Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Derek Keats]

On Fri, 2005-10-21, Cliff Missen wrote:

> technology (and embedded into routers and such), but Windows is the
> interface of choice for desktop productivity.

I would agree that Windows is the DEFAULT desktop. However, I do not
know that you can infer from that that it the desktop of CHOICE. It is
a bit like saying people in Los Angeles choose to breath smog.

The fact is that, to quote George Bush, getting a system with
Gnu/Linux in most places is 'hard work' in most places, especially in
Africa. I know this from first hand experience, having tried to buy a
laptop that could be guaranteed to run Linux. Nobody in South Africa
were willing to do so. I had to buy a Windows one, pay for Windows, and
remove it to install Gnu/Linux. It was 'hard work' and very stressing.

This is changing as some of the bigger players, especially Novell,
Mandriva and Ubuntu, are establishing relationships with hardware
manufacturers to create OEM versions, and drive the same level of
support that is available for proprietary systems.

I am not sure if they are going to be successful, but this trend cannot
be ignored. Microsoft's success lies substantially in its OEM model, I
don't think it has a lot to do with choice. It is true that it
certainly dominates the desktop market, but I would urge caution about
making simple inferences based on that.


Regards,
Derek




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Cliff Missen]

Great idea, Doug, but I believe there's a problem with your methodology:
netcraft.com can only measure machines that have a direct Internet
connection, which, in the case of most of Africa, are servers and
routers. Most workstations at companies, Internet cafes, government
agencies, and universities will have non-routable IP numbers and would
never show up in your survey.

When I look at my Web logs, I still see that the most used operating
system -- more than 80% of my traffic coming from Africa -- is some
variant of Windows, and that's not accounting for Windows workstations
using proxy servers running Linux.

Again, we are left where Keats AND Heeks originally left us: FOSS is
widely used for backstage applications by those familiar with the
technology (and embedded into routers and such), but Windows is the
interface of choice for desktop productivity.

Best regards!

-- Cliff

- - - - -

Cliff Missen, MA
Director, WiderNet Project
University of Iowa

tel:  319-335-2200

http://www.widernet.org
  

On Thursday, October 20, 2005, Douglas J. Trainor wrote:

..snip...
> However, for my own purposes, I thought of a simple question 
> just now: 
> What operating systems run on Tanzanian machines on the 
> Internet, and are they FOSS or non-FOSS?
> 
> I did a quick and crude "ad hoc" survey by limiting my 
> inquiry in the following way:
> 
> (1) Take only domains with the TLD suffix .tz
> Admittedly, this does not represent all machines in Tanzania,
> but it is my sample.
> 
> (2) Use a list of operating systems identified reliably by
> netcraft.com [Reference 2 and 3].
> 
> I answered my own question with a few minutes of effort.
..snip...




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Mike Powell]

On 10/20/05, Douglas J. Trainor wrote:
> Thank you Derek Keats.
> 
> I do believe that based on what I've seen, Keats trumps Heeks and that
> Heeks conclusions are rubbish. The original posting by Heeks seems to
> be a prime example of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) [Reference 1]. 
> I'd like to see the data that Heeks refers to so I can look at the data
> collection methodology.
> 

As it happens I don't agree with Richard Heeks' conclusions either. I do
think however the issues he has raised about the evangelical character
of much of the FLOSS argument are more than valid. There is, across all
platforms and applications, a huge problem of communications bewtween
software developers and end users. If the former are convinced they are
in the right - because of the ideological purity of their product - then
listening and proper communication is dead in the water. My view is
that FLOSS is being successful in technician to technician markets such
as operating systems and server software. As a FLOSS advocate, I think
it has been tragically slow to develop in the field of intelligent
application software. I ascribe this to a failure to develop a user-
led development model and a related failure to communicate with a non-
technical audience. Thus the attitudes Heeks describes are at least
part of the problem and dismissing his research by attacking him is
hardly the most sensitive way of responding to criticisms of arrogance.

Love and struggle

Mike Powell




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Douglas J. Trainor]

Thank you Derek Keats.

I do believe that based on what I've seen, Keats trumps Heeks and that
Heeks conclusions are rubbish. The original posting by Heeks seems to
be a prime example of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) [Reference 1]. 
I'd like to see the data that Heeks refers to so I can look at the data
collection methodology.

However, for my own purposes, I thought of a simple question just now: 
What operating systems run on Tanzanian machines on the Internet, and
are they FOSS or non-FOSS?

I did a quick and crude "ad hoc" survey by limiting my inquiry in the
following way:

(1) Take only domains with the TLD suffix .tz
Admittedly, this does not represent all machines in Tanzania,
but it is my sample.

(2) Use a list of operating systems identified reliably by
netcraft.com [Reference 2 and 3].

I answered my own question with a few minutes of effort.
My survey summary results are:

   206 100.0%  .tz domains total
   ---
   138  67.0%  FOSS
60  29.1%  non-FOSS
 8   3.9%  unknown

Thus, there is about a 2.3 to 1 proportion of FOSS to non-FOSS operating
systems in my sample.

My survey detail results are:

   206 100.0%  .tz domains total
   ---
   129  62.6%  Linux
29  14.1%  Windows 2000
19   9.2%  NT4/Windows 98
 8   3.9%  FreeBSD
 8   3.9%  Windows Server 2003
 8   3.9%  unknown
 4   1.9%  Solaris
 1   0.5%  NetBSD/OpenBSD

If I aggregate the Microsoft operating systems, the Windows family sums
to:

   56  27.2%  Windows

Thus, there is about a 2.3 to 1 proportion of Linux to Microsoft
operating systems in my sample.

I should point out that I work on a variety of found operating systems
and have installed mostly Linux, BSDs (FreeBSD and NetBSD), Windows,
Solaris, and OS X. All can run GNU software tools just fine. The last
Windows installs were at a nonprofit, because that's what they wanted
and asked for. So I suggested and wrote a software grant request to
Microsoft so the nonprofit would not have to burn through their precious
budget. Fundraising seems to be the Achilles heel of nonprofits, unless
they are lucky enough to be endowed or have an idea that is infectious.

  douglas

[1]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FUD
[2]  http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host
[3]  http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/accuracy.html

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any
good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
   -- Howard Aiken ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Aiken )
   
   


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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Sunil Abraham]

Dear Kris,

On Mon, 2005-10-17, Kris Dev wrote:
> I had earlier posted that most Open Source Tools are developed or
> proposed by International NGOs or Governments who get public funding and
> most international and national conferences are attended by the
> employees of such international organizations and Governments.

Please name these FOSS tools. I don't know of any world famous tools
developed by International NGOs or Governments. Most governments AFAIK
only deploy and customise exiting FOSS tools.

As far as I know most important FOSS tools are developed by companies.
For example Red Hat, Novell, Linspire, Canonical, MySQL, Zope, Apple,
Sun Microsystems, etc are all for-profit companies.

Please name the FOSS tools that you are talking about...

> How can private entrepreneurs and organizations fund open source
> development and attend conferences? How do they generate the money?

There are seven ways you can generate money using FOSS. Please see:


> Many corporations use Open Source as a basic tool and have
> advanced-priced versions and charge high service fees and sponsor Open
> Source conferences.

Yes exactly. This is a completely valid FOSS strategy. There is
absolutely nothing wrong with that.=20

> Can Open Source meetings be made free for those who aspire to promote
> open source?

It depends who is organising the meeting. We are organising a meeting
called World-Information.org. Where FOSS will be discussed. You are
welcome to attend this meeting for free.
http://world-information.org/wio/program/bangalore2005

There will also shortly be another free event in Mumbai called World
Summit on Free Information Infrastructures organised by Dr. Nagarjuna of
TIFR. I will post more details regarding that event when I have them.

Thanks,

Sunil
--
Sunil Abraham, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mahiti.org
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
UK: (44) 0200259




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Kris Dev]

Dear Colleagues,

I totally agree with Mark Davies. Being a Social Entrepreneur, who has
spent the last 5 years developing a generic solution that can be used by
any community/organization, and having spent huge money, my concern is
how do I recover the costs incurred and sustain an organiation that can
grow.

I had earlier posted that most Open Source Tools are developed or
proposed by International NGOs or Governments who get public funding and
most international and national conferences are attended by the
employees of such international organizations and Governments.

How can private entrepreneurs and organizations fund open source
development and attend conferences? How do they generate the money?

Many corporations use Open Source as a basic tool and have
advanced-priced versions and charge high service fees and sponsor Open
Source conferences.

Can Open Source meetings be made free for those who aspire to promote
open source?

Many questions go unanswered, because they are inconvenient and many
answers do not address real issues.


Kris Dev
International Transparency and Accountability Network
with Peter Burgess and others




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Meddie Mayanja]

Dear Colleagues,

This is a great topic and timely.

I should agree with Ed's splendid analysis. I know a number of people
who have both open source and proprietary software on computers and
laptops and use it depending on what they need to do and how effectively
a job can get done. A number of telecentres in Africa do that too.
  
Meddie
  

On 10/14/05, Edmond Gaible wrote:

> Let's assume that per Dr. Heeks' analysis we have yet to see significant
> direct economic benefit to developing countries from open source. Should
> we then advocate exclusive use of proprietary software? Or should we
> perhaps adopt the position prevalent among the private sector's tech
> giants such as IBM and HP? That there will be some applications, some
> jobs, for which open-source is the appropriate answer, and others for
> which it is not.




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Michael Gurstein]

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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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Paul J. Dravis]

Colleagues:

Thanks to Mark Davies for providing real world perspectives on the FOSS
topic.

The "community" aspect of Open Source software is often a focus of
discussion. Yes, a few publicized FOSS projects have benefited from the
contributions of numerous developers distributed across multiple
continents. The reality is that most FOSS projects will start small and
remain relatively small. The justification for its use is generally its
low cost.

In addition, as technology practitioners are aware, technology projects
are challenging. Often the challenges are not related to the technology
used (either open or proprietary), but rather other issues including an
inadequate definition of needs and objectives, and insufficient
resources (both funding and skilled staff). This is the case in both
developed and developing regions.

Be pragmatic about what is achievable within your constraints. Good
project management is important, the rhetoric is just noise.

My background: 24 years in the technology sector (application
development, strategy planning and investment). Along the way, I have
researched many case studies regarding Open Source use, and developed
the OSS report released by infoDev at the WSIS event in 2003.

Paul Dravis



On Friday, October 14, 2005, Mark Davies wrote:

> As an African business, and as an African software development business,
> I still don't get it. There's so much enthusiasm for FOSS, there's so
> much conference mind-share spent on this topic, and yet I don't see an
> illuminating discussion about the opportunities for risk/reward for
> people like us.  Much of the discussion is how government can localize
> software, and how it can reduce costs... and the merits of sharing and
> reinventing and reissuing open source code. Hours will be spent on the
> IP properties of such endeavors. Even the debate about African
> developers making money from 'services' supporting such FOSS is rarely
> discussed in detail at these events.
> 
> But what truly is the opportunity for the business community?

..snip...




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Cliff Missen]

Dear Colleagues,

I hear two distinct but complementary points of view. One is that FOSS
has not made much inroad in public commerce and communications, while
the other is that there is a great deal of potential for FOSS in
developing countries.

My own informal research into FOSS usage in sub-Saharan Africa supports
both these points of view. When I visit companies, Internet cafes,
government agencies, schools, and even universities, the vast majority
of desktops are Microsoft Windows and the overwhelming productivity
application of choice is Microsoft Office.

Looking backstage, most commercial and government servers are running
Windows, while -- just like the U.S. -- universites are more likely to
implement FOSS servers where appropriate.

But digging even deeper, we find that there's no substitute for Apache
and a heap of FOSS email systems (even on Windows servers.)

That's not to say that there AREN'T wonderful things happening with FOSS
in Africa! The best examples of such generally come out of universities
(like Derek's project) and projects in the development sector like
SchoolNet Namibia.

So there's no need for a FOSS GOOD/FOSS BAD discussion. (In fact, most
countries where I work already have their fill of such religious
arguments.) There's a greater need for identifying _where_ FOSS is
helping people to become more productive and participate more
meaningfully. Then we need to make strategic determinations about which
realms of ICT in developing countries will best be served by our efforts
to promote FOSS.

At the same time, we have to remember that we're talking about a portion
of the ICT enterprise that typically consumes less than 10% of the
entire budget.

Best regards!

-- Cliff


- - - - -

Cliff Missen, MA
Director, WiderNet Project
University of Iowa

tel:  319-335-2200

http://www.widernet.org




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Derek Keats]

Dear GKD Members,

My comments refuting this paper are interspersed within the text. I do
not believe that it is appropriate to allow such pseudoscience to go
unchallenged.

regards
derek

-

On Thu, 10-13-2005, Dr Richard Heeks wrote:

> 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?

Here is the stated objective of this paper, to determine the trajectory
of FOSS, by which the author presumably means the direction and speed
rather than its path through space, although this is a sufficiently
obscure analogy that it is already subject to interpretation. I will
interpret it to mean will FOSS grow and will it grow rapidly, or will it
stagnate or shrink...something like that.


> 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".

This is the first example of classical pseudoscience. The approach goes
as follows. Find something that is totally unrelated, but that sounds
similar, and use what ever happened with it to argue that the same thing
will happen with the thing we are discussing. This type of fallacious
argument is used often in so-called creation science. It is a vacuous
and meaningless argument although it often sounds clever and convincing.
Shareware has nothing to do with FOSS, it is proprietary software, which
is actually the opposite of FOSS. Logically, the failure of shareware to
dominate the world is a failure of a particular model of distribution of
proprietary software. Do I need to explain more fully why arguing that
proprietary software represents FOSS is fallacious? I hope not!!


> 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 dominates.

This is another logically fallacious means of argument. Selecting a
particular indicator of current state of a system to argue that the
state will not be different is again pseudo science, but a clever style
of argument whose logical fallacy is not always obvious. When the
automobile was just coming out, the state was that the penetration of
automobiles was low, yet look at automobiles today. Accepting this
argument is accepting that we cannot change things. However, it does do
one thing for sure, and that is it alerts us that we need to create the
push and pull that does lead to change.


> 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.

This is another pseudoscientific argument, although I am struggling to
categorize it in relation to known logical fallacies. However, the
argument goes like this: since most people break the law, there is no
obvious benefit of obeying the law. OK. Another erroneous proposition:
FOSS means Linux! Once you assert this, then you can ignore everything
else, and just concentrate on Linux (GNU/Linux please).  This is another
common pseudoscience argument technique: make a false assertion that
people will probably believe, and then lead the reader into ever more
false conclusions by derivign other assertions from the false one.


> The lack of strong evidence of FOSS benefits helps explain its lack of
> success vis-a-vis proprietary products.

How did we get here? What is the lack of strong evidence? No evidence of
absence has been presented yet in this paper. This is again another
pseudoscience argument technique. Make an assertion that may sound
believable if you accept the previous fallacious arguments, and derive
the argument further on that basis. Folks, learn to see this type of
arument for what it is, a deliberate attempt to put forward a point of
view that is unsupported by the evidence. When evidence exists, one
doesn't have to use these well known tricks. There is another
pseudoscience trick here as well, the attempt to use absence of evidence
as if it were evidenve of absence. It is known that despite the obvious
fallacy of this trick, most people don't pi

Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Sunil Abraham]

On Thu, 2005-10-13, Dr Richard Heeks wrote:

> You can read this message in two ways: either that FOSS will never
> deliver; or that the FOSS community needs to rethink its strategies. Or,
> of course, if you've devoted months or years to FOSS and don't like the
> message, you'll try to denigrate the writer, deny the data, and so
> forth.

Yes we need to rethink our strategies especially in the areas of ICT4D
and Civil Society. Corruption, illegal copying of software, immaturity
of FOSS user interfaces and predatory philanthropy compounded with
technical inertia, lack of suitable infrastructure and human resource
has made FOSS adoption painfully slow in most developing countries. The
situation in government and private sector seems to be a little more
encouraging. Could you please share with us the electronic versions of
the papers that you quote in your note. I was only able to find the
presentation files from
http://www.devstud.org.uk/Conference05/abstracts/ITD.htm

Thanks,

Sunil

--
Sunil Abraham, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mahiti.org
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
UK: (44) 0200259




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Derek Keats]

On the other hand, badly written pseudoresearch that provides not real
data is hardly objective research. I have been researching and
participating in FOSS for a number of years. As a scientist with over
100 peer-reviewed publications, I can sure recognize pseudoscience when
I see it. The use of clever arguments to try to sway opinion is hardly
good, and objective research, but in the hands of people who do not
understand science or logic, it can be dangerous.

In the event that what you say in this email is true, then I would
encourage you to rewrite the paper in this way, and put in some hard
data. Try also to understand systems of change, and where FOSS is in
relation to systems of change. Imagine, for example, what proponents of
horses would have said about automobiles when they first came out.

Try to take an objective view of what is currently happening in terms of
major IT players investing in FOSS. Don't fall into the trap of assuming
GNU/Linux = FOSS. Learn a bit about some of the projects that are
happening on the ground, and how they are contributing to development.

While the article may be well-intentioned, I think it is poor science,
badly researched, uses well known and studied pseudoscience argument
techniques, irresponsible, and potentially dangerous.

IMHO of course
derek



On Thu, 10/13/05, Dr Richard Heeks wrote:

> The enthusiasm of those working with FOSS is encouraging, though that
> engagement doesn't per se make them any more able to make an informed
> judgement than those researching FOSS; indeed, it may make them less
> able to stand back and see the big picture.
> 
> FOSS has been an area plagued for too many years by talk of what it
> could do or might achieve. Then, some real evidence - three surveys and
> two cases drawn from three continents. This presents a very different
> picture: one of marginality and with no sign, unless factors change,
> that we are going to see the developmental potential of FOSS really
> delivered.
> 
> You can read this message in two ways: either that FOSS will never
> deliver; or that the FOSS community needs to rethink its strategies. Or,
> of course, if you've devoted months or years to FOSS and don't like the
> message, you'll try to denigrate the writer, deny the data, and so
> forth.
> 
> As much as anyone, I'm working to see ICTs deliver for development. My
> worry is that the FOSS community is not reality-checking itself. Too
> much talking to other believers; not enough standing back to see what is
> really being achieved.





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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Edmond Gaible]

Colleagues,

It's always a good idea to draw a deep breath before flaming. Especially
when the topic is as ideologically charged as open-source.

I have nothing but admiration for Dr. Heeks' longstanding efforts to
separate IT hype from economic reality in the field of development.
However, his FOSS and Development brief appears flawed...

The brief would be helped by short descriptions of the benefits that
open-source tools provide to OECD economies and MNCs such as IBM--to
enable us to compare these to usage in developing countries. In
addition, I'm sure that many of us are skeptical of the idea that
Apache, MySQL, and PHP aren't running on servers throughout the South --
to be credible, this inference in needs to be explicit and documented
the brief. Or are we only concerned with desktop applications?

In any case, I believe that Dr Heeks' analysis is based on a false
assumption:  that the  contribution of open-source to economic
development centers on replacing commercial software with free (no
purchase price) and libre (modifiable source-code) tools.

The impact of open-source is both more broad and less direct. As the
brief itself suggests at the end, several states that have proposed
adoption of open-source have been showered with no-cost software
licenses by Microsoft. These licenses of course have value. Less
quantifiably, the open-source movement has spurred donor-agency (SIDA),
NGO (Inveneo), and volunteer (programmers at Jhai Foundation)
contributions to the field of ICT4D.

In addition, open-source has been and will remain integral to efforts to
develop new hardware tools for village users. Development of many of
these tools has relied on Linux: the Jhai PC and the (oft-maligned)
Simputer, as well as thin-client networking products in schools in Goa
and in South Africa (Hewlett-Packard 4-4-1 computers). Jiva Institute's
Teledoc project in Haryana, India, however, has successfully used the
Symbian OS and Java 2 MicroEdition to develop data communications for
healthworkers using mobile phones.

For these tools and subsequent hardware-development efforts, it's still
"early days." The projects and products listed above barely reach the
poor. Technical capacities in many African countries still limit the use
of thin-client networks to run the refurbished PCs that are breaking
down in schools. But these are vastly under-funded initiatives, for the
most part, bucking substantial challenges of design, production, and
implementation. They or their progeny will succeed in time, and
open-source will have played a significant role--whether or not it is
used in the tools that at last reach villagers at scale.

Let's assume that per Dr. Heeks' analysis we have yet to see significant
direct economic benefit to developing countries from open source. Should
we then advocate exclusive use of proprietary software? Or should we
perhaps adopt the position prevalent among the private sector's tech
giants such as IBM and HP? That there will be some applications, some
jobs, for which open-source is the appropriate answer, and others for
which it is not.

Regards, 

Ed Gaible

Edmond Gaible Ph.D.
Principal
The Natoma Group
www.natomagroup.com

610 16th Street, ste 506
Oakland CA 94612
+1.510.444.3800 ph and fax



On 10/13/05, "Derek Keats" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I will invite members of this List to come visit the IDRC area at WSIS
> as well as possibly the Sun Microsystems area in the 3rd Circle. We will
> showcase what the AVOIR project has achieved, in development terms,
> using FOSS in less than one year. I think we will have some concrete
> evidence of the development benefit of FOSS that show this article up
> for what it is: pseudo-science based on little or no concrete evidence.
> I suspect that the author is probably familiar with Creationist
> literature, that uses the same flawed type of arguments. When you read
> it, it is easy to miss the insubstantiality of it because it is written
> in a clever style.



 


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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Mark Davies]

Dear Colleagues,

As an African business, and as an African software development business,
I still don't get it. There's so much enthusiasm for FOSS, there's so
much conference mind-share spent on this topic, and yet I don't see an
illuminating discussion about the opportunities for risk/reward for
people like us.  Much of the discussion is how government can localize
software, and how it can reduce costs... and the merits of sharing and
reinventing and reissuing open source code. Hours will be spent on the
IP properties of such endeavors. Even the debate about African
developers making money from 'services' supporting such FOSS is rarely
discussed in detail at these events.

But what truly is the opportunity for the business community?

If we attempt to use Linux to run some of our services (which we've been
doing for 4 years now) then it is simply a more expensive and risky
proposition. In Ghana, we have such a small installed base of Linux
experts, that it's either too expensive to retain them (their scarcity
defines higher prices) in any meaningful way...or if we train up our own
team, then they're hired away to another position. Those are all good
things for those individuals, but not for businesses struggling to run
dependable services with a long-term technical team. Interestingly, our
tech team has requested to revert away from Linux servers. Our tech
manager sees it too difficult to retain the skills in house for it to be
a well maintained option. I guess this may just be a period in
timeEnough people get trained up, costs come down, skills are
diversified and we all benefit from what is clealy a superior server
technology for us. That would be fine where there's fat -- where
companies have enough funds to spend on this kind of devleopment and
take those risks. But in the SMME category in Africa... I think those
companies are the exception not the rule. It's simply much easier and
cheaper to install Redmond (i.e. Microsoft) software. I would also
suspect that larger and more active markets will reach such skill levels
more quickly. I'd guess there is already a substantial market of linux
experts in Lagos and so the prices come down. But not in Ghana. So we're
stuck, and wondering who will get us out of this catch22.

On another note...  How does a software developer or company make money
from FOSS development? Here's another situation that confuses me. We
would love to build our current application as FOSS and engage the wider
community to extend it and improve it. But if we spend 6 months and
$50,000 doing that, and then distribute the code, how do we defend that
earlier investment? We're supposed to move faster and code better, and
probably market better more than anything, to keep some 'value' in the
code as the original authers. Well maybe. But again, I'm pretty
risk-averse and don't want a smarter competitor beating me to my own
goal. And for an individual? Well I presume much development has been
done by developers that have time and money to spend on such projects.
Developers in Ghana don't have that luxury. Some may not have access to
machines in their spare hours, only having machines at work. Most need
to jump from paying job to paying job. I wonder if this model is
appropriate for Africa, or whether I'm not understanding the source of
these initiatives and their motives historically.

Instead, what I'd like to see is some kind of conversation that takes
into consideration the realities on the ground in a country like Ghana.
Where most companies/entrepreneurs are understandably risk-averse. What
model really exists for the private sector to engage in FOSS? Of course
using MySQL in development etc., is a no brainer. But how can they
actually take code, develop it and share it and still gain reward? How
can they leverage the community of developers around the world that
exist -- a fascinating proposition for any (especially African) software
development group? What kind of discussions are out there proposing
hybrid models of a closed proprietary software backbone, with open APIs
that would allow other developers to own/extend a portion of your
product without owning the entire thing?

So let's temper our enthusiasm for this amazing resource with a reality
check of what African businesses are doing and how they view this
opportunity. The next time you meet an African software developer at a
conference, ask them how they make money at FOSS. It's an important
question, and you'll always get an illuminating answer.


Mark Davies




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Dr Richard Heeks]

Dear Colleagues,

The enthusiasm of those working with FOSS is encouraging, though that
engagement doesn't per se make them any more able to make an informed
judgement than those researching FOSS; indeed, it may make them less
able to stand back and see the big picture.

FOSS has been an area plagued for too many years by talk of what it
could do or might achieve. Then, some real evidence - three surveys and
two cases drawn from three continents. This presents a very different
picture: one of marginality and with no sign, unless factors change,
that we are going to see the developmental potential of FOSS really
delivered.

You can read this message in two ways: either that FOSS will never
deliver; or that the FOSS community needs to rethink its strategies. Or,
of course, if you've devoted months or years to FOSS and don't like the
message, you'll try to denigrate the writer, deny the data, and so
forth.

As much as anyone, I'm working to see ICTs deliver for development. My
worry is that the FOSS community is not reality-checking itself. Too
much talking to other believers; not enough standing back to see what is
really being achieved.


Richard Heeks
Development Informatics Group
University of Manchester, UK




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Re: [GKD] Pre-WSIS eDevelopment Briefing: FOSS and Development

[Derek Keats]

Dear GKD Members,

I will invite members of this List to come visit the IDRC area at WSIS
as well as possibly the Sun Microsystems area in the 3rd Circle. We will
showcase what the AVOIR project has achieved, in development terms,
using FOSS in less than one year. I think we will have some concrete
evidence of the development benefit of FOSS that show this article up
for what it is: pseudo-science based on little or no concrete evidence.
I suspect that the author is probably familiar with Creationist
literature, that uses the same flawed type of arguments. When you read
it, it is easy to miss the insubstantiality of it because it is written
in a clever style.

Regards,

Derek



On Wed, Oct 12, 2005, Dr 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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