Policy on Standards, Software and Content
Using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in developing Country, Cambodia.
ObjectiveTo find the right software for rapid human resource developments, socio-economic development,
and poverty alleviation in Cambodia.
Background
During the last decade, Cambodia has been gradually developed in almost every field including governance,tourism, education, and economy. Meanwhile, ICT is a need in government, private sector, and educational institutions. Without ICT, work cannot be effective and efficient. By seeing its advantages, people have tried to include ICT in their study fields or work. Most pre-installed software and programs used in academic curricula are proprietary software. It is unbelievable that those software with license costs are freely used through out a less developed country like Cambodia, except some large corporations and organizations.
This negative impact is caused by widespread software piracy in this country. The price is approximately $2 per CD, and at the moment, those CDs can be illegally copied and shared among others. Therefore, we should thoroughly consider the future consequences when the situation becomes worser while proprietary software companies start to threaten by forcing their users to pay for software license fee (The day will come soon because Cambodia has been a member of WTO since 2004). By then, these purchases consume currency which could be better spent on other development goals. Still, it calls into question that can Cambodian people afford such a high price?
Actually, not only does the problem with license fee heavily affect Cambodia's economy, but close source and language also retard the progress of rapid human resource development. Hence, the e-government project which is going to become a digital citizen service and to help corruption and poverty alleviation will also have never been accomplished due to language barrier of governmental officials and people living in remote and rural areas.
Therefore, to achieve the socio-economic development, human resources development and poverty alleviation goal, the Royal Government of Cambodia has set out an draft ICT policy stated to choose a two pronged approach1 (Proprietary Software and Open Source Software as an alternative) for its software adaptation.
I will give a case study regarding Open Source software application in Cambodia.This negative impact is caused by widespread software piracy in this country. The price is approximately $2 per CD, and at the moment, those CDs can be illegally copied and shared among others. Therefore, we should thoroughly consider the future consequences when the situation becomes worser while proprietary software companies start to threaten by forcing their users to pay for software license fee (The day will come soon because Cambodia has been a member of WTO since 2004). By then, these purchases consume currency which could be better spent on other development goals. Still, it calls into question that can Cambodian people afford such a high price?
Actually, not only does the problem with license fee heavily affect Cambodia's economy, but close source and language also retard the progress of rapid human resource development. Hence, the e-government project which is going to become a digital citizen service and to help corruption and poverty alleviation will also have never been accomplished due to language barrier of governmental officials and people living in remote and rural areas.
Therefore, to achieve the socio-economic development, human resources development and poverty alleviation goal, the Royal Government of Cambodia has set out an draft ICT policy stated to choose a two pronged approach1 (Proprietary Software and Open Source Software as an alternative) for its software adaptation.
Case Study
Open Institute, Cambodia – KhmerOS Project2 - Introducing Localized ICT.
KhmerOS envisions Cambodia a country where people can learn and use computers in their own language. Databases and applications will be developed directly in Khmer. And there must be widespread use of very low cost software, well adapted to Cambodia's economy, business climate, and people.
Since 2004, this project has created a number of useful software such as Khmer Unicode fonts, keyboard, and a number of localized Open Source Software (OSS) plus training materials for trainers and end users. A Master Plan for the Implantation of Open Source in Cambodia was also been devised in 2005. After three years of hard work, this cooperation project between the government and Open Institute has raised the awareness of OSS to governmental IT support staff, hardware vendors, organizations and some universities in Cambodia.
However, evidence proved that there is still a limitation of using OSS. As mentioned, OSS is not widely used in academic programs and also pre-installed software is proprietary software. Most organizations and companies that require computer-based jobs haven't even heard about OSS. Additionally, they even have no idea about intellectual property rights and total cost of ownership issues which could bring tremendous consequences.
Other obstacle for migrating to OSS is that people feel fear of using the new software, because they don't know what it is, how to use it, and if it is secure.
The inadequateness encourage me to conduct this research and the result of my research will address the following prominent highlighted problems:
• What are the consequences for a country which is plagued by software piracy?
• The Royal Government of Cambodia chose a two-pronged approach for software adaptation, so which one should be taught in educational institutions? why?
• Will OSS be a better alternative software for rapid human resource and socio-economic development? If so, what opportunities and added values will OSS offer to computer users? what are the obstacles to promote FOSS in business models?
Research Methodologies
To be effective, I have defined clear research methodologies. At the first step, I will research for the understanding of OSS perspectives for development including the global perspective on Open Source Software use, some case studies in developing countries, the current dynamics of Open Source Software, and so forth from collected documents. Secondly, the thorough assessment of the present use of ICT will be made. The quantitative survey on the awareness of ICT importance on OSS understanding will be done among computer users in Cambodia. Thirdly, I will try to evaluate the standard living and GDP of Cambodian people by cooperating with the Ministry of Finance to get the accurate data to forecast on how many people can afford
such a high price of proprietary software license fee and how much can be saved from using OSS.
Finally, the critical analysis will have to be done under the Japanese professors' advice.
Beneficiaries Based on my clear methodologies with the input of Japanese professors, I do believe that this crucial research will be implemented successfully. As a result, the best strategy for Cambodia to develop ICT and the effective role of government in ICT development will be approved. All in all, Cambodia will have a clear direction in the usage of Information and Communication Technology in education. This will enhance its quality and prepare its
citizen to play an active role in the knowledge-based society; they must not have the technical skills, but a global view that will allow them to use ICT to work, communicate and further develop their personal and professional skills. Besides education sustainability, the outcome will enable Cambodia to be regarded as a country where Intellectual Property Right (IPR) is protected.
Open Institute, Cambodia – KhmerOS Project2 - Introducing Localized ICT.
KhmerOS envisions Cambodia a country where people can learn and use computers in their own language. Databases and applications will be developed directly in Khmer. And there must be widespread use of very low cost software, well adapted to Cambodia's economy, business climate, and people.
Since 2004, this project has created a number of useful software such as Khmer Unicode fonts, keyboard, and a number of localized Open Source Software (OSS) plus training materials for trainers and end users. A Master Plan for the Implantation of Open Source in Cambodia was also been devised in 2005. After three years of hard work, this cooperation project between the government and Open Institute has raised the awareness of OSS to governmental IT support staff, hardware vendors, organizations and some universities in Cambodia.
However, evidence proved that there is still a limitation of using OSS. As mentioned, OSS is not widely used in academic programs and also pre-installed software is proprietary software. Most organizations and companies that require computer-based jobs haven't even heard about OSS. Additionally, they even have no idea about intellectual property rights and total cost of ownership issues which could bring tremendous consequences.
Other obstacle for migrating to OSS is that people feel fear of using the new software, because they don't know what it is, how to use it, and if it is secure.
The inadequateness encourage me to conduct this research and the result of my research will address the following prominent highlighted problems:
• What are the consequences for a country which is plagued by software piracy?
• The Royal Government of Cambodia chose a two-pronged approach for software adaptation, so which one should be taught in educational institutions? why?
• Will OSS be a better alternative software for rapid human resource and socio-economic development? If so, what opportunities and added values will OSS offer to computer users? what are the obstacles to promote FOSS in business models?
Research Methodologies
To be effective, I have defined clear research methodologies. At the first step, I will research for the understanding of OSS perspectives for development including the global perspective on Open Source Software use, some case studies in developing countries, the current dynamics of Open Source Software, and so forth from collected documents. Secondly, the thorough assessment of the present use of ICT will be made. The quantitative survey on the awareness of ICT importance on OSS understanding will be done among computer users in Cambodia. Thirdly, I will try to evaluate the standard living and GDP of Cambodian people by cooperating with the Ministry of Finance to get the accurate data to forecast on how many people can afford
such a high price of proprietary software license fee and how much can be saved from using OSS.
Finally, the critical analysis will have to be done under the Japanese professors' advice.
Beneficiaries Based on my clear methodologies with the input of Japanese professors, I do believe that this crucial research will be implemented successfully. As a result, the best strategy for Cambodia to develop ICT and the effective role of government in ICT development will be approved. All in all, Cambodia will have a clear direction in the usage of Information and Communication Technology in education. This will enhance its quality and prepare its
citizen to play an active role in the knowledge-based society; they must not have the technical skills, but a global view that will allow them to use ICT to work, communicate and further develop their personal and professional skills. Besides education sustainability, the outcome will enable Cambodia to be regarded as a country where Intellectual Property Right (IPR) is protected.
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2 comments:
I see the word "poverty alleviation in Cambodia" very interesting. One says if you feed them with rice, they will ask you more, but if you feed them with knowledge, they will use that knowledge to feed themselves. In reality, the bottom most of Cambodian are worrying about what is on their plates than what is in the computers. In other words, if they dont have enough on their plates, surely they are not interested any new models of IBM.
Back to your research title. One of the most effective ways in writing theses is to ask relative questions, that is, ask questions that are related to the topic at hand. Ask questions that you really want to know the answers, but you don't know as yet. In your research title, you seem to support OSS, but in the background you seem to against it by stating the widespread of software piracy. I would not positively mention the software piracy, if i'm all for OSS. In fact, if OSS is available, then no software piracy will ever exist. I like your research topic very much.
Thanks for your useful comments on my research plan. I hope you will continue this open disscusion.
You made comments on two different stories:one is about poverty alleviation and another one is about software piracy . I’d like to talk in the reverse order.
One of the expected outcomes of the research is to see Cambodia a country where IPR is protected – that is, the illegal software piracy must be reduced, though not 100%. The word “widespread software piracy” mentioned in my research plan is not referred to the illegal copy of OSS, but illegal copy of proprietary software whose license is not free of charge. You’re right that if Cambodia adopts OSS whose license is to give people the freedom of sharing , distributing amoung friends, and to modify code to meet our needs, then Cambodia will be free from the word “software piracy”
Let me move to the next story, poverty alleviation. We know that they care about their plates more than anything else. Therefore, the question is how can ICT help fill their plates? If they know that the right use of ICT can make their lives easier, they will consider it. Back to our story, how can my research result help improve the poverty alleviation in Cambodia? I imagine that if, in the future, OSS takes over proprietary software, people can have legal access to ICT and they can keep the amount of money that is to spend on license fee to effectively use it for other purposes. Morever, with the open source code feature, people can learn faster which is respond to one of the aspects of the Rectangle Strategies of Royal Government of Cambodia aiming to enhance capacity of human resources to respond to labour market’s need.
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