Robin Muilwijk

I think education is key. Educating for example the procurement officers in open source and open standards. To give them an unbiased view on options and benefits of open software and standards.

EC is on the right track with those meetings and best practices. It bridges the laws and policies towards implementations.

I could add a few steps which could be important to move an open source project into business:

a) Put professional communication/pr in place. An open source project sometimes uses different channels to communicate. A customer needs a 'reliable' source of communication.

b) A roadmap could really help attract customers. It shows the 'product' has a certain direction, something the customer helps selecting the product. It also adds to 'reliability' again.

c) Add people with several important skills into your 'core team', such a project managers, leaders, community managers etc.