Comparison Study of Free/Open Source and,Proprietary Software in an African Context

Policy-level considerations

It is difficult to resist the appeal of concepts like information 
sharing, collaboration, and freedom of knowledge -- which form the 
foundation of the free/open software movement that is taking hold across 
the globe. But in Africa, ICT is a means to an end that is most valuable 
when it supports social and economic goals, facilitating healthcare 
delivery, making small businesses more competitive, or improving 
education and government service delivery. So the African discussion of 
ICT implementation necessarily moves beyond philosophical underpinnings 
to pragmatic concerns.

After all, what is the value of computers in communities that lack clean 
water and struggle to provide basic education to their children, unless 
these computers can be integrated into strategies that will ultimately 
improve living conditions? Sustainability plans linked with the 
effective delivery of social services could make public computer labs 
worth subsidising over the long term.

Free/open source software is now enjoying widespread interest among 
government officials in Africa, and a few international companies are 
contributing to its development and pushing for its adoption across the 
continent. These efforts mostly focus on resolving the key issues 
affecting the corporate and government sectors: migration costs and 
strategies, compatibility with existing software, and availability of 
training and technical support. Some proprietary software companies are 
also working to solve important problems in public computer labs, 
especially enabling their software to run on less powerful and cheaper 
hardware, and reducing or waiving licensing costs.

But meanwhile, specific software applications (whether FOSS or 
proprietary) that could make computers more useful to local communities 
-- such as putting ICT to work to improve healthcare and education, and 
designed with cultural factors in mind -- are still missing.

If proprietary software vendors pay closer attention to the practical 
problems facing public computer labs, and build on the commitment to 
deliver on social and development goals, their value proposition for 
Africa remains high. However, the momentum in Africa is currently in 
favour of FOSS, whose supporters are riding on a growing wave of 
enthusiasm based on successes in other developing countries. FOSS 
supporters in Africa have an opportunity to capitalise on this 
enthusiasm, but need to overcome serious hurdles to translate the hype 
surrounding FOSS into tangible benefits. Above all they need to support 
communities of software developers who have the means and interest to 
develop and maintain locally relevant applications.

http://www.bridges.org/software_comparison/SoftComp_Final_24May05.pdf
http://www.bridges.org/software_comparison/SoftComp_ANNEX_Final_24May05.pdf


-- 
Richard Jobity, Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago | ph: (868) 620-5550
-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.weakblog.com
mail @ [email protected] | icq: 5183191 | aim: richjob | ym: richjob
-----------------------------------------------------------------
  "Survival lies in organization, in careful long range planning, in
consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the
scale of financing only available through joint effort and in the
political power available only through united action."

-------------------------------------------------

Visit the CIS Project on the WWW:  http://www.cis.org.tt

View the offlist archives: http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.education.cis

-------------------------------------------------

Dgroups is a joint initiative of Bellanet, DFID, Hivos, ICA, IICD, OneWorld, UNAIDS and World Bank
--- You are currently subscribed to cis as: [email protected]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-cis-221309I-T6/[email protected]