge "EU-Vietnam" is pleased to inform you that we are now accepting applications of Vietnamese companies interested in teaming up with European FOSS-companies for joint software projects!

What are the goals of FOSS Bridge "EU-Vietnam"

The main goal of FOSS Bridge "EU-Vietnam" is to strengthen Southeast Asian software industries and boosting co-operation with Europe through innovative collaboration on free and open source software (FOSS) and business development. This is achieved through three specific objectives: 

• Enabling intermediary from the Vietnamese IT-sector to spread key knowledge on how to conduct business with free and open source software.
• Foster a Vietnamese software industry capable to providing localized FOSS applications and services to government and businesses – with SMEs serving as a national driver of technological innovation.
• Developing business partnerships between software players in Asia and Europe in order to grow mutual business activities and foster regional and international networking.

What can I gain from FOSS Bridge "EU-Vietnam" as a Vietnamese IT company

You will have the unique and significant opportunity to:

• Get special training conducted by FOSS professionals from European countries
  
• Get the chance to work jointly in an Open Source project with European partners and expanding the network of business activities in Asia and Europe
  
• Obtain direct access to high-quality FOSS-companies in Europe who are working in similar technical fields to you
  
• Obtain contributions to your projects and your open source code base
  

In which field of FOSS applications and services can I team up with a European company?

Our European partner companies mostly seek co-operation in the following technical fields:

• J2EE;
• Service Oriented Architect. & Enterprise Service Bus;
• Web Portal
• Portlets, CMS
• Business Intelligence
• E-government systems
  
  However, all other fields of FOSS-development are of potential interest. Please apply and propose your speciality - we will try our best to find a good partner for you.

How can I contribute?

You may contribute to all of the main actions as follows:

• Sending the team to the training about the FOSS regulations, business models and technological solutions, then disseminate the knowledge among the community as agreed with the project organizers.
•  Actively joining the selected IT-SMEs training through twinning between Europe and Asia: developers and managers from both regions will co-operate on joint software projects, thereby improving the sharing of technological know-how and exchanging of best practices and development of joint business.
•  Actively contributing to network building of key players of free and open source software (FOSS): Vietnamese and European SMEs will be enabled to work collaboratively on FOSS software through virtual networks and contribute to a sustainable FOSS ecosystem involving multiple stakeholders and networks from Europe and Asia.
  

Am I eligible?

First of all, you should be a Vietnamese small and medium sized company in the IT industry interested in expanding your business in Free/Open Source Software (FOSS).
 Also, you should ideally fulfil the following criteria:

• You should be a small ormedium sized company registered in Vietnam
• You should have a minimum number of 5 developers/FOSS-experts and at least one developer/FOSS-expert with excellent speaking and writing skills in English
• Your staff involved should be fluent in English
• You should belong to an active community or FOSS network (advantage)
• You should have experience in online collaborative work and tools, if possible in a multicultural environment
• Consistency of the participation to FOSS-Bridge "EU-Vietnam" with an existing business strategy of your company for internationalization (advantage)
• Experience in handling or working in a similar project (advantage)
  

How do I apply and find a partner?

It's easy:

What are the next steps, dates and deadlines?

• Deadline for pre-registration: August 15th, 2007 - Deadline postponed to August 31th!
  
• Deadline for company profile : August 20th, 2007 - Deadline postponed to August 31th!
• Full registration, selection and online matchmaking: until beginning of September 2007
• Start of online Collaboration : September 2007 until mid 2009
• First face to face workshop in Vietnam: mid November 2007 (nov. 12nd to nov. 16th)
  
• Second face to face workshop in Vietnam: mid 2008
  

What we are not looking for:

The FOSS-Bridge "EU-Vietnam" project is not about:

• Outsourcing: our aim is to foster Southeast Asian software industries and boosting co-operation with Europe through innovative collaboration on FOSS business development. We therefore seek to establish co-operation between companies, nurtured equally by both sides and  beneficial to customers in both countries - to build a bridge. We believe that FOSS provides a suitable system for business models which go beyond outsourcing towards such win-win-scenarios.
• Pure sales channel in Vietnam: our aim is to build equal partnerships between European and Vietnamese companies, which are mutually beneficial and which go beyond pure sales channels towards joint development, servicing and business strategies serving local and global markets.
• Academic partnerships: while we appreciate that many FOSS projects are hosted by and driven through academic organizations, we are looking for opportunities for companies to engage in collaboration. However spin-off/service companies of projects and consortia of freelance developers are welcome