<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:p="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:powerpoint" xmlns:a="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:access" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" xmlns:b="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:publisher" xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" xmlns:c="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:component:spreadsheet" xmlns:odc="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:odc" xmlns:oa="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:activation" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:q="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:rtc="http://microsoft.com/officenet/conferencing" xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:Repl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/repl/" xmlns:mt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/meetings/" xmlns:x2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2003/xml" xmlns:ppda="http://www.passport.com/NameSpace.xsd" xmlns:ois="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/ois/" xmlns:dir="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory/" xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns:dsp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" xmlns:udc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:sub="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/2002/1/alerts/" xmlns:ec="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#" xmlns:sp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" xmlns:sps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:udcs="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/soap" xmlns:udcxf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/xmlfile" xmlns:udcp2p="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/parttopart" xmlns:wf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/workflow/" xmlns:dsss="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/digsig-setup" xmlns:dssi="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/digsig" xmlns:mdssi="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/digital-signature" xmlns:mver="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns:mrels="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships" xmlns:spwp="http://microsoft.com/sharepoint/webpartpages" xmlns:ex12t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:ex12m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" xmlns:pptsl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/SlideLibrary/" xmlns:spsl="http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/PublishedLinksService" xmlns:Z="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:" xmlns:st="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
line-height:normal;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{margin-top:1.4pt;
margin-right:0cm;
margin-bottom:1.4pt;
margin-left:0cm;
mso-line-height-alt:5.0pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
span.E-MailFormatvorlage17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.InternetLink
{mso-style-name:"Internet Link";
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 2.0cm 70.85pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=DE link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>To whom it may concern </span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Can open source development be sustainable? And if so, how? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>This question raises interest in practitioners, affects ideologically motivated developers, as well as researchers from several disciplines. Open source management challenges traditional business models and views of competition and collaboration. Therefore each stakeholder should take an interest in the way open source management works. Hence we investigate the antecedents of business model choice in the OSS industry, aiming to identify, which factors are or were influential for companies’ initial business decision regarding Open Source. We identified your company as an active member of open source collaboration and development and therefore would like to ask you to participate in this investigation.</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I am a research assistant at the Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany, and my research project discusses the implications of open source management. The main objective is analyzing key factors that drive the development of open source business models and how companies and communities can mutually benefit from collaborative development. The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. zu Knyphausen-Aufseß.</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I want to kindly ask you take part in our survey on open source business models. If you were involved in decisions on the business strategy of your company, please complete our survey. It will not take more than 10 – 15 minutes to complete. Otherwise, please forward this enquiry to your colleague(s) who are or have been in charge for your business model decision. </span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The survey can be accessed online at: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><a href="http://strategie.service.tu-berlin.de/limesurvey/index.php?sid=96753&lang=en"><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>http://strategie.service.tu-berlin.de/limesurvey/index.php?sid=96753&lang=en</span></a></span><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The anonymity of your responses is guaranteed. All data will be analyzed and published only in an aggregated form.</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>As compensation for your efforts, I would like to offer you a more detailed report on our findings. If you relinquish your anonymity, I can also provide you with a benchmark report that compares your individual answers to the overall study results.</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Further information about our research can be found at </span><span lang=EN-US><a href="http://www.oss-research.info/"><span class=InternetLink><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>http://www.oss-research.info</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I want to thank you in advance for your support.</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Yours sincerely</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph'><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Martin Heitmann</span><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>