Tracking the Open Source Front

Government officials around the world are engaged in the debate over the merits of using open source software (OSS) as compared to proprietary software (PS) developed by vendors who closely protect the intellectual property (IP) of their source code. Faced with serious issues of software piracy and security Asians, Latin Americans, Africans, and mid-Easterners all worry that they cannot pay intellectual property dues to developed countries (primarily the US) and be held hostage at trade treaty negotiations. Some countries, such as Germany and Taiwan, have decided to replace Windows and other commercial software products with open source applications. Other countries like Austria have renewed their commitment to commercial software for the time being, and yet others like India and the United States are straddling the fence. Here are examples of how some countries are dealing with the debate. A snapshot of nations across the world surfing the Linux and open source waves are:

South Africa

• Continent: Africa
• Population: 45 million
• Government: Republic

Policy: Favors Open Source

South Africa has recently adopted a mandate to use open source software as the default option, which encourages or requires government organizations to use OSS, wherever feasible.

Reasons cited are:

1. Reduce costs
2. Reduce reliance on foreign software and services
3. Foster local IT skills
4. Provide affordable software for individuals, enterprise and government with localized language support
5. Reduce security risks due to access to source code and extensive review
6. Provide easy public access to government data without barriers of proprietary software and data formats
7. Permit freedom to redistribute software without licensing restrictions and policing

The recommended policy mandates the government to promote “fair and impartial treatment” of open source software in procurement, create “opportunities for trial use” and take advantage of “the opportunities presented by the OSS movement to promote access to information for citizens.”

The Government Information Technology Officers Council (GITOC) is the working group on open source in the government. This group is composed primarily of government agency representatives and holds the primary responsibility for formulating the government’s open source policy.

The policy states that “the primary criteria for selecting software solutions will remain the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness and economy of service delivery by (the) government to its citizens. OSS offers significant indirect advantages. Where the direct advantages and disadvantages of OSS and PS (proprietary software) are equally strong, and where circumstances in the specific situation do not render it inappropriate, opting for OSS will be preferable.”

Like India, South Africa imports its proprietary software and finds it has comparatively little influence in the development of this software. The government expects that open source software, in contrast, will provide more flexibility. Also, the South African government recognizes the level of maturity of the OSS model and sees it as a viable alternative for software development and application. The department of Communications, Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) as well as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are leading examples of government organizations developing and using OSS based e-government applications.

CSIR of South Africa performs 10 per cent of all R&D in Africa and is very optimistic that OSS solutions will allow Africans to build solutions for their own environment and needs. Head of CSIR, Mr Sibisi says, “It is when a country or community is at the mercy of a technology provider, and powerless to determine or shape its own fate, that the situation becomes problematic and an intervention is required.”

Germany

• Continent: Europe
• Population: 82.5 million
• Government: Federal Republic

Policy: Favors Open Source

Germany has been a strong proponent of open source software as the first option, which encourages or requires government organizations to use OSS, wherever feasible.

Reasons cited are:

1. Develop local IT industry and skills
2. Reduce reliance on foreign software and services
3. Increase cost savings on purchase and maintenance of software, reducing TCO
4. Provide security, stability, flexibility and privacy
5. Create IT jobs in Germany

SuSE Linux AG, a Nuremberg-based company is a major distributor, software developer and supports organization with Linux and other open source software. SuSE, with partner IBM Germany, has aggressively gone after developing an OSS support and services market in Europe and Asia.

Walter Raizner, the country general manager for IBM Germany, said, “Linux represents freedom and flexibility. This is essential in e-government. All government organizations need more flexibility to serve their constituencies better and faster, and freedom of choice to do it at less cost to the public.”

As a recent example of city and local government transitions to OSS, the Munich City Council announced in May 2003 that it will deploy Linux and migrate 14,000 desktop and notebook computers away from Windows products to Linux. Richard Seibt, the CEO of SuSE Linux AG, said that he has interacted with the German government at various levels many times and the government clearly understands that Linux, and the application development associated with it, will create jobs in Germany and provide cost savings over proprietary software. Also, referring to SCO’s campaign to sue IBM regarding Unix intellectual property rights, Seibt stated that he is seeing “absolutely no” slowdown in its corporate Linux business and its customers are moving ahead with their plans.

China

• Continent: Asia
• Population: 1300 million
• Government: Communist State

Policy: Favors Open Source

Recently, China has emerged as one of the strongest proponents for an alternative to Microsoft products, along with being Asia’s fastest growing IT market. China has strongly endorsed open source software and has dictated that government ministries use open source software as the default option wherever feasible.

Reasons cited include:

1. Enhance security (via open source code)
2. Reduce reliance on foreign software and services
3. Reduce software piracy
4. Promote patriotism
5. Grow local software industry and skills
6. Permit freedom to redistribute software without licensing restrictions and policing
7. Increase cost savings (TCO)

Linux has already made inroads into a multitude of government ministries such as the National Ministry of Science, the ministry of Statistics and the National Labour Unit. In December 2001, the Beijing municipal government snubbed Microsoft and awarded six software contracts to Chinese vendors, including a deal for 2,000 desktop OS seats to Red Flag Linux, a state-linked Linux developer. Industry insiders concur the government’s use of open source software and that Linux is proliferating in China.

The benefits of open source software have moved government officials in China to try out the technology in a big way. Often, decisions have been made to replace Microsoft’s Windows at least in part with open source alternatives in these public sector projects.

Most Asian governments like the idea that Linux and other open source software has open “source code” - open for reading and editing. In countries like China, open source assures the leadership that their information servers don’t have insecure back doors leading straight to Washington.

The North Asia alliance formed by Japan, South Korea and China has signalled strong endorsement for open source by mandating the development of a Linux-based OS and related applications. The partnership is made up of IT associations from the three countries and has received financial backing from Korean and Chinese authorities. One official from China’s ministry of Information Industry also sits on the board of the new body, lending further weight to the pro-Linux stance of the mainland.

“We are seeing a lot of traction for Linux in the government sector, particularly in China,” said Rajnish Arora, senior program manager of enterprise servers and workstations at market research company IDC in the Asia-Pacific.

Piracy of proprietary, commercial software stands at a staggering 92 percent in China. This issue has also played into the debate in China where the use of illegal copies of software applications accounts for most of the software used by businesses and consumers. With open source, piracy is not an issue at all since most of the recognized open source software licenses allow installation on any number of machines.

United States

• Continent: North America
• Population: 291 million
• Government: Federal Republic

Policy: Neutral

Governments all over the world are taking a look at open source software and vigorously debating what it can do, where it’s being used, as well as who’s for it and against it. But it’s a mixed bag of marbles in the United States. Linux advocates the world over may have made serious inroads in official policy and practice in their respective countries, but in the US, software vendors like Microsoft and their lobbyists still rule the corridors of government. It is ironic that the US-anchored, global technology industry, epitomized by IBM, HP, and even Sun Microsystems, is among the strongest developers and promoters of OSS. Yet this same global technology industry is the top developer and promoter of proprietary software! Thanks to powerful lobbying from both sides, this dual nature is reflected at all levels of the US government as well, and results in a posture of straddling the fence on usage of open source software and in adoption of an attitude that the market will dictate what technologies will survive.

Reasons cited are:

1. Value for money (TCO)
2. Fitness for purpose (function)
3. Open source software is viewed by some as “un-American” (non-capitalistic) but by others, with equally fervent political views, as genuinely “American” (promoting freedom)

In the massive US federal government, policies on open source software are determined today on a department-by-department basis. For example, the National Weather Service (NWS), the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Defense (DoD) are extensively deploying open source software applications and infrastructure. The largest of them all, the Department of Defense, has published open source software usage guidelines, which to some extent try to level the playing field between free and commercial software, allowing the adoption of OSS as long as it can comply with the same DoD policies for commercial and government off-the-shelf (OTS) software for acquisitions, upgrades or licensing as well as meet security, evaluation and validation requirements.

At the local level, various states have introduced legislation for supporting and using open source software. But most of these bills have not fared well and have died a quiet death due to special interest lobbying by proprietary software vendors. Oregon and Texas legislators did introduce house and senate bills supporting open source software. These bills made their way to committee hearings, but the results differed significantly. Oregon’s bill, HB 2892, did not make it out of the committee. Texas’ bill, SB 1579, passed the Committee but remains pending due to unrelated scheduling problems. California and Oklahoma unsuccessfully initiated legislative mandates to use open source software. Other grass roots efforts exist in Alabama, Iowa, Utah, Hawaii and Louisiana. Rhode Island became the first state government to implement a public open source technology portal.

Various consortia and private interests are actively lobbying against legislation favoring open source software at every level of government. These lobbyists include the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Initiative for Software Choice/CompTIA, American Electronics Association and Association for Competitive Technology.

New Zealand

• Continent: Australasia
• Population: 4 million
• Government: Parliamentary Democracy

Policy: Neutral (Case-by-Case Evaluation)

The New Zealand government has recently announced (April 2003) a policy update that encourages assessment of OSS alternatives for all government agencies whenever acquisition, upgrades or re-licensing of software is being done. “Value for money” and “fitness for purpose” are the major requirements for any software and services procurement to be made by the government. This is consistent with the current government’s procurement policy and good business practice regulations.

Reasons cited are:

1. Value for money (TCO)
2. Fitness for purpose (function)
3. Interoperability
4. Security

New Zealand’s government organizations are today using both proprietary and open source software. However, there is increasing interest in public sector deployment of open source software to achieve cost savings and to improve security. One of the best examples is the use of OSS at the housing agency for the New Zealand government - “Housing New Zealand” - which is using Linux for its core applications. Many other agencies are using a combination of technologies such as the main government portal, which uses both Linux/Apache Web servers as well as Windows NT/SQL server databases. However, on the New Zealand desktop, Microsoft is the dominant player.

New Zealand is very conscious about the use of OSS in government and has recommended that OSS is a very viable alternative to commercial proprietary software, and its usage should be encouraged for e-government applications as well as when acquiring, upgrading or re-licensing any software for any government agency. The government has also made an active effort to keep its e-government website up-to-date with current information.

Peru

• Continent: South America
• Population: 28 million
• Government: Constitutional Republic

Policy: Favors Open Source

Today Peru’s Congress is debating a bill, which would require the use of open source software in government agencies. If this bill becomes law, proprietary software could only be used for government applications when there are no open source alternatives available.

Reasons cited are:

1. Enhance security (via open source code)
2. Reduce costs (TCO)
3. Reduce software piracy
4. Foster local IT skills
5. Permit freedom to redistribute software without licensing restrictions and policing

Many think of free and open source software as an enabler for the development of local software and skills. Such sentiments are reflected forcefully in the wording of Peru’s bill: freedom to use, freedom to modify, freedom to distribute and “freedom to publish without restrictions for the benefit of all humanity.”

Several Congressmen in Peru, including Edgar Villanueva, have introduced strong follow-up legislation, and say its mandate will save the country money on IT expenditures and reduce software piracy. This “all or nothing” stance has drawn opposition from critics, who argue the government has no business mandating what type of software should be used, and that the law would be counter-productive for the country’s local developers. However, with a software piracy rate of 60 percent, some members of Congress argue that using open source software whenever possible in government organizations will cut down on software piracy.

Microsoft has been a leading critic of this measure and is currently engaged in a lobbying battle to hold its ground in this market. Microsoft Peru charges that the bill would illegally thwart competition for government contracts and points to cases where the free software experiments have failed, such as Mexico’s plan to equip public schools with computers running the open source operating system Linux.