Free software nodal body still a mirage

Almost a year after the Kerala government first aired the idea of setting up an International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) to foster the growth of open source software adoption in the state and beyond, the nodal body is far from seeing the light of the day.

M Arun, secretary of the Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI) and special officer for the Centre, said that the nodal body, which was to be set up in Thiruvananthapuram as an independent body with peer review powers over the state government’s open source implementations, was to have begun operations last year.

“The Kerala chief minister has been very positive about the free software principle. However, the extent to which he can take this forward remains to be seen. In Kerala, whatever we have gained so far via adoption of open source technology has lead to local hardware sellers being empowered to support free software customers in the state. But we need more people trained to support SMEs moving over to open source,” Arun said.

Asked if the ongoing infighting within the state CPM had adversely affected the project, Arun replied in the negative.

“We have not seen any progress on this front as of now. It would be helpful if the CPM took a proactive stance on this project. Moreover, the CPM and BJP have always been supportive of open source software adoption. Small and medium businesses in India have been taking to it in larger numbers, although India still lags behind Europe in open source adoption,” Arun said.

At the time of ICFOSS’ conception, Rahul De, Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor at IIM-Bangalore, had been asked to draft the vision document. Subsequently, De had proposed that ICFOSS focus on issues of patents, copyright, digital content and scientific publishing, besides software development.

The centre was to act as a consultancy for all government departments in the state for IT-related activities. ICFOSS was also supposed to ensure a balance between proprietary and open source software in all software acquisitions by government departments, besides identifying FOSS technologies for adoption by government departments, educational institutions and SMEs.

De had also suggested that ICFOSS be headed by an eminent person from either the industry or academia. “The government is yet to suggest a suitable person for the post,” Arun added.

It is understood that the state IT department is yet to obtain logistical clearances from the government for the project for which Rs 60 lakh was earmarked last year.

Kerala has been a pioneer in adopting open source and Linux-based software in its government deparments and schools, much to the chagrin of established software vendors who have been struggling to catch up.

The Kerala Electricity Board (KEB) and the Kerala Water Authority have adopted open source technologies to power their customer billing systems. The KEB has so far migrated 50 per cent of its systems to open source technologies. The state secretariat has adopted Linux desktop interfaces for all its personal computers.