Governments Go Online -- Without Windows
"Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based software. The basic Windows operating system costs a year and half salary for the average Vietnamese citizen," said Mike Reed, director of the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology.
Electronic governance promises to cut corruption and improve transparency, and open source 
software offers a way to break South Asia's technological dependence on industrialized countries, experts say.
Open source software such as Linux is non-proprietary, less complex, more efficient and freely available to anyone -- unlike Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows operating system, says Mike Reed, director of the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST), based in Macau, China.
Market Domination
"Linux is now the fastest-growing software and powers eight of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world," Reed said.
Open source software like Linux is embedded in many types of electronic devices, like mobile phones and cameras. Open source is also starting to cut into the near complete domination of the personal computer market by the Windows operating system, he said.
"Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based software. The basic Windows operating system costs a year and half salary for the average Vietnamese citizen," he noted.
That's led to rampant theft or illegal copying of Microsoft software. However, such software cannot be modified or customized to meet local needs. Companies and governments have no other choice than to commission expensive custom programming from California's Silicon Valley.
Open source, on the other hand, is easy to customize and not particularly difficult to learn, says Reed.
Although Linux has been around for more than 10 years, only a few developing countries like Brazil have a significant number of home-grown open source programmers. Without local programmers, setting up electronic governance -- use of computer technology by governments to improve public access to information and services -- becomes very expensive and difficult.
Access to computers is one major problem in the developing world, and so is the lack of local programming projects so that programmers can learn, says Reed.
Vietnam is one exception. A few years ago, Vietnam launched an ambitious effort to modernize, developing its own version of Linux called Vietkeylinux, partnering with the computer chip "Vietnam has more things online than the U.S. government," Reed said. Isolated Vietnamese villages now have public computer kiosks where citizens can conduct business with the government online, such as registering for birth certificates. "That reduces mid- to low-level government corruption, because it's easier to keep track of paperwork and everything is visible and public," he said. Government services are easier and cheaper to provide electronically. Plus, such an electronic/information infrastructure South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are successful examples of countries with low levels of corruption and high levels of economic activity that other Asian countries are hoping to emulate, Reed said. The information revolution has been slow in reaching two-thirds of the world, according to Darrell West, an e-governance researcher at the Center for Public Policy at Brown University in Providence, R.I. "Many countries don't have the money, and some don't see the benefits or have the desire to make the public sector open and transparent," West told IPS. In an exhaustive survey of the e-governance capabilities of 191 countries, West found that it is practically nonexistent in most African countries, as well as those in the Middle East. While money is the main problem in the former, the latter are dominated by "rich monarchical governments that have a very different view of public service and are not interested in e-governance," he said. Although e-governance can reduce "street-level corruption," the biggest motivator for most countries is to improve their economic development and boost their trade capacity, he said. In the long term, West is optimistic. "Countries are beginning to see the benefits and the cost reductions of e-governance," he said. However, launching such initiatives isn't easy and requires technical expertise, financing and political leadership, Reed added. It required a major two-year effort in the UNU home base of Macau, on the coast of China. Among the most difficult parts of moving to e-governance is getting government departments to open up, share their information and cooperate with each other, he said. "It used to require permissions and licenses from 10 different agencies to start a business in Macau. Now, there is just one online form," the researcher explained, and it took a strong leadership that insisted government officials make it happen. The impoverished country of Nepal was on the verge of achieving a good level of e-governance until the current political strife erupted a year ago. Nepal's high level of literacy and good mathematical education made it possible to develop Nepalese programmers who, with UNU training and US$2 million in outside funding, built an open source e-governance infrastructure. E-governance in Nepal is effectively on hold now, said Reed. This month, India announced an extremely ambitious national e-governance plan to computerize data in public sector banks, insurance companies and tax departments, create national citizen databases, put passports, visas and immigration information and data online, and much more. The two-year effort is expected to cost $1.5 billion. To assist these e-governance attempts and to help other countries get started, the UNU has established an interactive information clearinghouse on the Internet that it calls UneGov.net. In addition to having instructional how-to materials online, the portal will make available software and research papers, as well as contact information for others who have or are setting up e-governance in their own countries. The World Bank is among funding agencies being approached. Already, Vietnam is sharing some of its experience with Nigeria, Reed said. "People love to share their success stories," he concluded. Reducing Corruption
manufacturer Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and moving to electronic governance (e-governance). and expertise in these areas is crucial for a country like Vietnam to successfully participate in the global economy. Major Motivator
Government Resource
posted by Unknown @ 9:34 AM
1 Comments:
The dilemma for south Asia is that although Linux is free, most users are not familiar with its operating.
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