Presentation to Philippines House Committee on ICT

This was about a hearing at the Philippines Senate/Congress in support of House Bill 1716.

Transcript

1. FOSS in Government House Committee on Information and Communications Technology second hearing on House Bill 1716 Harish Pillay Open Source Evangelist Red Hat Asia Pacific harish@redhat.com December 17, 2008
2. What is FOSS? Free and Open Source Software is computer code that grants anyone, anywhere the FREEDOM to study, use, modify, incorporate, sell and share It is software that thrives because of the existence of the Internet FOSS guarantees that ideas continue to be developed and enhanced and will be available in perpetuity
3. Forces driving Openness 1.5 billion people connected to the Internet Largest collaborative platform in history Linux, Wikipedia, Open Source Drug Discovery Collaborative Innovation is here NOW
4. Paradigm Shift in Knowledge Creation Intellectual “Property” - Control, restrict - Monopoly of an individual/company - No right to modify, limited rights to use - Industrial age legacy, per copy licensing - Works in an economy of scarcity Open Source - Share, Collaborate - Community owned, accessible to all - Changes and sharing encouraged - Freely distributable, pay for value-added services - Builds an economy of abundance
5. Collaborative Innovation Framework Anytime, Anywhere, Any-how access to knowledge Open Source Freedom to modify the code (Fedora, Software Patents Issue) Open Standards Enabling access to data (ODF, Royalty Free Standards) Open Content Access to Knowledge (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)
6. Linux (Fedora 10) Source Lines of Code (SLOC): 204 million Development Effort Estimate: 59,389 person years Total Estimated Cost to Develop: $10.7 billion Compared to 2002: 680% increase in size, a 750% increase in effort, and a 900% increase in traditional development costs OLPC Google Android Cloud Computing
7. Wikipedia Started in 2000, now in top 5 websites 2.5 million articles in English 250 languages active 12 million + entries
8. Wikipedia in Tagalog
9. Open Standards Standards should belong to all of mankind We don't pay for using physical standards (weights, measures etc). Why should we pay for digital standards? Data is forever, applications come and go (eg. Wordstar, Wordperfect, Microsoft Word, Open Office) – can your grandchildren read your docs in 2100? Open standards help clinically separate applications from data. HTML is one of the great example of an open standard; ODF is another.
10. Government Procurement Two roles: as a consumer and as a “referee” As a Consumer: - Government needs choice like everyone; once choice is made, it tends to stay for an extended period As a Referee: - The free market for ICT has been in a subverted state for a long time – i.e., there isn't a level playing field for FOSS to take root - Government action in positive discrimination in favour of FOSS can correct this free market/economic distortion eg Malaysian OSCC
11. Open Source Policy Framework Open Source wherever possible, proprietary only if unavoidable All applications built with government funds should be under an open source license E-gov applications should be hosted in a code- repository like Sourceforge eg Sahana Create communities around areas of shared interest Encourage and foster open source in education
12. Why HB 1716 MUST PASS Political: Avoids excessive dependence on one vendor for IT infrastructure Cultural: Freedom to modify software to suit cultural needs, eg. localizing FOSS to Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Tausug and Waray Economic: Builds Filipino ICT capacity and capability with inherent technology transfer and corrects current free market distortion. Savings in “licenses” and translating that into investing in local skills
13. Institutional Mechanism for Open Solutions Policy framework Awareness > Appreciation > Adoption Capacity Building
14. Open Source Principles Collaboration Community Shared ownership of knowledge
15. Your questions please! harish@redhat.com or +65.9636.9253