Dear GKD Members,
It is hard to know what to make of this admittedly brief "briefing" by
Heeks, but clearly it is meant to have some wider significance since it
has been announced hither and yon so it is worth taking a closer look
at.
Notably it is addressed to the "'e-development' community", presumably
those who are knowledgeable and interested in the overall strategies and
practices related to the application of ICTs for Development. But
precisely who that might be is left unstated and that in itself is a bit
of a puzzle. Is the statement addressed to on-the-ground practitioners
who presumably are themselves making practical decisions whether to go
with FOSS or without but who are unlikely ever to take a look at a
"Briefing" issued by the Development Informatics Group of the IDPM of
the University of Manchester.
Is the briefing addressed to the ICT4D programming and project design
and development group, who seem for a variety of reasons, at least based
on the reaction to date to Heeks' note, rather unwelcoming of this
position.
Is the briefing addressed to the policy makers in countries such as
Brazil or India where very very serious attention is being paid to Open
Source for reasons that don't figure very tellingly in the Briefing Note
i.e. as an element in a broader IT AND Economic Development srategy. The
presentation of somewhat suspect ("A recent survey on our eGovernment
for Development Information Exchange") and a reference to "a survey in
Africa", which at least on my machine I can't open, is hardly likely to
be of much weight in influencing what I assume are quite serious policy
and strategic analyses from what are emerging as major players in the
ICT game overall and not just in ICT4D.
Or is the briefing addressed to the funders of ICT4D projects, which is
where I suspect it is in fact addressed. One whole paragraph out of
eight (and the longest to boot) is specifically, if indirectly addressed
to funders..."Donors have moved in..." That being said, the intent would
seem to be to undermine donor support for FOSS initiatives.
But I'd also like to address the overall way in which the argument is
framed. Several years ago when I was working on Cape Breton Island,
Nova Scotia we were presented with a challenge...how do we enable local
economic development using ICTs given that the other of the elements in
the local economy had collapsed and nothing much else seemed to be on
the horizon.
In fact, rationally, (and I think this would be Heeks' position) we
couldn't really enable local economic development with ICTs... The local
cost structure was too high, the local skill base to shallow, there was
a lacking in political will or sufficient numbers to exert useful
influence. If we had approached economic development based on what
people already knew; what people were already doing; a "survey" of
current practices, expectations and identified opportunities we would
not have even started.
Our recommendations should have been to abandon the project and the
Island and move everybody to the mainland where the delivery of welfare
services could have been done more cost-effectively... So the choice was
fairly stark, do we abandon these efforts (and by implication a 300 year
old extremely vital and creative settlement) or do we deny the "default"
position and attempt to figure out how to make it work because basically
there was no other choice.
I see Heeks' argument as rather parallel to the one above... Heeks is
arguing that it isn't being done, so it can't be done, so it shouldn't
be done, so it doesn't need to be done...Hmmm...
What I see the FOSS people as saying (and I really don't have any
evidence of the merits of their case nor I think does Heeks provide
us with any) is--it needs to be done, therefore it should be done,
therefore it can be done, therefore we will do it (and those others who
also believe that it needs to be done are welcome to join us in these
efforts...
Best,
Mike Gurstein
On 10/12/05, Richard Heeks wrote:
> In the run-up to the WSIS-Tunis, Development Informatics Group at the
> University of Manchester will be releasing a series of "eDevelopment
> Briefings".
>
> These are very short (one-two page) overviews of current evidence and
> thinking on key issues related to ICTs and socio- economic development.
>
> Our first eDevelopment Briefing - "Free and Open Source Software: A
> Blind Alley for Developing Countries?" - is available at:
> http://www.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/dig/briefings.htm
>
> It reviews recent experiences and the likely future trajectory for FOSS
> in development.
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