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Where is FOSS today? WITS FOSS AWARENESS EVENT September 2009 Arno Webb Programme Manager FOSS Programme Office State Information Technology Agency What is free open source software (FOSS) FOSS is typically developed through public collaboration Available to anyone (usually at little or no cost) Does not require proprietary license fees May be freely re-distributed Users also have access to the human readable version of the software called the “source code” The use, modification and redistribution of the source code is governed by rules specified in associated nonproprietary open source licenses. 2 Recent FOSS history in government 2002 Acknowledgement that FOSS is enterprose ready. Public service FOSS work group established. 2003 First survey shows little FOSS knowledge in government. Cabinet approves first strategy. Emphasis on knowledge dissemination. 2007 Current policy adopted. 3 Government policy 2007 1) The South African Government will implement FOSS unless proprietary software is demonstrated to be significantly superior. Whenever the advantages of FOSS and proprietary software are comparable FOSS will be implemented when choosing a software solution for a new project. Whenever FOSS is not implemented, then reasons must be provided in order to justify the implementation of proprietary software. 2) The South African Government will migrate current proprietary software to FOSS whenever comparable software exists. 3) All new software developed for or by the South African Government will be based on open standards, adherent to FOSS principles, and licensed using a FOSS license where possible. Migrate to FOSS FOSS, open stds based developmt 4) The South African Government will ensure all Government content and content developed using Government resources is made Open Content, unless analysis on specific content shows that proprietary licensing or confidentiality is substantially beneficial. 5) The South African Government will encourage the use of Open Content and Open Standards within South Africa. Choose FOSS Open content Promote outside govt 4 Status quo Rest of the world: Several examples, e.g. in “Study on the economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the EU.” South African government: Full migrations at Presidential National Commission, National Library Significant progress at a number of national departments (e.g. SARS), provincial departments, e.g. Limpopo Dept of Health, local governments, e.g. Ethikweni as well as SITA. 5 FOSS penetration in government Of all national departments - More than half have some FOSS implementation plans. About 25% use FOSS web servers. About 40% use FOSS in some form at the back end. At least 12% use some FOSS on desktops. 6 nd 2 and rd 3 spheres of government All provincial governments use some FOSS, mostly back end. Some government agencies, e.g. SARS, National Library make significant use of FOSS. Our biggest opportunity may be local government. Some municipalities have little or no IT infrasture. Their budget limitations should make FOSS attractive. 7 Most widely used software Distros: Red Hat, Suse, Ubuntu Groupware: Zimbra, some Kolab, Thunderbird OpenOffice.org Firefox Z-Linux on mainframe for proprietary databases Alfresco electronic content management Xmind, Freemind mind mapping Sakai elearning software Interfacing with proprietary software via Citrix, Crossover (found to be resource-intensive) 8 Global trends In our times the cost benefits of FOSS are important: “Our analysis has been performed on six organizations in different European countries. The majority of them are public bodies. The organizations have followed different types of migration on the base of their context.… Our findings show that, in almost all the cases, a transition toward open source reports of savings on the long term – costs of ownership of the software products.” 9 From a Forrester Report (USA) 87 percent of those surveyed realized the cost savings they expected from open source; 92 percent of respondents have had their quality expectations met or exceeded by open-source software. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10118123-16.html, 09/06/23) 10 Shifting focus “It used to make sense to talk about open source as a separate line item in the enterprise IT lexicon. However, open source has become such a standard way of delivering enterprise IT that maybe it's time to update the lexicon. (CNET News, 3 March 2009) 11 Challenges Commitment Support capacity Standards, policies, procedures Energetic promotion by proprietary software providers 12 Phases 2003 – 2007 Information sharing Implementation by early adopters 2007 – 2011 Build the ecosystem Generate commitment Facilitate implementation 2011 Start a comprehensive phase-in schedule 13 Current trend “Open source is furniture now: everyone has it, but perhaps they don't think about it.” (CNET News, 3 March 2009) 14 SITA's FOSS Programme Office (FPO) work areas Skills development Solution development Implementation support Decision support Planning, monitoring & assessment 15 Competency centres •GOVERNANCE ... •Control board •Boards of governor •Advisory council Governing partnership SITA PALAMA CPSI CSIR ISSA DoC DST DPSA DoE DTI Operating systems, web services database systems development platforms user training •Competency centre +/- 15 across the country Govt funding sliding from 100% to 0% over 5 years Located at SITA regional offices, academic institutions or other •National and provincial government offices •Local government •E-cooperatives •Schools •Local NGOs •Local businesses ECM GIS Groupware Education GNULinux/distros Localisation Telephony ODF/OpenOffice Database software OSS for Health OSS for social development OSS for SMMEs OSS for civil society •Delivery partnership Academic institution SMME SITA ICT corporate Science council Aid agencies of other countries •Services FOSS training FOSS support FOSS rating and development 16 THANK YOU 17