technology transfer and north-south partnerships through open source communities
DESCRIPTION
Open source communities present a unique opportunity to foster global technology transfer between countries within the Northern and Southern hemisphere and build partnerships between developers and other community members from all over the world. Thus, open source supports efforts to decrease the Digital Divide between developed and developing countries and strengthens vendor-independence of all governments.TRANSCRIPT
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Technology transfer and North-South partnerships through open source communities
Dr. Matthias StürmerMember of the Board of Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open
Session “FOSS Smart Choice for Developing Countries” atWSIS World Summit of Information Science 2013 in Geneva
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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 2009.
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 www.opensource.ch and other open source initiatives.
Since 2011 he is member of the parliament of the city of Bern.
Short bio Matthias Stürmer
Dr. Matthias Stürmer
Member of the Board of /ch/openSwiss Open Systems User Group
[email protected]+41 76 368 81 65
Association /ch/openPostfach 23228033 Zürich
www.ch-open.ch
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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
Overview
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2005: Linux in Peru
Swiss civil service project in 2005: Open source software for teacher's seminarPreviously all pirated softwareUse of LinEx, Linux distribution from SpainImplemented with local Linux professionalLocal teacher hired for open source coursesContact to local Debian community
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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 sourcecompetence center and Swiss Federal Court open source software OpenJustitia
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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
Overview
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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 communications74 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.
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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 forInfrastructure and Economic Cooperation
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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 needsOpen 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 vendorsCost: support and maintenance flexibly contractedSecurity: increased accountability and transparency in public sectorIntellectual property rights: enforcement at international level
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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 StatesExample: 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 servicesExamples: ADempiere (open source ERP and CRM)
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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
Overview
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Why is it difficult to introduce open source?
Knowhow barrierUsers are used to work with Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe etc.
Technical barrierMigrations to open source are technically challengingSupport is not yet available locally
PR barrierBrands of proprietary software seem more worthful„No one has been fired for buying Microsoft“
Vendor barrierProprietary software vendors sell cheap versions of their productsLobbying of multinationals at international organizations
Policy barrierMissing policies that demand use of open source softwareOther projects are more important than to legalize use of software
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Non-for-profit open source competence centers
BelgiumCETIC - Centre of Excellence in Information and Communication Technologies
FinnlandCOSS - Centre for Open Source Software
SpainCENATIC - Centro Nacional de Referencia de Aplicación de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación
EnglandOSS Watch - advice and guidance on use, development, and licensing of free and open source software
NorwayFriprogsenteret - independent competence center for open source and free software
FranceAdullact – 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
EuropeOFE – OpenForum Europe is a not-for-profit industry organization on open source, open data, open access, standards, and procurement
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Activities of open source competence centers
Organization of conferences and workshopsConsulting for administrations, businessesStudies and publications of open source success storiesCoordination of development activities of user communitiesCreation of directories of open source firms and credentialsManagement of information platforms about open sourceAdvocacy in government organizations and politics
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UserSource:
Matthias Stürmer „Organizational Structures within the Open Source Community“
In Workshop Proceedings Sept. 15-17, 2012, Kabul/ Afghanistan „Creating Awareness for the Use of OpenSource Systems in the Public Sector in Afghanistan“
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Open source knowhow for decision makers
Top management vendor-neutral brochure from Ernst & Young: Open source software in business-critical environmentsIn English and GermanContent:
Benefits, risks and good practicesProfessional applicationLegal aspects of open sourceBackground information
Free PDF download:
http://www.opensource.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/opensource.ch/knowhow/2011_OpenSourceSoftwareInBusiness-criticalEnvironments.pdf