It states that: "Open source software is an especially useful tool to allow developing countries to leapfrog into the information age"; with the major benefits including reduced software and licensing costs; a decreased dependency on imported technology and skills; easy access to data without data format barriers; and the ability to customise the software to local languages and cultures.
Open source software is available to anyone at little or no cost, it does not require proprietary licence fees, and may be freely re-distributed. It is largely error-free and resource-efficient; its security and reliability for mission-critical applications is established; it bridges the digital divide by ensuring affordable access to information and communication technologies (ICT); and it enables users to modify software to suit specific needs.
Don't burn your fingers
Regardless of how many advantages there are to argue the case for implementing an open source environment, the primary reason for government adopting open source software will be for the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness and economy of service delivery by government to its citizens.
However, if government wants to avoid burning its fingers with its ICT initiatives, both in-house and e-government, maintenance and support must be key considerations. Outsourcing its maintenance and support requirements frees government workers of a high-level technical burden, making technology implementations more cost-effective and attractive; and it presents government with technical contractors who have access to a wide and interdependent open source development environment where all developers work together to find solutions and improve the software.
Without adequate maintenance and support plans, government could find itself faced with a software infrastructure that stagnates; escalating problems as high-level issues go unresolved; and decreasing usage by staff and the population because the system does not operate effectively, if it operates at all.
The government's key drivers of efficiency and effectiveness will slowly but surely become impossible to achieve if its chosen solution is not maintained and supported.
Inappropriate internal processes
According to a white paper released by the Eastern Cape Local Government ICT Council, a stumbling block in the way of government's ICT plans is its many varied IT infrastructures spread throughout its organisation.
Each department and municipality is currently responsible for its own infrastructure. It is also a departmental responsibility to support and maintain these infrastructures.
This has created a situation where some departments have little or no technology and others have ancient technology and hardware. When departments and municipalities do have technology, the systems are often so disparate that the departments cannot establish network communications between each other.
These problems can be addressed through outsourced maintenance and support for an open source environment. Government-wide issues of departmental integration and communication become less difficult to address, budget considerations become standardised across all the departments, and a well managed open source environment can be easily extended into any other e-initiatives being planned or implemented.
The FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) factor often associated with open source can be made a non-issue with the support of open source partners. One of the most argued FUD issues rallied against open source is that there is little maintenance and support. Obviously this is not the case as a quick glance at the industry reveals the presence and accessibility of numerous companies that focus on promoting open source, and providing the highest levels of maintenance and support possible.
Outsourcing maintenance and support requirements of the open source systems will ensure that there is uniformity and commonality throughout government, while each individual department and office has software that is customised to its specific needs.
Autor: Michael Brunzlik
Quelle: Tectonic, 06.10.2004
