THE Philippines still lacks awareness of and support for free and open source software (FOSS), Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III said yesterday.
Chua, in his speech during the opening of the Philippine Open Source Summit at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), said that despite the existence of FOSS products, many Filipinos still use pirated software.
“Regrettably, however, the more common option for many users is the purchase of pirated copies of proprietary software.
There is, therefore, a need to bring open source to the awareness of users as a legitimate option and to provide the required support for its implementation,” Chua said.
Open source software refers to those released under a license that legalizes sharing of the application and building up on it. It got its name from the requirement of shipping the source, the code that runs the application, with the software.
Unlike some countries that require its government agencies to use open source software, Chua said the policy of the CICT “has always been freedom of choice.”
Fair market
“We believe that the marketplace should decide the use of proprietary software versus open source software. We just need to make sure that there exists a fair marketplace and that the consumer is fully informed of the available choices,” he said.
Chua said the CICT uses FOSS in several of its projects. He said the eGovernance Center of Excellence in Quezon City “is a showcase of open systems technology and solutions.”
Although most government agencies are still using proprietary software, he said the e-Governance program under the eLGU (local government units) project has developed open source-based e-government applications, like real property tax, business permit licensing and treasury operations management systems.
The CICT, he said, is also introducing FOSS through education-related projects such as the iSchools and eSkwela. The projects provide students with Internet-enabled personal computers (PCs).
Chua said they decided to use open source software for the projects because of its “cost effectiveness relative to proprietary solutions.”
Cheaper PCs
“Put simply, cheaper computer labs means more computer labs that we can roll out,” he said.
So that more Filipinos would be able to benefit from the use of computers, the government has initiated a program to bring down the cost of personal computers (PCs).
Chua said Nettop ng Bayan, a project that aims to provide low-cost PCs to the public, was able to meet its target of less than P10,000 for an Internet-centric PC because of the use of open source software.
He said the “key driver” in reducing the cost of PCs is to use open source software (OSS).
However, he clarified that the government’s policy is “freedom of choice,”- leaving the market to decide weather to use OSS or proprietary operating systems, like Windows.
CICT urged members of the open source community to work together to “make Filipinos aware of the many benefits that (open source software) has to offer and that they have a cost-effective alternative to proprietary solutions that do not involve software piracy,” he said.
Since the CICT programs will encourage the use of OSS, Chua believes that these would also expand the pool of OSS experts and professionals in the country.
G2VC chairman and founder Winston Damarillo, meanwhile, said key indicators show “open source is ready for prime time.” Damarillo is the founder and chairman of Exist Global, Inc. He is also the executive chairman of Morph Labs, a company that offers software as a service.
Damarillo said that among these indicators are open source products that have become market leaders, notably Apache, the dominant web server in the market.
Open source products, he said, have also become models for collaboration and drivers of software entrepreneurship. They also boost the compensation of developers by as much as 30 percent to 40 percent.
Open source has also been recognized as “de facto point of innovation,” Damarillo said. (MTL)
