Re: open source and government procurement

Thanks for this interesting news, Arun. I sent it on to a bunch of people
in the open data movement who would be interested.

I see that you posted a single URL twice. The document on APIs refers to
some other directives, and it would be interesting to see those.

The API document at that link is about how government agencies can
collaborate around the data they generate internally. This is a different
issue from procuring software, which is also important. Open source
software would be valuable both for software written within the government
and software purchased from vendors. Even without revealing the source
code, though, it's valuable for agencies to release their data through APIs.

Some things worry me a bit about the directive, though. It doesn't offer
any priorities, so far as I can see. Most agencies, I'm guessing, lack the
resources to do the complex work of exposing data through APIs. It's also
hard to change from various ad hoc formats in which data is stored (Excel
spreadsheets, for instance) to a format that is easy to expose through an
API. A related issue I wish the directive had taken up would be how to make
collaboration work.  Throwing data out in an API is nice, but it doesn't
change the workflow and communications patterns between agencies (or
between an agency and a company or NGO that could benefit from the data).

So the directive comes across as a somewhat imperious statement to "do
everything right now." This may have been more or less how Jeff Bezos
converted Amazon.com operations to APIs, but for an institution with the
size and historical baggage possessed by the Indian government,
implementation seems dubious.


On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 11:21 PM, Arun Mehta <[email protected]> wrote:

> As Venky was saying at a meeting of open source activists, the government
> has introduced several "open" policies, including on open standards, APIa
>
> http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Open_APIs_19May2015.pdf
> and of course on procurement,
> http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Open_APIs_19May2015.pdf
>
> Any thoughts on this? Of course big business doesn't like these policies,
> surprising they didn't intervene sooner. Or were they caught by surprise?
> Weren't there consultations first?
>
> Arun Mehta
>
>
> How open software has become a source of grief for tech majors like Cisco,
> IBM & Oracle
>
>
>
> http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47521852.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
>
> Industry bodies US-India Business Council and the Confederation of Indian
> Industry have urged the government to reconsider its push for open source
> software that will cut the cost of licensing from big companies such as
> Cisco, IBM and Oracle.
>
> In submissions to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology
> (DeitY), which were seen by ET, the two bodies suggested the government
> replace the clause on mandatory use of open software with "best-fit and
> best-value technologies ..
>
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