LimeSurvey authorized partners from Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands introduced the services they offer (for example: support, installation, survey creation, customization, theme design, and training) and some of their very complex or very big survey projects done in the past.There was a hands-on demonstration of the new features of the upcoming LimeSurvey version 4, that you can already check out on https://devdemo.limesurvey.org. You can also try it out by downloading the development version from https://www.limesurvey.org/development-release. LimeSurvey 4 will be a huge step forward and will include many improvements both in the administration backend (where you will find among other features an integrated question preview and updated text editor), as well as performance improvement under the hood. Question themes, modules, and user roles are just a few of the highlights. Regarding the future development of LimeSurvey, founder and CTO Carsten Schmitz and the new CEO, Sebastian Wendrich stressed that LimeSurvey will forever remain free and open source.Details about the upcoming LimeStore were presented. LimeStore is the first place to visit when you are looking for extensions like plugins or themes. Even though LimeStore is still marked as beta, you can use it already to get access to plenty of free extensions, as well as extensions that can be unlocked by purchasing a Premium package (such as the 2-Factor-Authentication plugin developed by LimeSurvey GmbH). It will continue to grow and expand to cover the most diversified needs of the users.But besides all the fruitful discussions, interesting presentations, and insights into the further development of LimeSurvey, the LimeCon also was fun and helped to change the perspective on some issues. Did  it help? Well, there is only one way to check that - follow us on one of the following social media channels to learn about the latest developments: Facebook Twitter Instagram Reddit Mastodon Xing LinkedIn

(Source: Open Source Initiative) OSS, which essentially consists of source code, is made openly available by whoever holds the original copyright. Based on a certain license agreement, the software can be used, changed or distributed by anyone, meaning it provides the opportunity to use it freely without any restrictions. In this context, the software is usually not only developed by a core project team or company, but by anyone who wants to contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the software’s features. The consequence is a collaborative creative process that drives the product development forward in an efficient and high-quality manner. Open source projects are ultimately protected and promoted by the global non-profit Open Source Initiative. Antonym of OSS is closed source proprietary software which refers to conventionally licensed software with the licensee being very limited in the range of applications. The software’s publisher usually owns the intellectual property rights, i.e. foremost the source code copyright which restricts the use, inspection, modification and distribution of the software. This grants exclusive rights to those people willing to pay for using the software product. The Advantages This model can lead to a multitude of advantages in comparison to proprietary closed source software: The large community development base leads to an above average review rate of the source code which accelerates and improves troubleshooting/bug fixing The broad collaborative efforts generate more diverse design scopes Offers full product transparency as well as security Avoids contractual vendor lock-in for its users Avoids the necessity of having to use specific hardware to run the software Allows for anyone to propose and execute new ideas which ultimately boosts innovation effects Allows for full software customisation, from a private as well as business perspective Support is distributed among all software users’ shoulders instead of reduced to only one team or company Most or all software features can usually be used for free without having to spend a cent If the core development team or company goes out of business, the software can yet be further developed The Disadvantages Nevertheless, there may also be disadvantages about the OSS model: As OSS is freely driven by developers modifying the source code, the needs of average end users may not be fully met OSS relies on strong community support in favour of phone or chat support, the latter of which most people are used to and feel more comfortable using Among those improving the software, there may also be malicious users that may make the software vulnerable Often, OSS requires more time and effort to be able to use it Concluding Remarks Besides LimeSurvey, many well-known companies have been successful in developing popular OSS applications, e.g. Magento, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), VLC Media Player. Open source solutions combine the benefits of large scalability and low costs while unconditionally allowing every person to have access to the software in order to ensure worldwide user equality and fairness. As it’s easy to switch between vendors and test different open source software solutions for free, there is no risk of getting stuck with the “wrong” product. LimeSurvey open source software is a powerful tool which matches the functionality and performance of commercial proprietary solutions. It is thereby free of charge up to 25 responses per month with all features included. The LimeSurvey team is continuously working on great software upgrades, powerful features and user-friendly handling.  

Attention Open Source Projects! - The application period for the "Trophées du Logiciel Libre 2009" - a contest for Open Source Software - has started a few days ago! (The LimeSurvey Project won this contest in 2007 in the category 'business management' and made the first prize.) As for the previous years, the "Trophées du Libre" aims for the discovery of innovative free software around the world and will allow their development in giving recognition by international experts, a worldwide attention and some finance support. The "Trophées du Logiciel Libre" (called TL 09) will be organized in the Picardy region - France - and will recognize the free software in 8 domains: software for education, professional software for businesses, software for scientific domains, security software & system administration, software for family usage, software for art media, public sector software, innovative projects plus the jury special prize and the honor prize for, a very large project. Among all applicating projects there will be three winners per category nominated and these winners will be invited to the award ceremony to France (travel and hotel will be taken care of). The prizes are mainly money amount for the first three places of each category - starting from 500€ to 3000€. (consider the USD exchange rate and you will know this a alot of money!) The award ceremony will be taking place on the end of May 2009, the application period ends on February 15th 2009. Very good but yet unknown Open Source projects have the best chances to win this contest - Apply now!