[Foss-sadc] <incom> LINK: Open Source in Developing Countries

[Jennifer Radloff]

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Date sent:      	Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:33:07 +0530 (IST)
From:           	"Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred at bytesforall.org>

JANUARY 2004 * SANJIVA WEERAWARANA * JIVAKA WEERATUNGA

Open Source in Developing Countries

Published by Sida 2004 Department for Infrastructure and Economic
Cooperation Author: Sanjiva Weerawarana, Jivaka Weeratunge Printed by Edita
Sverige AB, 2003 Art. no.: SIDA3460en ISBN 91-586-8613-4 This publication
can be downloaded/ordered from www.sida.se/publications

1 ExecutiveSummary

The case for a developing country to adopt an open source software (OSS)
driven Information Technology strategy is a compelling one. In a wider
context IT is about the production, flow and control of information in a
modern state and the rules which govern such activities are thus fundamental
to its economic development. Software is a driver of those rules. OSS under
these circumstances cannot be viewed as a mere product choice. It reflects
more fundamentally an alternative strategy for building, maintaining and
changing the rules that govern information flows in the economy.

To create value or wealth in a developing country economy as a matter of
pragmatic strategy it must create business opportunities for private firms,
reduce cost of IT investment in the private and/or public sectors of the
economy and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government. A
strategy map has been developed to demonstrate that OS based strategic
initiatives will create value through the key drivers of business
opportunities, reduced investment cost and greater efficiency and
effectiveness of government. These strategic initiatives which are primarily
driven by government encompass IT policy, advocacy and education, capacity
building, E-government and positioning of the country's IT industry in a
globally competitive one. The actual execution of such strategies require in
varying degrees, collaboration between government, universities and
educational institutions and private firms. It must be emphasized however
that the momentum generated by such initiatives would also result in the
emergence of market driven business opportunities, which private firms can
and must exploit. In developing such a strategic framework the risks and
opportunities faced by developing countries were considered, in addition to
which the very phenomenon of OS software, its impact on software markets,
the viability and profitability of the business model that it drives and its
long run sustainability were examined.

The reality of  the OS phenomenon today is that the majority of  the
Internet infrastructure is based on OS products including send mail, BIND,
Linux and Apache HTTPD, the latter running more than 69% of all active
websites (approximately 15 million) with Microsoft IIS coming a distant
second with less than 23% share. Similarly Linux has made a relentless
assault on the server operating systems market, and the business models
driven by this outcome demonstrate their viability and profitability. It is
still not clear whether OSS will thrive in traditional middleware
application markets as opposed to the software stack in which it is
significant, operating systems, device drivers, Internet services, basic
HTTP servers and entry Web application servers. The latter categories of
software serve well comprehended and standardizable needs. In the area of
business models OSS is associated with technical support and integration
services, add on products, priced licensed software which is inclusive of
the OSS, software subscriptions for periodic, functional and fixed updates
and custom software development contracts.

The OSS phenomenon could easily lead one to believe that it is substantially
driven by the individual motivations of highly committed software developers
on account of personal interests and the joys of programming - primarily
self actualization needs. In addressing the question of OSS sustainability
and evaluating the evidence of the motivational models which have been
developed to explain this phenomenon it appears that economic motivations of
future returns and building or creating personal brand value could have a
greater weight (considered external factors) as against internal factors
such as intrinsic motivations and altruism. Thus in [Hars 2001] it is
concluded that "the open source movement can draw from a diverse set of
motivations, a large part of which is based on external rewards. It is
poised to become a strong competitor to traditional software development".

Traditional software development generally tends to suffer from both time
and cost overruns and when it is eventually delivered its quality and
reliability can sometimes be serious issues. OSS development on the other
hand is viewed as a process by which reliable and high quality software is
produced quickly and inexpensively. The process has been associated with
parallel development rather than linear, involving large communities of
globally distributed developers (highly talented and motivated), providing
prompt feedback to user and developer contributions with truly independent
peer review, increased levels of user involvement and extremely rapid
release schedules. The substantial performance gains associated with OSS
development are the result. To avoid chaos, as there is no formal project
management, many cultural norms dictate the management of such projects. The
OSS development life cycle too is very different to the traditional one and
getting design issues right is even more critical to OSS than it is in
conventional development. This is said to explain why many OSS products are
horizontal infrastructure type ones where the requirements are generally
well defined. Both motivational and organizational models of the OSS
phenomenon serve to explain its historical development, its successes and
its future sustainability side by side with traditional development of
proprietary software products.

Many governments around the world have initiated the use of  OSS as a key
part of their strategic thrust in information technology, motivated by the
reduction in cost of IT investments they would have to make in addition to
the desire for independence, a drive for security and autonomy, and a means
to address intellectual property rights enforcement. Government software
procurement policies, which require the use of OSS particularly in the case
of most countries, which have pursued this course in the use of Linux, have
clearly been driven by the aforementioned considerations. Increased emphasis
on accountability or transparency in public sector governance has driven the
need for open public data formats. Thus the usability and maintenance of
software independent of suppliers with considerable market power and
monopolistic conditions imposed by them, and the alternative to dealing with
proprietary IP regimes in contrast with software piracy which means a
reduction of IT investment cost within a framework of compliance, are
reasons for the gathering momentum in the use of OSS in both developed and
developing countries alike. Outside of the risks which developing countries
face with alternative IT policies, the empowerment of the IT industry of a
developing country through OSS development is an important opportunity which
has been identified by many researchers and in particular Steven Weber in
his paper "open source in developing economies" [Webe 2003]. A strong case
has been made that such economies with a surplus of inexpensive technical
manpower could combine the free software tools that the OS phenomenon
provides, creating an interesting comparative advantage both in local and
global markets alike. The sentiments expressed by President Abdul Kalam in
relation to the IT industry in India, the consortium of Japan, China and
South Korea for OSS development, strategies adopted by South Africa and the
African region, point to a clear recognition of strategic opportunities that
developing countries could exploit utilizing the OSS phenomenon.

If  a comprehensive strategic approach is to be taken by developing country
governments in the pursuit of value creation in the economy through IT as
mentioned previously, the key drivers of reduced cost of IT investment,
business opportunities and the improvement in efficiency and effectiveness
of government could be driven by a strategy package of IT policy, advocacy
and education, E-government, capacity building, industry positioning and
building brand equity. The IT policy framework would naturally have many
components including government software procurement policy, which
recognizes the role of OSS in the public sector. This would also encourage
sound private sector software procurement policies, particularly the
non-investment cost related benefits of OSS in terms of capacity building
and industry positioning and the related business opportunities, which these
would give rise to. The IT policy framework would have to encompass some key
aspects, the advocacy and education strategy initiative, as without such
intervention the developing country market place would continue to be
dominated by licensed or unlicensed proprietary software as the case maybe.
Establishing OSS advocacy groups and an OSS portal are some of the action
programs which may be required in addition to the initiatives in education
which have been recommended such as OSS computer driving license,
introduction of OSS to university curricula, establishing of training
programs through professional organizations, introduction of OSS to
elementary, middle and secondary schools and the like. Increasing the
awareness of OSS as a platform and supporting the development of easier
deployment and experimentation platforms would be necessary for an effective
roll out of OSS in practice. Localization is also an area which demonstrates
the advantages of OSS in building people/community oriented applications. A
condition precedent to the success of an OS strategy is the capacity of the
local industry to implement OSS in addition to the traditional and other
capacity building measures mentioned already in the form of educational and
training programs. It is important to target capacity building through
adaptation of existing and development of new OSS products. Establishing
localization centers, sharing localization skills with other developing and
less developed countries, establishing OSS solutions and R&D centers are
some of the action programs that have been recommended in the pursuit of
building capacity and skills of the local software industry.

In positioning a local IT industry which would have good IT skills and a
reasonable infrastructure, global OSS development offers unprecedented
opportunities. The key drivers of a strategy in this area include
participation in global OS software development projects such as Apache in
the more significant areas of the software stack, the availability of the
right software development skills and a vehicle or mechanism to mobilize
such resources and an industry which has the vision and capacity to pursue
OSS based business models and exploit global opportunities arising from the
skills and brand value that would be accumulated as a result of active and
successful participation in this domain. It must be emphasized that the gap
between strategy formulation and execution can be awesome in the absence of
the right ingredients of leadership and human resources which can contend
with the domain expertise and networking abilities that are necessary. The
participation of individual software developers in developing countries in
the absence of an organized framework would largely be a hit or miss effort,
with much less potential to build brand value and the country's reputation
in the global software industry.

In the formulation and execution of  an E-government strategy the adoption
of open standards and OSS would have considerable strategic and operational
implications. In the context of limited resources the savings in investment
cost through the adoption of OSS may make the difference between actual
execution and failure, in addition to which the goals of security,
independence and transparency could be secured. The importance of a
well-conceived architecture with the development of open standards and OSS
components is an action program, which has been recommended for execution in
implementing E-government.

Donor agencies can hardly ignore the compelling reasons for interventions
necessary to assist developing countries to realize their goals and
strategies in IT, unless they are prepared to irretrievably destine these
countries to the dustbin of history. As much as IT is a key driver of
economic development in the modern world, OSS as a part of the country's IT
strategies and policies undoubtedly, if sensibly and rigorously applied,
create considerable value in the economy. The basis on which donor agencies
can target their assistance and formulate and monitor their own programs has
been addressed through the roll out of a strategy map with the
identification of the key strategic initiatives and action programs which
are necessary for the effective execution of such an initiative. The
strategy package, which is appropriate to an individual developing country
or least developed country, could be determined on the basis of a simple
analytical framework, based on the strength of IT infrastructure and skills
and the status of IT policy. Where IT policy is not stated and IT
infrastructure and skills are weak, strategic initiatives in IT policy,
advocacy and capacity building must take precedence. On the other hand if IT
infrastructure and skills are strong, the strategic thrust should be in
positioning the local IT industry within the global IT industry. If IT
policy is explicit and IT infrastructure and skills are weak, capacity
building must be the emphasis in strategy with advocacy and education
playing a supporting role. Where IT policy is explicit (and is being
executed) and IT infrastructure and skills strong, considerable short and
medium term benefits and outcomes could be expected if positioning and
E-government initiatives are both rigorously and speedily unleashed. In
addition to playing what is a critical catalytical role in economic
development while supporting OS based IT initiatives in developing
countries, the donor agencies of the developed countries should not forget
the self interest they would be serving if collaborative models between
developed and developing countries in the areas of capacity building,
E-government, development of OSS products are pursued. The OSS phenomenon
does provide some unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, which could
be significant in the dynamics of the global IT industry. Another aspect,
which donor agencies in particular would wish to address, is what OSS does
to the competitive market place for software, production and services. The
market structure and business models that have been reviewed make it
manifestly clear that the OSS phenomenon has made the market place more
competitive and provided greater choice to users, in an industry where
proprietary software products and large industry players have carved out for
themselves significant parts of territory. It is significant that OSS has
not been driven by government intervention but by the power and commitment
of individual initiatives, which have translated, into something of
significant economic impact. Individual skills and commitment to remain at
the heart of the process of software development and expert power that
underlies this has had the circumstances and the means to manifest itself.
The case for donor agency support given this situation and unprecedented
opportunities that are there for value creation in the economy through IT is
very compelling. Concepts of market distortions should not be permitted to
cloud the OSS phenomenon as it creates the very market place and competitive
dynamics that donor agencies desire to espouse.

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