# Supporter spotlight: Simon Butler on business adoption of Reproducible Builds

DevFeed: [Supporter spotlight: Simon Butler on business adoption of Reproducible Builds](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/supporter-spotlight-simon-butler-on-business-adoption-of-reproducible-builds-34156.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://reproducible-builds.org/news/2023/08/01/supporter-spotlight-simon-butler/>)

Published: 2023-08-01T11:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [reproducible-builds.org](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/reproducible-builds-org.md>)

Topics: [reproducible builds](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/reproducible-builds.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [Internet of things](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/iot.md>)

Tags: [adoption](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/adoption.md>), [builds](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/builds.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [org](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/org.md>), [reproducible-builds](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reproducible-builds.md>), [research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research.md>), [software-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-engineering.md>), [spotlight](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/spotlight.md>)

## AI overview

This supporter spotlight interviews Simon Butler, a software engineering researcher at the University of Skövde, about a collaborative project with six Swedish businesses that use open source software. The project's paper examines the businesses' knowledge of, experience with, and perceived value of Reproducible Builds.

## Source excerpt

The Reproducible Builds project relies on several projects, supporters and sponsors for financial support, but they are also valued as ambassadors who spread the word about our project and the work that we do. This is the seventh instalment in a series featuring the projects, companies and individuals who support the Reproducible Builds project. We started this series by featuring the Civil Infrastructure Platform project, and followed this up with a post about the Ford Foundation as well as recent ones about ARDC, the Google Open Source Security Team (GOSST), Bootstrappable Builds, the F-Droid project and David A. Wheeler. Today, however, we will be talking with Simon Butler, an associate senior lecturer in the School of Informatics at the University of Skövde, where he undertakes research in software engineering that focuses on IoT and open source software, and contributes to the teaching of computer science to undergraduates. Chris: For those who have not heard of it before, can you tell us more about the School of Informatics at Skövde University? Simon: Certainly, but I may be a little long-winded. Skövde is a city in the area between the two large lakes in southern Sweden. The city is a busy place. Skövde is home to the regional hospital, some of Volvo's manufacturing facilities, two regiments of the Swedish defence force, a lot of businesses in the Swedish computer games industry, other tech companies and more. The University of Skövde is relatively small. Sweden's large land area and low population density mean that regional centres such as Skövde are important and local universities support businesses by training new staff and supporting innovation. The School of Informatics has two divisions. One focuses on teaching and researching computer games. The other division encompasses a wider range of teaching and research, including computer science, web development, computer security, network administration, data science and so on. Chris: You recently had a ope