Weak industry momentum is prompting China to re-think its open source software business strategy. This is a good time for China and others to look beyond product models based on traditional proprietary thinking, and see the wider doors of opportunity that open source software services can open.
Global information services from Silicon Valley to Silicon India.
Open source is key to IBM’s vision of computing. User empowerment is key to Microsoft’s.
Government is the largest user of software in a society. But just as importantly, it also must promote, build and protect a country’s indigenous software industry.
India is not alone in its efforts to determine the role government should play in balancing the advantages and disadvantages of open source vs proprietary software. But, because of a traditional lack of infrastructure and the availability of “discounted” proprietary packages, India faces some unique challenges in building up the strength of its local software industry.
Aruna Sundarajan is a senior IAS bureaucrat and State Secretary for Information Technology for Kerala. She has over two decades of professional experience in government. She has held key administrative positions both in the Center and the State and has been Director (Industries) and Secretary (Industries) prior to taking over as the Secretary in the Department of IT in the Government of Kerala, which she has held for the last three years. Kerala. In an interview with Alolita Sharma, she talked about open source software and the role of the government in promoting it.