Open Source Software and Its Impact to Technology Development

1
Open Source Software and Its Impact to
Technology Development
Joint UNCTAD - UNESCAP Asia-Pacific Regional
Conference. E-commerce Strategies for
Development Bangkok, 20-22 November, 2002

• Dr. David Wai-lok Cheung
• (?????)
• Director
• Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development
• (www.cecid.hku.hk)
• The University of Hong Kong

2
What is Open Source Software (OSS)

• OSS are software that users have unrestricted
  access to the source code
• OSS software may be used, copied, and distributed
  with or without modification, and may be offered
  with or without a fee
• OSS developers and distributors can create profit
  on the sales of support and services

3
OSS Market Share - Web

• Web Server Market (web infrastructure)
• Apache 65
• Microsoft 25
• Source Netcraft Survey

4
OSS Market Share - OS

• Operating System for Server
• Linux 27Microsoft 49
• Unix 12
• Netware 12
• Source IDC Market Research Sept 2002

5
OSS Market Share - DBMS

• DBMS OSS MySQL
• Approx. 4 million active installations worldwide
• ( 20 market share)
• up to 27,000 copies of MySQL downloaded per day!
• Corporate users includeYahoo!, Cisco, NASA,
  Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Google, etc.
• Many OSS in other areas - email, office desktop,
  word processor, e-commerce, etc.
• Source MySQL Website (http//www.mysql.com/compan
  y/factsheet.html)

6
Linux in China

• 65 Chinese developers expect to write
  applications for Linux in 2003
• Currently 44 are doing so
• Intention to use Linux as a primary host
  operating system next year increases by 175
• Source The Evans Data 2002 Chinese Developer
  Survey, Vol. 2

7
Benefit of Using OSS

• OSS products have access to extensive technical
  expertise - involve thousands of motivated
  voluntary programmers
• Rapid release of OSS distributes bug fixes and
  patches faster than many commercial products
• Lower direct cost
• Can tailor the source code to meet specific needs

8
Risk of Using OSS

• OSS products from a larger community with a well
  defined process would be more stable otherwise
  the quality could be a concern
• OSS tends to have weak GUI and be less practical
  -- much stronger in infrastructure software
• Without a good leadership group, code base could
  be fragmented

9
The Trend in Openness

• Open Standardized Data Format
• anti proprietary-data-format movement appearing
  from alliance of governments and users (many
  close software will be compatible to open-data
  format)
• Open messaging standards will become dominant
• software from different companies can talk to
  each other freely as long as they follow the
  standards
• different standards will be compatible

10
The Trend in Openness

• Open source software will become production grade
• Open standards and open source go hand-in-hand
• In 10 years, 80 of software will be OSS
• Vendor will compete on how open their software
  are
• export/import standardized data
• competition will drive down software cost
• major expenses will be on services

11
Our Experience in OSS

• Awarded a grant of US 1.2M by the Hong Kong
  government to build an e-commerce infrastructure
  software based on the ebXML standard
• ebXML is an open standard that provides EDI type
  services on Internet - give SME services that
  only big corporations can afford
• Use OSS license to distribute products via
  www.freebxml.org in two months, attracted users
  from more than 22 countries

12
A Solution for Developing Countries

• An XML-based email-like software that can
  transmit structured information from anywhere in
  the world
• A pilot for the UN World Meteorological
  Organization via the Hong Kong Observatory to
  collect world weather information

13
The Economic Impact

• An open-source document is much like a physics
  experiment to which hundreds of researchers
  contribute. (Kogut and Metiu, 2001)
• Science has often been described as a conspiracy
  constructed to provide incentives to researchers
  to invest their time in the production and public
  dissemination of their knowledge. (Dasgupta and
  David, 1994).

14
The Economic Impact

• OSS is a sustainable model for the creation and
  realization of innovative software for the
  society
• OSS and open standards will drive down the cost
  of using information technology - key factor for
  growth
• Developing countries, in aggregation, have a
  major share of the worlds brain power -- OSS
  could lower the threshold for entering the world
  of innovation and wealth creation

15

• Developing countries and their donor partners
  should review policies for procurement of
  computer software, with a view to ensuring that
  options for using low-cost and/or open-source
  software products are properly considered and
  their costs and benefits carefully evaluated.
• -- Integrating Intellectual Property Rights
  and Development Policy (Report of the
  Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, UK,
  Sept 2002)