About

Open Sussex is an organisation that focuses on FLOSS (Free / Libre Open Source Software).  We hope to help individuals, small businesses and other organisations with their IT, web development and software needs based on the FLOSS concept.

There are varied views on what FLOSS means.  We at Open Sussex use the term to try to create an umbrella that spans over the different philosophies in the Free Software and Open Source Software world.

At Open Sussex we feel that software should not be owned by the developer, and that once the user has the software they have the freedom to do with that software as they please.  This goes against what a lot of people are used to with regards to software, especially when it comes to Operating Systems (OS).  This is why we advocate the use of a GNU/Linux distro when it comes to the OS for your computer.

The freedoms we aspire to with regards to software and programs are as follows :

  • The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The above was taken from The Free Software Definition.

Our aim at Open Sussex is to use FLOSS to empower our clients.  We offer the following services :

  • Web Development (Application, E-commerce, Interactivity, Mapping)
  • Bespoke Software Development
  • FLOSS Consultancy
  • FLOSS Office set up
  • Tangible computing
  • Social Networking

We have over 13 years of experience within the web development and IT industry, working across the board with small to large organisations.

We use an assortment of FLOSS technologies at Open Sussex, these include :

  • Wordpress
  • MODx
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Elgg
  • GNU/Linux
  • Open Office