Technology transfer and North-South partnerships through open source communities

Transcription

1 Technology transfer and North-South partnerships through open source communities Dr. Matthias Stürmer Member of the Board of Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open Session FOSS Smart Choice for Developing Countries at WSIS World Summit of Information Science 2013 in Geneva 1

2 Short bio Matthias Stürmer Matthias Stürmer is Manager at Ernst & Young based in Bern, Switzerland. He focuses on open source advisory, open data management, and social media governance. He studied business administration and computer science at University of Bern until 2005 and finished his doctoral dissertation at the Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation at ETH Zürich in His research focused on open source communities and firm involvement. The title of his doctoral thesis was "How Firms Make Friends: Communities in Private-Collective Innovation". He then worked for one year at Liip AG, a Swiss software company creating agile Internet solutions based on open source technologies. Matthias Stürmer is working group leader Office Interoperability of the Open Source Business Alliance, member of the board of Swiss Open System User Group /ch/open, member of the Swiss association Opendata.ch, secretary of the Swiss Parliamentarian Group for Digital Sustainability, and leader of and other open source initiatives. Since 2011 he is member of the parliament of the city of Bern. Dr. Matthias Stürmer Member of the Board of /ch/open Swiss Open Systems User Group matthias.stuermer@ch-open.ch Association /ch/open Postfach Zürich 2

3 Overview 1. My personal experience in developing countries 2. An old demand: open source in developing countries 3. Challenges and solutions how to support use of open source 3

4 2005: Linux in Peru Swiss civil service project in 2005: Open source software for teacher's seminar Previously all pirated software Use of LinEx, Linux distribution from Spain Implemented with local Linux professional Local teacher hired for open source courses Contact to local Debian community 4

5 2012: Open source in Afghanistan NATO financed workshop on Creating Awareness for the Use of OpenSource Systems in the Public Sector in Afghanistan Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Finke, Ernst-Abbe University of Applied Sciences in Germany & Sayed Jahed Hussini, Balkh University in Afghanistan Presentations on open source competence center and Swiss Federal Court open source software OpenJustitia 5

6 Overview 1. My personal experience in developing countries 2. An old demand: open source in developing countries 3. Challenges and solutions how to support use of open source 6

7 UN Millennium Development Goal 8 UN Millennium Development Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development Target 8.F: In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications 74 per cent of inhabitants of developed countries are Internet users, compared with only 26 per cent of inhabitants in developing countries. The number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2011 reached 6 billion. 7

8 An old demand: open source in developing countries Already 10 years ago researchers created a model to explain why open source software is good for developing countries: Aspects of an open source strategy for developing countries Source: Sanjiva Weerawarana and Jivaka Weeratunge Open Source in Developing Countries published by Sida 2004, Department for Infrastructure and Economic Cooperation 8

9 An old demand: open source in developing countries In Open Source Software in Developing Economies Steven Weber argues already in 2003: Open source software provides welfare gains and empowers developing country end users to customize applications for their particular needs Open source software deployment contributes to nascent local software industry, ICT capacity building, and spillover effects to other sectors. Developing country public sectors embrace open source software for the following reasons: Independence: decrease dependence on few major software vendors Cost: support and maintenance flexibly contracted Security: increased accountability and transparency in public sector Intellectual property rights: enforcement at international level 9

10 My view why open source is good for developing countries Global technology transfer between countries within the Northern and Southern hemisphere Open source used in developing countries mostly programmed in Europe and United States Example: Linux kernel Software development partnerships between community members from all over the world Gain independence, do capacity building, keep Intellectual Property Rights, provide local support services Examples: ADempiere (open source ERP and CRM) 10

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13 Overview 1. My personal experience in developing countries 2. An old demand: open source in developing countries 3. Challenges and solutions how to support use of open source 13

14 Structural challenges Why is it difficult to introduce open source? Knowhow barrier Users are used to work with Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe etc. Technical barrier Migrations to open source are technically challenging Support is not yet available locally Human-made challenges PR barrier Brands of proprietary software seem more worthful No one has been fired for buying Microsoft Vendor barrier Proprietary software vendors sell cheap versions of their products Lobbying of multinationals at international organizations Policy barrier Missing policies that demand use of open source software Other projects are more important than to legalize use of software 14

15 Non-for-profit open source competence centers Belgium CETIC - Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technologies England OSS Watch - advice and guidance on use, development, and licensing of free and open source software Finnland COSS - Centre for Open Source Software Norway Friprogsenteret - independent competence center for open source and free software Spain CENATIC - Centro Nacional de Referencia de Aplicación de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación France Adullact Association des Développeurs et des Utilisateurs de Logiciels Libres pour les Administrations et les Collectivités Territoriales South Tyrol (Italy) Department for Free Software & Open Technologies of the TIS innovation park South Tyrol Europe OFE OpenForum Europe is a not-for-profit industry organization on open source, open data, open access, standards, and procurement 15

16 Activities of open source competence centers Organization of conferences and workshops Consulting for administrations, businesses Studies and publications of open source success stories Coordination of development activities of user communities Creation of directories of open source firms and credentials Management of information platforms about open source Advocacy in government organizations and politics Source: Matthias Stürmer Organizational Structures within the Open Source Community In Workshop Proceedings Sept , 2012, Kabul/ Afghanistan Creating Awareness for the Use of OpenSource Systems in the Public Sector in Afghanistan User OSS Project Vendor OSS Project Competence Center OSS Project Vendor OSS Project User 16

17 Open source knowhow for decision makers Top management vendor-neutral brochure from Ernst & Young: Open source software in business-critical environments In English and German Content: Benefits, risks and good practices Professional application Legal aspects of open source Background information Free PDF download: /2011_OpenSourceSoftwareInBusiness-criticalEnvironments.pdf 17