COIN-OR stands for the Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research. The stated goal of the COIN-OR project is "to create for mathematical software what the open literature is for mathematical theory." The open literature (e.g., a research journal) provides the OR community with a peer-review process and an archive. Papers in operations research journals on mathematical theory often contain supporting numerical results from computational studies. The software implementations, models, and data used to produce the numerical results are typically not published. The status quo impeded researchers needing to reproducecomputational results, make fair comparisons, and extend the state of the art. The success of Linux, Apache, and other projects popularized the open-source model of software development and distribution. A group at IBM Research proposed open source as an analogous yet viable means to "publish" software, models, and data. COIN-OR was conceived as an initiative to promote open-source in thecomputational Operations Research community and to provide the on-line resources and hosting services required to enable others to run their own open-source software projects. The COIN-OR website was launched as an experiment in 2000, in conjunction with 17th International Symposium on Math Programming in Atlanta, Georgia. In the year 2007, COIN-OR had 25 application projects, including tools for linear programming (e.g., COIN-OR CLP), nonlinear programming (e.g., IPOPT), integer programming (e.g., CBC, Bcp and COIN-OR SYMPHONY) and more. COIN-OR is hosted by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, and run by the educational, non-profit COIN-OR Foundation.

There are evidences that enterprises find difficulties in understanding how to make business with Open Source. Anyhow Open Source is recognized as a new frontier for innovation. The stock market, on its side, seems to reward companies that succeeds in clearly define their Open Source Business Model, indicating how they will generate value in the near future. (read more...)