Hacking vs. Open Source

Sep 27, 2015 News

By Lance Hinds

There were a series of events that generated some interest and also intense social media discourse this past week.
It started off nicely enough with a number of local ICT practitioners and educators celebrating Software Freedom Day by hosting a working session with a series of presentations on the work being done using free open source software (FOSS).
The presentations were quite simply, a joy to watch. There is clearly extensive work being done in national mapping using open source Geographic Information System (GIS)-related tools.
Individuals also provided an overview of how they provide professional services, others highlighted their research in using FOSS for educational purposes.
The staff from local government agencies highlighted the tremendous amount of work done on mapping locations for effective monitoring of the extractive industry, our natural resources and also land application processing and occupancy.
It is always amazing to see what people are doing in their various corners, in terms of using alternative resources to develop and provide solutions. To date, however, this work remains just that…done in these various pockets with very little attempt to publicize and champion what is being created. One of the speakers made the point that FOSS will gain very limited traction if work continues to be done in these silos, without any effort to highlight what is possible using the open source model.
Later in the week it was announced that the Government of Guyana engaged in discussions with Microsoft and Cisco with a view to providing a range of enterprise level services to support some of the operations within the public sector workspace.
This too would have been noted, primarily by the local information technology community, but generally did not cause any waves.
This, however, changed by midweek, and brought the matter of the open source versus proprietary solutions into full focus.
During the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service, a ministry official said during his testimony that his ministry was forced to use unlicensed software in order for the ministry to function with some level of effectiveness.
He said specifically that the technicians had to “hack and steal software via the Internet to keep systems going”. He also lamented the fact that funds were not released to purchase software and new computer equipment, and that the IT staff had to cobble together unlicensed software and parts to get systems to work. Absolutely marvelous.
My initial feeling on this, without any deep thinking, was the usual disappointment about a ministry not seeing ICT as a priority, with this being the end result.
This issue, however, triggered a high level of discussion among members of the open source community.
The question arose as to why there was no consideration of using open source as opposed to using unlicensed software, and then further, why aren’t the policymakers actively considering the use of open source software in view of the potential cost of proprietary solutions.
Reference was made to the fact that the Italian Ministry of Defence is transitioning to open source software for productivity and the Indian Government is mandating that open source must be considered as part of any solutions that are required by its various agencies. Here, therefore, is a measured perspective on all this.
First of all, in government, there is a clear distinction between the allocation and release of funds. In the interest of establishing best practices, it might be useful for the Commission of Inquiry to seek clarification on exactly where and when this problem started. I know some colleagues who, like myself, have been around the local IT scene for quite a few moons, and would therefore be quite aware of the millions spent on procuring sophisticated Human Resource Management Systems for the Public Service Ministry in years past. This, I imagine, cannot be a happy moment. It is hoped that through the efforts of the e-Government Unit this state of affairs is quickly addressed and must never happen again.
I suspect that the IT technicians at the Ministry had little or no knowledge of open source solutions that were available to resolve their issues. This goes back to my point about making sure the message about FOSS is shared widely.
The local open source practitioners will have to become podium-thumping evangelists for the cause.
Education and awareness sessions are needed. Meetings need to be held with the relevant stakeholders to press the case for the implementation of FOSS.
The issues of using FOSS versus the use of proprietary software have been the basis of long, sometimes heated arguments for close to 15 years. It is not going to end anytime soon. Some people feel that on moral or ethical grounds alone, FOSS should be used instead of the likes of Microsoft, and some countries perceive advantages in not having to depend on a sole source company based in another country.
The pushback to this of course is stability, unified standards, wide, integrated set of tools from one vendor etc.etc.
To my mind this is about practicality and the maximum returns on investment. I would vote for example, as a matter of policy, for open source solutions to be used in all academic institutions, from primary to tertiary.
In this environment of limited resources this is an ideal solution, since there are no licensing fees or related requirements.
The ability to tinker with open source software also facilitates a wider scope for increased learning, especially for those pursuing ICT as field of study. It also allows for a software development community to quickly develop and evolve without the burden of significant cost.
Implementation in Government and large enterprises, however, requires deeper thought and analysis.
What for example, is the cost of implementing LibreOffice across the public sector in its current deployment model versus the provision of a unified cloud-based solution with an integrated set of tools like Office365?
I am not advocating one over the other, but if we are spending money, this level of evaluation is critical.
My happiness about all this, however, is that this level of conversation has now resurfaced, and people appear to be excited about what is possible.
It looks like these discussions will be elevated and attempts will be made to engage the policymakers on specific issues.
Hopefully these latest efforts are sustained and productive. In this environment, with all its needs, there is room for both FOSS and Microsoft.

Lance Hinds is the President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is also the Chief Executive of the BrainStreet Group, an Information Technology and Content Development Company.