Understanding and Overcoming Obstacles to FOSS Implementation

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Dessi Pefeva, Internet Society – Bulgaria [email protected]

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Bulgaria quick facts

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Pilot FOSS initiatives

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Lack of government support for FOSS in public sector

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Support is seen from foreign donors – such as UNDP and EU, as well as from the local businesses and the NGO sector

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Development of e-portals – informative and interactive

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Replication of the success stories and best practices in other countries and municipalities

The UNDP projects:

Support to e-government initiatives

Objectives:    Strengthen people’s participation in local governance and generate savings in local budgets Support the European integration processes by bridging the existing “digital” divide between South-eastern European states and the European Union at large Provide new “digital opportunities” to empower communities politically, socially and economically

FOSS project components

• Migration of workstations to Linux local distribution (dual boot) • Migration to FOSS applications • training modules • development of FOSS based e-gov application

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Results from trainings on OpenOffice.org

Results from trainings of 200 municipal employees from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo on working with OpenOffice.org:

- 90% do not find any significant difference between the work with MS Office and OpenOffice.org

- 75% want to use the software localized in the country's official language - 50% have never attended a computer literacy course and do not speak any foreign languages but are working with software in English (MS Office)

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Kardjali and Vratza municipalities

 Developed portal offering interactive e-services to the citizens  No need of digital signature to use them  Initially 6 e-services for the citizens launched  High interest from citizens  Portal is developed with the support of the Bulgarian NGO sector  Replicated in five Bulgarian municipalities

• INFO OT MATERIALA KAKVO PREDLAGA PORTALA

Challenges for local e-Gov

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Convince the public administration to respond on-line to the citizens (Includes also rearrangement of business processes; political will; ambition for innovation and change, etc.)

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Convince the citizens that all their data is stored and processed securely and in accordance with the Privacy Data Protection Law

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Convince all the stakeholders in the ease and the advantages of the on-line communication

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Continuous expansion of the services offered, new features inclusion, improvements

General Obstacles and Lessons learned

 Political support needed - otherwise the processes and adoption are slowed.

 The low level of computer literacy among the municipal employees over 30 years is a serious problem for innovations. Trainings and talks with the employees are critical to ensure success.

 Poor level of English language among municipal employees – solved by the localized software  Public awareness and media coverage of the activities and the work done is of big importance. As of the specific moods in Bulgaria, organizing public awareness events with internationally known figures receives much more media attention and response.

Suggestions

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Technical support is better to be on hand

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Quick progress in improving and customizing software for e services can be made by the municipalities if they dispose with the source code of the products – money savings generated

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Localized software – this is of major importance

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Avoid aggressive approaches for adopting FOSS

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Redo testing and certification if possible

Results from trainings on Linux on Desktops

Results from trainings of 50 municipal employees from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo on working with Linux on Desktops: 1. Localized versions of the User Interface are well accepted 2. Less functionality and options provided are accepted better 3. Feel confident to work because of the lack of viruses 4. Certification motivated employees 5. Part of the employees consider working with Linux is very hard and difficult and part of them – that it is very user friendly and intuitive. The results vary on the level of computer skills and experience

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public

with other operating systems.

Poverty reduction through ICT

• Continuation of the FOSS project, faced to labour market • UNDP project, funded by Poverty reduction Trust Fund NY • 2 components of the project: – trainings – development of solution for the labour bureau directorates

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

FOSS for poverty reduction through ICT

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Trainings

• Trainings for target groups unemployed in disadvantaged social position: – orphans – elder – handicaps

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Paper

How to avoid the transformation of barriers to OSS adoption in Public Administration into barriers for regional development

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Motivation, problem area

Open Source Software as an opportunity for development Few reasons for governments to adopt OSS: • Belief that it is quick and inexpensive to implement • Belief that it can be tailored to their needs • Security issues • OSS changes the competitive landscape for government applications ...

• ...but it still faces barriers and problems.

Research approach, Methodology

Major obstacles and barriers for OSS adoption in PA: • Cost of migration from established solutions.

• The issue of budget cycles • Difficult to estimate the Total Cost of Ownership and the Return of Investment • The question of users?

who makes the decisions - IT managers or end

Research approach,Methodology

Barriers, claimed by representatives of Public Administrations

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Financial barriers – examples:

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Difficulty in establishing or estimating a final Total Cost of ownership.

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Huge costs related to marketing and increasing public awareness of OSS.

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High initial training costs required.

Research approach, Methodology

Barriers, claimed by representatives of Public Administrations

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Legal barriers

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Difficulty in signing contracts about OSS

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Pirated software

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Previous contracts

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Administrative barriers

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Lack of standartization

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Lack of branding

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Resistance to change

What is FOSS Policy?

When Governments:

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Support the usage of F/OSS software at all levels of the administration

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Put at equal positions proprietary software and Free/Open Source Software

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Stimulate usage of open standards

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Stimulate the production of local content

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Release text of laws under free licenses

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt

Thank you!

This presentation is made with OpenOffice.org Impress ©© Creative Commons – Attribution License 2.5

[email protected]

Expert Group Meeting on Open Source Software Solutions for the Public Sector in the Arab Region Cairo, Egypt