Lessons learned from the adoption of open source software

Adopting and assimilating innovation in the Public Sector is a multi-faceted process that involves a large and heterogeneous population of employees. As traditional vendor support is not ensured, managers need to implement strategies to champion OSS within their public organization. Individual factors and political machinations also play vital roles in this process. In this article, the authors present a comparison of management decisions and actions that have determined the success or failure of the OSS adoption process in five real world cases. The lessons learned would readily transfer to other innovation contexts, such as open innovation, more generally.