Managing Director at ASOLIF

ASOLIF is an acronym for Asociaciones de Software Libre Federadas, which in English would be something like the Spanish National Federation of Open Source Business (Trade) Associations, a non profit trade association formed by business associations from different parts of Spain. It is the main Spanish Open Source organization, with more than 200 companies.

asolif

Agustín was the first employee hire by the Federation so the main goals assigned to me by the Board were:

  • Growth of the organization to become a national entity.
  • Create programs that encourage the collaboration among companies and increase our network.
  • Position the Federation as the Open Source sector representative.

ASOLIF was born with 5 regional organizations with different level of maturity with about 60 companies. That number raised up to 9 regional associations and a little more than 200 hundred companies by 2011. As a Board position of trust, Agustín worked with two different Presidents/Boards from March 2009 to September 2011.

He led several programs and activities. Some of them are still a key part of today’s porfolio:

  • LibreCon (Libre Software World Conference) is today the main Open Source commercial event in Spain. Its first edition took place in 2010 as a natural evolution of our networking events called Encuentros ASOLIF. Watch the video of the I LibreCon.
  • Open4Job: is a national program financed by the Spanish Gov. to train unemployed in Open Source and promote their hiring. Since it started, back in 2010, it has reached employments rates above 60%, even in the worst years of the economic crisis. The training take place in several cities at the same time.

Some other programs that Agustín was in charge of were also relevant back then, like:

  • Acuerdo Atlántico: collaboration agreement among Open Source business organizations from Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina
  • Migralibre: social network among ASOLIF companies to engage with organizations in the process to migrate from proprietary to Open Source tools/platforms/tecnologies
  • ALIAL: Aplicaciones Libres para Administraciones Locales (Open Source Applications for Local Public Administrations). This collaborative project was designed to develop, share and maintain applications that every City/Town Council/Government needs, creating a market for small Open Source companies. It was published an initial guide (in Spanish), sponsored by CENATIC, as first deliverable.
  • Encuentros ASOLIF: networking events for ASOLIF companies execs and other stakeholders. The

    se events took place twice a year with 40 to 60 participants.

  • DemoLibre: commercial events to show Open Source products developed by ASOLIF companies.

III Encuentro ASOLIF

Some of the Managing Director responsibilities as managing director were:
  • Support the Board in different activities like communications, presentations, Assemblies, lobbying, etc.
  • Year to year Action Plan: design, execution and report
  • Ecosystem management. Regional associations coordination.
  • Program management.
  • Key accounts management.
  • Business Analysis.
  • Support Regional Associations business development actions.
  • Events coordination.
  • Support the Board in financial topics.
Although located in Málaga, Agustín was on the road 3 weeks out of 4. It was an exhausting but very rewarding position that allowed me to get an extensive business overview of the Open Source industry, not just in Spain but in other countries.