FOSS:
Building a strong ecosystem
5th November 2008
Pia Waugh
Consultant – Waugh Partners
Founding Member – OLPC Friends
President – Software Freedom International
pia@waughpartners.com.au

FOSS?

FOSS?
Software?

FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?

FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?
Industry?

FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?
Industry?
Community?

FOSS?
Software?
Development methodology?
Industry?
Community?
Open Standards?

FOSS
Software
Development methodology
Industry
Community
Open Standards
And, and, and....

FOSS is an ecosystem of
people

The Idea

The Idea goes public

People can see the Idea

Get the Idea

And contribute to the Idea

So the Idea can evolve

Community distributions

Commercial distributions

Local User Groups

FOSS is an ecosystem
of people...
● Projects
●
Community distributions
●
Commercial distributions
●
Local User Groups
●
Industry
●
Users and innovators
●
Advocates

... who do stuff
● Software development
●
Support
●
Documentation
●
Implementation
●
Demos and talks
●
User meetings
●
Outreach events

Many do it
for fun

Many do it
for work

Many do it to
improve the world

Communities are driven by
● Individuals
●
Technical needs
●
Vision
●
Grassroot efforts

The roles of
Government
?

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices
●
Reduction of FOSS procurement blockages

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices
●
Reduction of FOSS procurement blockages
●
Benefits of FOSS systems & industry

Government: Using FOSS
● Industry develops through market needs
●
Community responds to user needs
●
Skills development
●
Best practices
●
Reduction of FOSS procurement blockages
●
Benefits of FOSS systems & industry
●
Ask your vendors about FOSS

Ensure there is a need
Cost savings – Migration or consolidation
Sustainability – National Archives of Australia
Flexibility & Collaboration – eGovernment
Trusted Systems – eVoting – Diebold, ACT vs
Victoria

Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools

Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools
●
Use FOSS collaboration methods and tools

Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools
●
Use FOSS collaboration methods and tools
●
Encourage contribution to projects where
appropriate – bugs reports, code, docs

Government:
Developing FOSS
● Innovate with existing tools
●
Use FOSS collaboration methods and tools
●
Encourage contribution to projects where
appropriate – bugs reports, code, docs
● Whitebranding easy Government adoption

Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down

Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments

Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities

Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities
●
Give staff time to learn and develop

Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities
●
Give staff time to learn and develop
●
Support user groups – venue, pizza, hardware

Government:
Supporting Communities
● Communities are bottom up, not top down
●
Support enthusiasm within departments
●
Encourage participation in FOSS communities
●
Give staff time to learn and develop
●
Support user groups – venue, pizza, hardware
●
Run/support events – hackfests, competitions

FOSS in Australia
✔ Private – strong user community
✔ Education – growing rapidly
✔ The Open Source Industry – highly skilled
globally successful and local development
✔ The Open Source community – large
and skilled community, project leaders
several local development labs
✔ Government – great case studies, lacking
cohesive leadership and strategy

FOSS in the
Australian Government
➢ Over 60% of agencies using FOSS
➢
Leadership from flagship agencies
➢
NAA – archival of Government data
➢
NSW Judicial Commission – core biz apps
➢
AGIMO – Government collaboration – GovDex
➢ NSW DET – FOSS in education
➢ Agencies participating in the community
➢
Increase in pilots and trials
“Open Source is the future” - Patrick Callioni, Division Manager, AGIMO

World experiences

World experiences

World experiences

World experiences

World experiences
●
Sustainability Education Local industry
●
Security ● ●
●
Avoiding vendor Learning Flexibility
●
Control ● ●
lock-in Localisation Cost savings
● Scalability ● ●
●
Control over Community Gov investment
●
Autonomous ● ●
Data IT industry
●
Skills devel ●
● Self-determination bootstrapping

Thank you & Questions
Useful links
Linux Australia - http://linux.org.au/
Open Source Industry Australia - http://osia.net.au/
Australian Service for Knowledge of Open Source - http://ask-oss.mq.edu.au
Australian Government collaboration portal - http://www.govdex.gov.au/
Australian FOSS Census - http://census.waughpartners.com.au/
Pia Waugh
pia@waughpartners.com.au
Waugh Partners
http://waughpartners.com.au
All images are either OpenOffice clipart or Public Domain from Wikicommons