The Need for FOSS Policy in Macedonia

The Need for FOSS Policy in Macedonia Conference on Free Open Source Software 2007 15.05.2007, Skopje, Macedonia Filip Stojanovski Metamorphosis Foundation

Why Do We Need FOSS Policy?

Vision

Guidelines

Road map

Laws

Procedures

Results

Policy-Related Documents So Far

National Policy for Information Society Development (2005) – open standards, platform independence

National Strategy for Information Society Development (2005) – ditto, + FOSS as public good

Law on Free Access to Publicly Owned Information (2006) - failed to include open standards clause for e-documents

National Strategy for Electronic Communications and IT Development (2007) – on interoperability, requires international standards (OASIS as example)

National Policy for IS Development

“ For the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia to be stakeholders of the Information Society, it is necessary:

to build coherent policies for all sectors to offer e-services which will be unified, standardized, user-friendly, independent of the software platform , available to all citizens regardless of their location and the social status , taking into consideration the needs of the citizens;”

National Strategy for IS Development

e-Citizens: “It is necessary to support the use of the FOSS as a public good accessible to all citizens, especially through the freedom of choice of a platform in the formal and informal ICT education.

Objective 6.03: Enabling accessible e-services irrespective of the software platform, which shall use open standardised formats of documentation and exchange of information;

Central Government Examples

Pension Fund : Windows-only client software for firms (December 2005)

Public Health Fund : Windows-only client software for physicians (April 2007)

Good Governance Project (General Secretariat & FOSIM): establishing standards, trainings, capacity building ( www.dobrovladeenje.org.mk )

Increased awareness and responsiveness to FOSS issues.

Local Government Situation

Low ICT Skills: 0.75 out of 4.0 (UNDP, 2004, www.undp.org.mk/e-governance )

Lack of local (municipal) ICT Strategies and budget, over 85% have none (Metamorphosis, May 2006)

NSECITD (2007) requires that “local self-governments should adopt local ICT strategies within 1.5 years” - Measure 2.8.a.

Local Government Situation

Most Macedonian local governments use unlicensed software. (Metamorphosis, May 2006)

FOSS-Related Local Government Projects (2007)

Metamorphosis/USAI D OpenOffice.org training for municipal 75 employees from 22 municipalities (Jan.)

FOSS Workshops in 5 municipalities (Feb.) by UNDP + ZELS, Free Software Macedonia, Metamorphosis, MESA

UNDP Pilot Project Capacity building and & e-services development in 3 municipalities (ongoing)

Most public officials respond only to obligations set by law

Increased accountability and transparency

Clear procedures for ICT procurement

Decreasing costs for taxpayers

Preventing closure of information systems

Increased e-Inclusion

Euro Integration

“ [T]he unified i2010 Programme calls for the development of an agreed interoperability framework of the national e-Administration systems, based on the open standards and open source software..”