FOSS in Ghana ICEGOV2010 slides
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Transcript of FOSS in Ghana ICEGOV2010 slides
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS): It’s Significance or Otherwise to the E-Governance Process in Ghana
Charles Amega-Selorm and Johanna AwotwiCentre for e-Governance
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
OVERVIEW
o Abstracto Background
– Ghana– Overview of ICT Industry– Free and Open Source Software
o FOSS’s Significance to the e-Governance Process in Ghana
o Challenges to FOSS adoption in Ghanao Recommendations
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
ABSTRACT
o Software plays an important role in Ghana
o But licensing costs for proprietary software are expensive
o Proprietary software does not offer ease of manipulating source code but dominates the market
o Alternative = FOSS (four freedoms)o We make a case for adoption of FOSS in Ghana and by extension developing countries like Ghana
o Case studies resulted from field research conducted by authors, personal interviews and desk research
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
BACKGROUND
Population growth 23million (2007 estimates)GDP per capita US $1,500 (2008 estimates)GDP real growth rate 6.3% (2008 estimates)
GDP composition by sectorAgriculture 37.3%,Industry 25.3%Services 37.5% (2006 estimates)
Ghana
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
BACKGROUND
o Ghana has vast ICT infrastructure; • 800 km National Fiber Optic
Backbone which is being extended to 4000km and connecting 23 sites nationwide.
• There are 4 International Gateways via satellite
• 2 operating International fibre cable – Main One and SAT3
• 35 operational Internet Service Providers
• 130 installed VSAT nationwide
• 128 FM Broadcasting stations
• 12 Television stations (6 are free on air)
• 2 fixed line telecoms operators and 6 cellular telecoms operators
o Investment in ICT stood at GHC 44,546,001,710.07 by the first quarter 2009
Sector SubscriptionsMobile 11,962,224 Fixed lines 140,676 Internet users 1,000,000 NCA estimates ( Jan 2009)
ICT Industry Overview
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
BACKGROUND
o Free software refers to software which gives the user freedom from ownership of software without mentioning the development method
o Richard Stallman’s Free Software foundation, FSF exclusively uses the term “free software” to denote software that allows the user to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve it through access to the source code
o Open source software refers to software developed by publicly giving away the source code and being open for contributions from everyone
o Free software developed using open source software development methods is simply called free and open source software and has become known under its abbreviation, FOSS
Free and Open Source Software
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
FOSS SIGNIFICANCE TO E-GOVERNANCE IN GHANA
o The e-Governance process in Ghana is hampered by limited access; and coordination of the nation’s information flow, and limited capacity in information searching, reporting and presentation at public institutions required to provide information.
o Other factors include limited exchange of information among institutions; – no cross linkages between information systems; – awareness of the existence of electronic information is
either low or inadequate; – bottleneck to effective, transparent policy formulation
and implementation; – these hamper access and exchange of information required
by government, private business, NGOs and the general public
o The Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development policy of 2003 was formulated to deal with some of these bottlenecks but implementation has not been forthcoming
o Even though there is an e-Ghana project, it has not completely taken off
o Would government advice the use of FOSS solutions in the e-Ghana project? As it is now, there will be little or no use of FOSS because there is no policy on FOSS.
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
FOSS SIGNIFICANCE TO E-GOVERNANCE IN GHANA
o From the table below, we can see that the FOSS competes favourably with Proprietary software and must definitely have a place in the e-Governance process in Ghana
FOSS PSMulti-Platform
Hardware 3 4 4Software license 2 4 3Training 3 3 3Technical Support 3 4 4
Total Cost of Ownership
Total Cost of Ownership
Weighted average for all respondents of contribution to total cost from least (1) to most (5)
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
CHALLENGES
Absence of FOSS policy and/or procurement policy which clearly stipulate terms of procuring software
CITY, COUNTRY, XX-XX MONTH YEARTITE
RECOMMENDATIONS
o Ghana needs a FOSS policyo Procurement policy that clearly states that FOSS be used, otherwise the FOSS policy will have no effect
o Demand the freedom to leave. Migration costs must not scare governments
o Don’t focus on cost savings alone but freedom. Freedom can lead to cost savings but cost savings rarely lead to freedom
