The government tomorrow will present a White Paper on Open Source Software, charting the way this type of software is used in the Maltese public service in a “cost-effective” and “non-intrusive” way.
The White Paper, Open Source Vision: Nurturing the Proliferation of Open Source Software is part of the Smart Island Strategy and the purpose is to “act as an initial catalyst for the increased consideration and non-intrusive adoption of Open Source Software. It establishes a number of key principles as well as sets a number of immediate and long term objectives intended to take the application of Open Source Software within government to the next phase.”
The White Paper proposes, among other things, the cautious introduction of OSS in state primary schools and libraries, and the training of a few hundred public officers in the use of OSS desktop software over the next few months. Introduction of other OSS in other spheres of government is planned for next year.
The document will be presented at a special session of the National Information Society Advisory Council, where key speakers and experts in open source and open standards from the Malta Information Technology Agency and IT research firm Gartner will deliver presentations on this topic. An open discussion will be held at the end of the session. Besides this document, a complimentary Open Source Software Policy and related directive will also be published. The session will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre and it is open to the public.
Though for many users OSS simply means getting software for free, the Maltese Government’s definition of OSS is aligned to the definition provided by the Open Source Initiative, which among other things insists on access to the source code and the right to modify it.
The White Paper makes a compelling case towards the adoption of OSS within the government.
“Generally speaking, the OSS development model is believed to bring a number of significant advantages in a number of contexts. Software companies adopting this approach tend to identify that this helps them increase their efficiency, become more competitive as well as reduce their time to market. From this perspective, public sector procurement practices need to be examined to ensure that OSS competes on a level playing field. OSS should not be given any preferential treatment but should be allowed to compete on its own merits and in context.
“OSS also has the ability to drive significant discounts in respective procurement processes. OSS does offer a number of indirect benefits in this respect, among which is the access to source code and a general tendency towards adherence to open standards and interoperability principles.
“Increased and wider adoption of non-disruptive OSS is mostly a question of where and to what extent rather than if and when. Collaboration, one of the key pillars behind OSS, is one of the most effective competitive strategies available. It is an excellent accelerator for innovation and dissemination,” it says.
The text also offers a clear distinction between open standards and open source.
“Whilst it is generally acknowledged that the latter (i.e. open source initiatives in general) tend to more readily and actively endorse, adopt and adhere to open standards, there is no warranty for such undertaking. Furthermore, commercial solutions which adopt and promote open standards exist in reasonable numbers,” the White Paper says.
Even though the widespread implementation of OSS within government will be something new, MITA has been successfully using OSS internally for several years. The pilot and proof-of-concept implementations include client relationship management solution based on SugarCRM; unified communications solution based on Asterisk, OpenFire and Dimdim; and collaboration solutions based on Plone. Additional research was carried out to consider the introduction of a number of lines of business and corporate open source solutions such as OpenOffice, 7Zip, Gimp, Freemind, QuantumGIS and Firefox with varying degrees of success.
The White Paper reveals the demand for alternative software within government, particularly those built on OSS technologies, has increased recently.
“It is believed that this can be attributed to two primary factors related to immediate needs. These factors are immediate acquisition cost and the flexibility of functionality that OSS software can provide for specific business needs. However, the current limited degree of OSS awareness among public administration and within education limits the potential for increased acceleration for the adoption of OSS,” the document admits.
Indeed, despite all the benefits of OSS, introducing it within government and creating an OSS culture and supporting community won’t be easy.
“The general perception that OSS related activity and application in Malta is almost non-existent prevails. An inclination towards associating OSS with some form of complex ‘geeky’ technology persists. The misconception is further amplified by the fact that service and training providers assume there is no interest in OSS; consumers on the other hand assume that there is no support for OSS. This scenario was confirmed recently by a request from Government of Malta for the provision of OSS related support. A number of services provided were not of the expected quality.” To support this change in culture MITA has just established an internal user group, the Government of Malta Open Source End User Group, with the key objective of acting as an information resource for OSS related matters within government.
The group is made up of a representative from each ministry, chief information officer or delegate, and assisted by the participation of a number of OSS related professionals (from the private and public sector) and will promote the use of cost-effective and non-disruptive OSS.
Furthermore, a national Open Source Observatory and Repository will be established to facilitate collaboration between OSS communities and give the opportunity to various stakeholders to participate and contribute in government related software projects, including e-government services.
Apart from playing a key role, MITA has specific deliverables set in the White Paper. Basically it will become the focal point for the implementation of OSS within government; establish links with similar initiatives in Europe; carry out research on this area; nurture links outside government on OSS; identify programmes to promote the use of OSS within education; establish the local national Open Source Observatory and Repository; consider the adoption of open source business models for e-government solutions; and release selected bespoke government software as OSS under the European Union Public License (EUPL).