The author Melinda Chulu is a holder of a BSc in Computer Science and she is one of the international it@ab consultants. She is currently actively working on building a project that is based entirely on OSS (Plone and Zope). Writing is an enjoyable past-time for her, when she is not in front of a computer screen.

2004-08-01 When a discussion on Open Source Software (OSS) is begun, especially, for usage in a business context, mental barriers are immediately raised in many executive minds. Many remain sceptical because they fail to differentiate between the terms OSS and “Free Software”. In their minds the two terms are synonyms for one another. But OSS has its advantages as current projects in developing countries show.

This serves as a source of many unfounded fears in using OSS in an organisation. There remains a strong belief that if it does not carry a “brand name” then it cannot perform to the same level as proprietary software. So, despite their desire to cut budgets and increase company turnover, OSS is never considered as a potentially effective tool for achieving these goals.

Is commercial Software “Safer”?

Any executive wants assurance that a product in which the organisation makes an investment comes guaranteed with professional delivery of services, after sales support and a warranty that should anything go “wrong” someone can be held financially accountable. The “someone”, he has in mind, is not his organisation!

He wants to be assured that when he wakes up five years from now the product will still be alive, whatever metamorphosis it may have undergone. So the question is then whether OSS can provide security to its users. I would be bold enough to give an affirmative response. Perhaps even go further and be daring enough to say “more so” than proprietary software.

Strong Supporter Communities Develop Leading Edge OSS

OSS has something that proprietary software lacks. I refer to the community that supports successful OSS projects. In this community one finds assurance of a continuity of a project. Those projects that fail to raise such backing die naturally. This survival of the “most supported” guarantees delivery of professional products.

But I would err if I said that OSS is free or does not pose challenges for a Return on Investment. Like with any other investment, every organisation that wishes to use OSS should do its homework. To rule its use out, however, would be suicidal for any organisation’s competitive edge.

Possible Business Models around OSS

The service and revenue models that one can built around OSS based systems are in fact similar to those used for proprietary software. The biggest difference is that in the revenue model for OSS no income is generated through sales of licences.

The availability of a portfolio of professional services is the key for successful OSS revenue models. The following graph shows services as revenue models of providers for open source-based solutions. The timeline indicates the evolvement of a typical Software Development Project .

Open Source Revenue Models

This entails obvious advantages of using OSS such as low investment, lowering the entry barrier and providing special opportunities for small and medium enterprises. It allows for cost effective delivery of customer centred solutions. Solutions that are tailored and customized to meet the regional, cultural and corporate needs of an organisation. This gives you, as an OSS based solution provider, a competitive edge and a solid foundation for sustainable business.


Developing Countries – How Relevant Can OSS Based Systems Be?

Open Source Software gives developing countries and emerging economies access to state−of−the−art software technology’1. With the severely limited ICT budgets available, OSS based systems are an opportunity that should not be ignored.

OSS gives these countries an opportunity to be technologically independent. Software and support may and can be locally provided. This avoids lock-in to service providers and software vendors from abroad. It allows developing economies to provide localized software versions. Here I must refer to the multi-language culture that is the norm in most of these countries. OSS hold the potential to meet this need

Despite its obvious advantages OSS can only truly benefit those countries who actively participate in its usage. OSS is not a licence for these countries to ignore poor infrastructure or be deceived into thinking that adopting OSS as a solution will work a ‘miracle’. The investment costs may be low but they cannot be ignored if the full benefits of OSS are to be realized. OSS remains, however, an opportunity for developing countries to participate in ongoing research and technical developments. This will be a step towards reducing the digital divide between developing countries and their developed counterparts. The divide continues to increase alarmingly.






SANTREN – a Case in Point

Southern African Network for Training and Research on the Environment (SANTREN) is a network of research and educational institutions and experts in the SADC region. It was formed in 1995 as a collaborative training project of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft e.V. (CDG) of Germany, the Institute of Environmental Studies (IES) of the University of Zimbabwe and various universities within the SADC region.

SANTREN offers e-Learning courses. One of its junior managers is currently in Germany undertaking an IT Upgrade Training Program that is sponsored by InWEnt, the German Capacity Building Organization that now incorporates the former CDG. Part of this training includes the use of OSS to provide a solution to a locally defined problem.

The Project aims to introduce a collaborative environment to the currently existing e-Learning services being offered by SANTREN. It is based on Zope, Plone and CLE (Collaborative Learning Environment) technology which are all OSS products. Zope and Plone are well known OSS based products with a large community support. They need no further introduction.

CLE is an OSS product that has been developed on behalf of InWEnt. Inspite of CLE being a fairly new initiative it has been used successfully in several projects. One such project involved the use of CLE for the online training of 17 Junior Consultants who participated in the 2003/2004 it@ab upgrade training for which InWEnt is the responsible partner. Information about CLE can be found on the website www.cle2.it-inwent.de. CLE has the advantage of being SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) compliant. SCORM is a de-facto standard in the e-Learning industry. It allows content to be migrated from different authoring environments.

With its foundation on Zope and Plone, it provides learners with a unique experience in collaborative learning. Its features when coupled with face to face learning make it a powerful tool for any organisation wishing to develop a competitive Blended learning solution.

Conclusion

OSS has significant market share in many markets, is most often more reliable than proprietary software and in most cases provides better performance than its counterpart. OSS scales both in project size and problem size. It often offer better security perhaps due to the possibility of worldwide review. The Total Cost of Ownership is far less than proprietary software especially as the number of platforms increases. These statements are not merely opinions; these effects can be shown quantitatively, using a wide variety of measures.

Realizing the potential benefits inherent in OSS may require approaching problems in a different way. An organisation should understand the differences between the proprietary and OSS models. It should also be kept in mind that OSS products are not the best technical choice in all cases. However, it’s clear that considering OSS alternatives can be beneficial. Truth be told, each organisation should evaluate how well an OSS based solution would meet its needs. The sad fact is, at the moment, not many organizations know how to evaluate OSS programs.


Resources:

[1] Steven Weber: "Open Source Software in Developing Economies",
www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/publications/ITST_materials/webernote2.pdf
[2] Paul Dravis: "Open Source Software − Perspectives for Development",
www.infodev.org/symp2003/publications/OpenSourceSoftware.pdf, 2003
[3]Bernhard K Aichernig “OSS:Challenges and Prospects for Developing Countries” http://www.southcentre.org/info/southbulletin/bulletin70/bulletin70-09.htm
[4]Dr Helmut Merz: “Sustainable Development in the IT sector with Open Source Software-Basic Concepts and Business Opportunities”
[5] David A. Wheeler “Why Open Source Software/Free Software? Look at the Numbers”