Keeping the options open

Friday, March 20, 2009

Open source software is helping close the digital divide in Africa, says Nnenna Nwakanma, Director of the Open Source Initiative

Information and communication technologies, over the past decade, have come to place themselves as central to development initiatives in both developed and developing countries. Globally, we have either moved, or are moving, from manual to analogue, to digital. From the current positioning of nations, 'development' might as well be replaced by 'digital'. Economies that have evolved faster in the technology arena are the very same that have seen their development indexes shift in the right direction. This is true of Malaysia, India and South Africa.

Being that technology is made up of the hard and the soft, it is important for us to take a second look at the elements of sustainable development ingrained therein, with particular attention paid to trade and industry. What are the innovative mechanisms? Where are they in place? What have they achieved? How best can we mainstream the potentials of the good to achieve the better?

From the early days of the open source movement, its proponents were convinced that the inherent freedom of its ideology will win the day, going beyond the academia and early start-up businesses to the traditional economic sectors. Financial shrewdness has proved them reasonable, the current economic crisis has proved them right, and upcoming financial pressure will prove open source inevitably essential to growth in technology.

In governance and administration, open source applications have come in handy in government information and core citizen service delivery. The freedom to modify open source software to suit user needs has been optimally used in government administrations. Certain governments, like Brazil and the Republic of South Africa, have adopted open standards in technology for government use. South Africa also has a Minimum Interoperability Standard, as well as a National Open Source Bureau within its State Information Technology Agency.

In the telecommunications industry, mobile solutions are on the increase, and more so in the developing world. Mobile phones have achieved more coverage in less than five years than all other communication means put together. Over time, mobile phone companies are transforming and upgrading, building themselves into service centres for finance, health, travel, and education. As open source technology is cost-efficient and easier to run on basic hardware, it has come out as a top choice for telecommunication companies in the developing world.

Other than academia, businesses have been the most fervent users of open source technology. Since open source software can most often be downloaded and installed for free, and because there are no annual or incidental licence renewal fees to be paid, small and big business have found software based on open source a life-saver. Financial gains have varied from a few hundred to millions of dollars. In developing countries, localisation, translation and repackaging of open source software has become key in service delivery to local and diversified customers across language, ethnic and economic groups.

The most important example of the use of open source in the banking sector may be that of the Banque Central des Etats de l'Afrique l'Ouest, which is serving the eight French speaking countries of the West African region. The use of Web 2.0 facilities, built on open source technology, has given the media from developing countries unprecedented exposure and access to the global market. We may also extend this to the improved reliance of electronic services on open source platforms. In a recent visit to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, I was personally impressed with the buy-in of the everyday Nigerian into electronic services – in banking, forms, government services, education, and in day-to-day activities.

For trade and industry in the developing world, the use of open source operating systems, hardware, the freedom from annual licence renewal fees, the freedom to modify their initial open source software, the freedom to distribute and redistribute have spurred more innovation than was originally imagined.

Over and above entities that are using open source software are the start-up companies and initiatives that are offering business solutions based on open source to persons, groups, businesses, governments and large corporations. In Africa, we may note the presence of ASSIT, Open Technologies and nnenna.org in Ivory Coast; Wuupt Technologies and Rancard Solutions in Ghana; IDC in Mali; ZCP in Burkina Faso; Linux Solutions in Uganda; Circuits & Packet and Openworld Ltd in Kenya; Future Software Resource Ltd and Perfect Soft Systems in Nigeria, to mention but a few.

Initiatives on the continental level are also ongoing in Africa. The DP – an open source Data Platform for National Statistics Offices, supported by the World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa – is on its way to changing the basic functioning of national statistical experts in the continent. Notable also are the Government Open Source Software Resource Center, which is on its way to becoming a one-stop resource centre for governments in search of solutions based on open source, and the enormous work that is being accomplished by the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA). In its five years of existence, the foundation has supported governments, businesses, universities and capacity-building centres in maximising the benefits of open source and mainstreaming them for sustainable development.

FOSSFA has always insisted on extending the open source model from 'a method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process' into every development aspect for the continent. The open source perspective, therefore, shall not only be limited to software, nor technology alone, but to the very heart of the economic development of all nations – developed and developing.

Useful links:
www.opensource.org
http://fossfa.net/
http://www.globalimage.co.za
http://www.openworld.co.ke
www.rancardsolutions.com
www.futuresoft-ng.com
http://www.zcp.bf/
www.gossrc.org
http://gc21.inwent.org/ibt/GC21/area=module/main/en/modules/gc21/ws-statistikportal/ibt/PDFs/inwent_reader_statistics-division_vol_03.pdf