[Fsf-friends] Free and Open Source Software: A Blind Alley for Developing Countries? [With a comment added by FN]

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

COMMENT ADDED BY FN: 

[A rather dismissive paper of Free/Libre and Open Source Software in
the so-called 'developing countries'. Needless to say the "interest in
the 'e-development' community" is often out of touch with reality, and
what developers are doing at the grassroots. It's often based on hype.
But that doesn't mean FLOSS is ineffective!

The "5% of computer systems" overlooks the role played by FLOSS in
servers, in keeping the Internet running, in giving unprecedented
access to developers of the Third World to take part in a global
movement, and more. 

By saying "proprietorial software is free" for the bulk of the
'developing' world, the study is guilty of both tolerating/encouraging
the illegally copying of software ('piracy' is a loaded term,
unfortunately accepted by academia too) and missing the essence of what
Free Software is all about (offering the freedom to be used, copied,
studied, modified and redistributed). We are not fighting just for the
right to remain 'pirates'...

By focussing on Africa, the report probably overlooks the benefits
flowing to other 'developing' countries from FLOSS. Including countries
like India, China, Brazil, South Africa and a whole lot of other
nations located in an intermediate stage of 'development'. 

Whatever the latest fashion among the development network, FLOSS will
probably just continue to make its impact. Significantly, it's growth
till now went largely unnoticed by academia, and researchers, till the
media-blitz post 1998. --FN]

PS: A more detailed and realistic, in my view, study can be found at
http://www.maailma.kaapeli.fi/FLOSSReport1.0.html (this poster had a
role to play in part of the Maailma report).]

-- 
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 _/ Frederick Noronha | Independent Journalist | Ph 832.2409490
 _/ 784 Saligao 403511 Goa India | fred at bytesforall.org
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http://www.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/dig/briefings.htm
eDevelopment Briefing No. 1
Development Informatics Group, University of Manchester

Free and Open Source Software:
A Blind Alley for Developing Countries?

There is considerable interest in the "e-development" community about
FOSS: free and open source software. It is argued to be cheaper and more
customisable than proprietary software; it is argued to be a potential
kick-starter for the local IT industry; it merits a mention in the WSIS
Plan of Action. So what is its likely trajectory?

We can turn first to historical evidence because we have been here
before. In the 1980s, "shareware" – FOSS' forerunner – was a temporary
source of excitement for exactly the same reasons; even attracting the
attention of the World Bank. Yet the developmental equation for
shareware was "Impact = Zero".

What of the evidence today? A recent survey on our eGovernment for
Development Information Exchange plus survey data from Africai suggest
at most 5% of computer systems in developing countries have any open
source software running on them, and that is almost entirely represented
by Linux. Even in Cuba, where the US embargo should make conditions
highly propitious, proprietary software dominatesii.

Because of piracy and the limited size of initial purchase price within
total cost of software ownership, there is no clear, general evidence of
FOSS delivering cost savings. Because, by and large, FOSS means Linux,
the benefits of customisation and IT industry kick-start are also
nebulous.

The lack of strong evidence of FOSS benefits helps explain its lack of
success vis-a-vis proprietary products. In particular, proprietary
software may not be open source but it is certainly free for the great
majority of developing country users, thanks to piracy. Other key
factors uncovered include:

      * Lack of awareness of FOSS: the African evidence suggests most IT
        managers simply don't know about it.
        
      * Poor international links: to work effectively with open source
        code you need to be part of an active, global community of
        like-minded developers; links to such communities from
        developing countries are weak.
        
Donors have moved in with interventions to support FOSS, as recently
seen in Tanzania with the development of Jambo Office. Yet such efforts
are found to make little impact. To date, they have been amateurish;
focusing on the techies who write the code, and failing to introduce a
business focus that would draw in needed market research, marketing,
distribution and support skills. As so often, too, donor FOSS projects
have been short-terms flares of interest rather than the required
sustained efforts. They are no match for proprietary firms who are in
for the long-haul, and who will use the carrot of low pricing and the
stick of anti-piracy actions to achieve their aims.

Even the potential "backfire" of anti-piracy actions, leading
organisations to abandon their pirated proprietary products and adopt
FOSS instead, seems exaggerated. Microsoft and the Indonesian police
recently launched a crackdown on cybercafesiii. As could be predicted,
many owners changed over to FOSS. However, users then stopped coming to
those cybercafes because of their unfamiliarity with the software. Soon
after, the pirated products were back in place.

FOSS' trajectory, then, is intimately bound up to proprietary software,
especially Microsoft products. At best, FOSS looks like a lever to
extract concessions from Microsoft and similar vendors. In its present
state, FOSS will remain a marginal activity that does not deliver on its
development promise and that is no match for the enduring power and
business acumen of major proprietary players.

                                             Richard Heeks, October 2005
                                          richard.heeks at manchester.ac.uk
                     www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/is/index.htm

i Kamuzora, F. & Baruch, J. (2005) 'Contextualising the challenges of
free and open source software adoption in African countries', UK DSA
conference, Connecting People and Places, Open University, 7-9 Sept

ii Mitra, A., Garcia, A. & Somoza, A. (2005) 'Imperatives of free and
open source software in Cuban development', UK DSA conference,
Connecting People and Places, Open University, 7-9 Sept

iii Robinson, A. (2005) 'Square pegs for round holes?', UK DSA
conference, Connecting People and Places, Open University, 7-9 Sept