The role of Open Source Software in national development

BY MANJARI Peiris

Asia's premiere Technical Free and Open Source Software Week organised by Lanka Software Foundation commenced on September 5 with school and university programmes. Prof. Tissa Vitarana, Minister of Science and Technology was the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony. Excerpts of the speech made by the Minister:

I am aware that when the Prime Minister was requested to obtain the approval of the Government of Sri Lanka to consider The Free and Open Software Week as one of national importance, he was impressed with the line up of events arranged and he did so enthusiastically.

The Cabinet of Ministers, having seen the tremendous benefits that Free and Open Source Software could bring to our nation, our citizens and our industry, recognised the Free and Open Source Software Week as a national event and provided all necessary facilitation and encouragement from the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Free and Open Software week held in Sri Lanka is a major step forward in the attempt to harness the potential of ICT as an enabler to improve the quality of life of every citizen.

Through the e-Sri Lanka programme, the ICT Agency aspires to achieve this through a series of programmes with support from several donors and partnerships with several departments, agencies, ministries, the NGO sector and the ICT industry.

For example, the plan is to re-engineer the way Government thinks and works so as to benefit the citizen.

In this respect, the ICT Agency is working closely with the Administrative Reforms Committee, which is chaired by the Secretary to the Prime Minister, and plans are afoot to establish LakGovNet, linking all State agencies through a nationwide government information network.

Such a network would facilitate the sharing of information between the many State agencies and also provide citizen services such as on-line applications for a variety of purposes, which now require a visit to Colombo.

Already an e-Gov Centre is in operation at the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration to train public servants.

Another project of the e-Sri Lanka programme that will benefit the underdeveloped regions of Sri Lanka is the support to provide a communication backbone to areas that are still to be connected to the existing network.

The e-Sri Lanka programme is an integrated development project making use of the excellent opportunities that ICT provides. In this endeavour we are working closely with other Ministries such as the Ministry of Telecommunication.

I am aware that the Prime Minster, requested the ICT Agency to look into providing Internet access to locations where such facilities are not available and out of a target of 1000, already 1000 multi purpose tele-centres named Nena Salas (knowledge centers) are in operation in various parts of the country.

Other aspects of e-Sri Lanka such as the e-Society programme which would provide funding for societal applications of ICT are about to be launched.

In addition, I am sure that we will receive the support and commitment from the open source community of the country in our efforts to make Sinhala language applications and content widely available to the masses.

With full Tamil language support already available, this will ensure that ICT will be truly available in every sense to all Sri Lankans who want to benefit from it.

Already, an affordable e-Sri Lanka PC has been launched with an Open Source Operating System and tri-lingual keyboard. These activities are bound to complement our strategy for poverty alleviation where people of the North, South, East and West will be given opportunities to come out of poverty.

Free and Open Source Software can play a major role in realising this dream by playing a key role not only in the e-Sri Lanka programme, but also in other projects that are designed to enhance the use of ICT and to promote the local ICT industry.

With its affordability and sustainability, open source software is bound to play a major role in ensuring that Sri Lankan citizens benefit from the e-revolution that is taking place globally.

Sri Lanka has in place a Computer Crime Act and is now setting up and executing strong Intellectual Properly laws to protect the valuable creations of individuals and industries and software is one such product.

However, the relatively high cost of software has kept most of our citizens away from ICT and Free and Open Source Software presents an alternate approach for acquiring software legally at a relatively low cost, provided we are satisfied with the quality.

Such action will in turn help our goal of national development. The Prime Minister's vision for Sri Lanka's economy is that Sri Lanka needs to grow at 8 to 10 per cent in the coming years.

To achieve this growth, we need prudent macro-economic policies coupled with development of thrust industries such as ICT. In such a scenario, Free and Open Source Software is an important element.

As Abdul Kalam the President of India has said, "Open-source software offers developing nations such as India the best opportunity to modernise."

Free and Open Source Software not only provides affordable use of ICT but also gives an opportunity to our talented and creative IT workforce to exploit the potential Sri Lanka has of being a producer of innovative and quality software technology for the world.

It is evident that the organisers have taken much care in catering to various interest groups such as the school children, the university students, the executives, the IT professionals and the public through a variety of events.

I am very encouraged to see many well-known leaders of the Free and Open Source Software world come to our country to add strength to the FOSS week. I believe that they too have recognised the potential of Sri Lanka as a future leader of Free and Open Source Software Development.

I must record our appreciation of the CICC and the Government of Japan for their decision to host the 6th Asia Open Source Symposium (AOSS), which will be attended by delegates from 20 countries in Asia, during the Free and Open Source Software week.

I also thank ICTA and the University of Colombo School of Computing for their initiative in bringing the AOSS event to Sri Lanka and for co-hosting it.

The Free and Open Source Software week appropriately ends with the UN designated Software Freedom Day, a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software where the general public would be exposed to the benefits of using quality Open Source Software.