Liberation Technology: Can free software and open source help third-world countries?

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

[from Linux Journal]

Liberation Technology
Posted on Monday, June 09, 2003 by Frederick Noronha

Can free software and open source help third-world countries?


The recent Finnish study on the significance of FLOSS (free/libre and 
open-source software) in developing countries labels itself version 
1.0 and ushers in a new concept--not free as in beer or speech, but 
free as in education. This report, the latest in a series of studies 
on the impact of free and open-source software worldwide, focuses on 
the third world. It has been sponsored by Finland, home of the Linux 
kernel. "This is the beginning. We will put out our findings on the 
Net and hope to get ideas on improvements (to the study)", says lead 
researcher Niranjan Rajani, originally from Pakistan and currently 
based in Helsinki. "This has become a project that most probably will 
not have an end. You could consider this report [to be] version 
1.0...this is just a starting point", stressed Juha Rekola of KEPA, a 
Finnish network of non-governmental and campaign organisations 
involved in the study.

Rajani, a philosopher who took to computing to earn a living, looks 
at the impact of FLOSS in specific countries, and he also views the 
implications of what it means for a cash-strapped economy. He has few 
doubts about the usefulness of FLOSS, which he believes would be 
"extremely relevant" in any of the poorer parts of the globe. He 
says, "Take the example of education. In terms of computer education, 
FLOSS has no match. Nothing else provides [as] much value to learners 
as FLOSS does. You're free to tinker with the code. Not only that, 
you can get in touch with the people who wrote the code and ask why 
this or that was done in a particular piece of code.

"[FLOSS] offers low entry barriers. That's how it should be 
described. It reduces the barriers for anyone wanting to enter this 
field by making everything open. So much so, that many people fail to 
appreciate that fact. Besides, there's the element of cost. Most of 
the studies show that, in terms of cost, free and open-source 
software is unmatched. Some studies have been made which tend to show 
that, in certain cases, FLOSS may have more immediate costs. But I 
doubt the seriousness and validity of these studies on the ground 
that these studies do not take into account what would be happening 
if there was no FLOSS. Where would the cost structure of the current 
software be?"

Recently, while unveiling the report in downtown Helsinki, Rajani 
agreed that "there is no magic bullet or magic wand, and neither 
FLOSS nor computers (by themselves) can provide a great leap into 
development". Development, he argued, comes about by humans 
determined to make changes in the direction they are moving. "But 
FLOSS can do wonders in terms of savings (on software), educating and 
building a solid base needed for going ahead", said the 45-year-old 
Karachi and philosopher-techie.

Rajani argues the ideas of free software are spreading to other 
fields, as seen in terms of open law, open-source biology, MIT's 
opencourseware, e-books put on-line through volunteers under Project 
Gutenberg, free dictionaries, the open music movement and the like. 
Rajani contends the freedom offered by FLOSS is of "paramount 
importance in more than one way" in the third world. Yet, he says, 
the price aspect is also "very important, without which developing 
nations would not be able to significantly meet the challenges of the 
computing age". So, rather than arguing whether free and open-source 
software is free beer or free speech, it ought to be thought of as 
"free education...in terms of both freedom [and] price."

Taking a broad overview, the study suggests "the situation in Asia 
and even Africa can be contrasted to Latin America, where the 
contribution of code to FLOSS started much earlier and is duly 
noticed and recognised". But Niranjan goes along with the view that 
the output of free software and open-source code from Asia "in coming 
years (could see) more contributions, and some will excel so much 
that they will get attention".

"Going through the 20+ countries mentioned in the Asia report, the 
highest overall FLOSS-related activity seems to be taking place in 
countries like India, China and Taiwan (excluding Japan, which is not 
the subject of this study) followed by South Korea, Malaysia, 
Singapore, Thailand, etc.", summarises Rajani. In Latin America, 
Mexico, Brazil and Argentina top the FLOSS-related activity scores, 
both in terms of usage and code-contribution. They're followed by 
Colombia, Venezuela and Peru.

"Latin American programmers have made significant contributions to 
the overall FLOSS projects around the globe", Rajani confirms. For 
instance, this Finnish study notes that GNOME, one of the two 
competing GUIs available for Linux, was started by the Mexican 
developer Miguel de Icaza while he was working at the Institute of 
Nuclear Sciences (UNAM-Universidad Autonoma de Mexico).

Latin America also can boast of projects such as Brazil's CodigoLivre 
at UNIVATES and the Rede Escolar Livre RS, plus UTUTU, BioLinux and 
Via Libre Foundation in Argentina, PHP-Nuke from Venezuela and 
INFOMED from Cuba, among others.

In Africa, the spotlight turns to the Translate.org initiative of 
South Africa, a translation effort to make Linux available in South 
Africa's 11 official languages; OpenLab, in South Africa and Nigeria; 
SchoolTool; and LinuxLab, among others. There's also the radio e-mail 
project in Guinea and the use of Linux wireless routers to bring in 
subscribers for an ISP in Ghana. In February 2003, the Free and Open 
Source Software Foundation Africa was launched in Geneva.

Interestingly, Rajani points to a recent trend that has seen South 
Asians at the helm of a number of important studies on free software 
and open source. First it was Rishab Aiyer-Ghosh, in the Netherlands, 
who undertook the prestigious study on free/libre and open-source 
software for the European Union. In addition, Seema Arora at Stanford 
is part of the team looking at what makes programmers gift their 
critical code without hoping to earn millions in return. Now comes 
Rajani's work.

This latest report was funded by Finland's Ministry for Foreign 
Affairs and undertaken by OneWorld Finland and KEPA. The latter two 
are organisations working in development, a field in which software--
particularly free software--is being looked at as a tool with 
considerable promise. Also of note, Peruvian Congressman Dr. Edgar 
Villanueva Nunez, well known for his stand on free software and his 
legislative initiatives there, was present at the unveiling of the 
report.

Copies of the report are available at www.itfirms.co.za/research.html 
and fi.oneworld.net/article/view/56261. An English language version 
can be found at www.kepa.fi/english.

Frederick Noronha is a freelance journalist living in Goa, India. 


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