Open source communities present a unique opportunity to foster global technology transfer between countries within the Northern and Southern hemisphere and build partnerships between developers and other community members from all over the world. Thus, open source supports efforts to decrease the Digital Divide between developed and developing countries and strengthens vendor-independence of all governments.

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Technology transfer and North-South partnerships
through open source communities
Dr. Matthias Stürmer
Member of the Board of Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open
Session “FOSS Smart Choice for Developing Countries” at
WSIS World Summit of Information Science 2013 in Geneva

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Matthias Stürmer is Manager at Ernst & Young based in Bern,
Switzerland. He focuses on open source advisory, open data
management, and social media governance.
He studied business administration and computer science at University
of Bern until 2005 and finished his doctoral dissertation at the Chair of
Strategic Management and Innovation at ETH Zürich in 2009.
His research focused on open source communities and firm involvement.
The title of his doctoral thesis was "How Firms Make Friends:
Communities in Private-Collective Innovation".
He then worked for one year at Liip AG, a Swiss software company
creating agile Internet solutions based on open source technologies.
Matthias Stürmer is working group leader “Office Interoperability” of the
Open Source Business Alliance, member of the board of Swiss Open
System User Group /ch/open, member of the Swiss association
Opendata.ch, secretary of the Swiss Parliamentarian Group for Digital
Sustainability, and leader of www.opensource.ch and other open
source initiatives.
Since 2011 he is member of the parliament of the city of Bern.
Short bio Matthias Stürmer
Dr. Matthias Stürmer
Member of the Board of /ch/open
Swiss Open Systems User Group
matthias.stuermer@ch-open.ch
+41 76 368 81 65
Association /ch/open
Postfach 2322
8033 Zürich
www.ch-open.ch

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1. My personal experience in developing countries
2. An old demand: open source in developing countries
3. Challenges and solutions how to support use of open source
Overview

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2005: Linux in Peru
Swiss civil service project in 2005:
Open source software for teacher's seminar
Previously all pirated software
Use of LinEx, Linux distribution from Spain
Implemented with local Linux professional
Local teacher hired for open source courses
Contact to local Debian community

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2012: Open source in Afghanistan
NATO financed workshop on „Creating Awareness for the Use of
OpenSource Systems in the Public Sector in Afghanistan“
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Finke, Ernst-Abbe University of Applied Sciences in
Germany & Sayed Jahed Hussini, Balkh University in Afghanistan
Presentations on open source
competence center and
Swiss Federal Court open
source software OpenJustitia

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1. My personal experience in developing countries
2. An old demand: open source in developing countries
3. Challenges and solutions how to support use of open source
Overview

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UN Millennium Development Goal 8
UN Millennium Development Goal 8:
Develop a global partnership for development
Target 8.F:
In cooperation with the private sector, make
available benefits of new technologies, especially
information and communications
74 per cent of inhabitants of developed countries
are Internet users, compared with only 26 per cent
of inhabitants in developing countries.
The number of mobile cellular subscriptions
worldwide by the end of 2011 reached 6 billion.

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An old demand: open source in developing countries
Already 10 years ago researchers
created a model to explain why open
source software is good for
developing countries:
Aspects of an open source
strategy for developing countries
Source:
Sanjiva Weerawarana and Jivaka Weeratunge
„Open Source in Developing Countries“
published by Sida 2004, Department for
Infrastructure and Economic Cooperation

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An old demand: open source in developing countries
In „Open Source Software in Developing Economies“ Steven Weber argues
already in 2003:
Open source software provides welfare gains and empowers developing
country end users to customize applications for their particular needs
Open source software deployment contributes to nascent local software
industry, ICT capacity building, and spillover effects to other sectors.
Developing country public sectors embrace open source software for the
following reasons:
Independence: decrease dependence on few major software vendors
Cost: support and maintenance flexibly contracted
Security: increased accountability and transparency in public sector
Intellectual property rights: enforcement at international level

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My view why open source is good for developing countries
Global technology transfer between countries within the Northern and
Southern hemisphere
Open source used in developing countries mostly programmed in Europe
and United States
Example: Linux kernel
Software development partnerships between community members
from all over the world
Gain independence, do capacity building, keep Intellectual Property Rights,
provide local support services
Examples: ADempiere (open source ERP and CRM)

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1. My personal experience in developing countries
2. An old demand: open source in developing countries
3. Challenges and solutions how to support use of open source
Overview

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Why is it difficult to introduce open source?
Knowhow barrier
Users are used to work with Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe etc.
Technical barrier
Migrations to open source are technically challenging
Support is not yet available locally
PR barrier
Brands of proprietary software seem more worthful
„No one has been fired for buying Microsoft“
Vendor barrier
Proprietary software vendors sell cheap versions of their products
Lobbying of multinationals at international organizations
Policy barrier
Missing policies that demand use of open source software
Other projects are more important than to legalize use of software
Structural
challenges
Human-made
challenges

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Non-for-profit open source competence centers
Belgium
CETIC - Centre of Excellence in
Information and Communication
Technologies
Finnland
COSS - Centre for
Open Source Software
Spain
CENATIC - Centro Nacional de
Referencia de Aplicación de las
Tecnologías de la Información y la
Comunicación
England
OSS Watch - advice and guidance
on use, development, and licensing
of free and open source software
Norway
Friprogsenteret - independent
competence center for open source
and free software
France
Adullact – Association des
Développeurs et des Utilisateurs
de Logiciels Libres pour les
Administrations et les
Collectivités Territoriales
South Tyrol (Italy)
Department for Free Software &
Open Technologies of the TIS
innovation park South Tyrol
Europe
OFE – OpenForum Europe is a
not-for-profit industry
organization on open source,
open data, open access,
standards, and procurement

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Activities of open source competence centers
Organization of conferences and workshops
Consulting for administrations, businesses
Studies and publications of open source success stories
Coordination of development activities of user communities
Creation of directories of open source firms and credentials
Management of information platforms about open source
Advocacy in government organizations and politics
OSS
Project
OSS
Project
OSS
Project
OSS
Project
Competence
Center
Vendor
Vendor User
User
Source:
Matthias Stürmer „Organizational Structures within the
Open Source Community“
In Workshop Proceedings Sept. 15-17, 2012, Kabul/
Afghanistan „Creating Awareness for the Use of
OpenSource Systems in the Public Sector in Afghanistan“

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Open source knowhow for decision makers
Top management vendor-neutral
brochure from Ernst & Young:
Open source software in
business-critical environments
In English and German
Content:
Benefits, risks and good practices
Professional application
Legal aspects of open source
Background information
Free PDF download:
http://www.opensource.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/opensource.ch/knowhow
/2011_OpenSourceSoftwareInBusiness-criticalEnvironments.pdf