Sri Lanka can become an open source software hub in Asia: ICTA CEO
Thursday, 5 December 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) CEO Reshan Dewapura says that Sri Lanka can also be known as an open source software hub in Asia.
“The software product engineering niche of Sri Lanka can be greatly fuelled by sectors such as open source software development. While we become globally recognised as a centre of excellence for product engineering, we can also be known as an open source software hub in Asia.”
The ICTA CEO said so while participating as Chief Guest at the Tech Forum 2013 held at Hilton Residencies Colombo yesterday (3) with ICTA as national partner.
The 7th Tech Forum was organised by the Sri Lanka Chapter – Sri Lanka Association for the Software Industry - of the Federation of Information Technology Industry of Sri Lanka (FITIS).
Dewapura placed before the gathering the benefits of open source, barriers to it, steps for its adoption, challenges and opportunities. ICTA CEO concluded the address with emphasis on the move towards ‘Smart Sri Lanka’.
Driving home to the tech savvy forum themed Open Source Tools and Technologies for Software Development the increase in the adoption of open source the ICTA CEO said: “Talking about change and transformation, the technology landscape is changing across the board as well. One of those significant changes or transformations that we are seeing is the increasing adoption of open source. Enterprises, governments and many other entities are getting more accustomed to and more comfortable with using open source software technologies than before.
Commenting on the resourcefulness of the open source community Dewapura said: “One out of the many accolades and recognition Sri Lanka has received in the ICT sector is for its vibrant and resourceful open source community. Many institutions and publications globally, have recognised our country as place with resourceful and skilled open source talent.
“On the scale of the skills/population ratio, and with the limited economic resources this is seen as a significant achievement. It is plus point that we can and should leverage for the growth of our IT/BPM Industry.
“The IT-BPM workforce in the country is estimated to top 100,000 persons this year, and the industry is estimated to be approximately $ 1.5 billion according to Gartner. There are ambitious but achievable targets set for the growth of this industry for the next two years, the next five years and the next 10 years. To achieve these targets one of the core focus areas for us, in the IT space is software product engineering.”
Continuous change
Speaking further on the pervasive nature of the change in our milieu Dewapura pointed out:
“If we look at the world around us, and look at what is going on, there is one thing which is clearer today than it was yesterday. That is the continuous change that is happening all around us. This is more obvious and more prominent than before and something that everyone has come to accept.
“The growth of traditional technology and innovations of new technology, contribute in no small way to this continuous change. On the one hand it can be argued that it is the technology that is the cause of change, while on the other hand it may be seen that it is the technology that facilitates the change.
“Either way changes happen all around us, and to make the change positive and beneficial to all of us, it is important to accept it, understand it and adapt with it. This process is also known as transformation, and is something that governments, enterprises, societies and various other groups across the globe are involved in, and are going through, in an unimaginably significant way throughout the world today. It is seen that transformation is the key to success, whatever the entity, or even in some cases even the key to survival.”
Change through open source
Dewapura took the packed audience to a journey of the vast changes taking place around the world and in particular through ICT and especially through open source: “Information and Communication Technology or ICT is one of the greatest tools of transformation and this is an important factor that has been accepted, recognised and taken on board not only by those involved in this sector, but also by those who are the recipients of such technologies, or the recipients of services based on these technologies. And to successfully embrace technology-led, or technology inspired transformation, you have to be abreast of it, or in other words in our industry, move with it.
“Even though open source has traditionally been associated with volunteers and community evangelists, the emergence of commercial companies offering best-in-class solutions based on open source have made a huge difference. Although open source has been around for a long time, it has a much greater acceptance in today’s world. Even proprietary software companies have all embarked upon their own open source initiatives.
“For some entities, open source has been or will be the differentiator in its existence. And all of us know that open source is one of those things that can easily facilitate the change and transformation.
Benefits of and barriers to open source
“It is a well known fact that governments around the world, have been using and pushing for wider open source adoption for many a years. The benefits of open source, such as the affordability, ownership and openness and its flexibility as an alternative to expensive, restrictive, insecure propriety software are all well known.
“Despite these obvious benefits, in the past, especially in government there have been many obstacles or barriers that hindered the easy adoption of open source. Lack of an open source policy in general, inadequacies in the procurement process to accommodate open source and absence of what we called a ‘level playing field’ has been the most prominent among them. Over the years many activities have been undertaken to ensure that these barriers or obstacles are removed and to allow open source to ‘grow’ in governments as well as in countries.
Steps towards open source adoption
“In Sri Lanka many steps have been taken to level the playing field and many initiatives from creating awareness to setting procurement policies for open source adoption have been undertaken. In government, Sri Lanka adopts a pro-choice policy, with mandated open standards. This is seen as a great first step to adoption of open source, as it removes strongest weapon of proprietary software which locks it’s users in proprietary standards.
“Sri Lanka’s e-development agenda ‘e-Sri Lanka’, which has been implemented by ICTA over last eight years, has given equal opportunity to open source in its technology choices. One of the flagship projects of ICTA, the Lanka Gate, which is the Government service delivery platform, is one such great example.
“This middleware infrastructure, which is the core of the e-government service provision in the country is based on open standards, and service oriented architecture, and is in fact built on an open source enterprise service bus.
“It has also promoted awareness creation and capacity building in government on open source technologies all with the aim of ‘levelling the playing field’. Our Annual ‘FOSS for Gov’ Forums are much sought after and are looked forward to by both CIOs and ICT technologists in government.
Unique challenges and opportunities
“Sri Lanka as a country has some unique challenges and opportunities. And this is so in the ICT sector as well. We belong to those groups of countries where mobile devices will be a technology which is in the hands of almost all our citizens. We have local languages in our country that are not spoken out-side Sri Lanka, and require technology enablement within the country.
“We are a nation with limited economic resources, where more has to be achieved with less. We as a country have brought down the software piracy rate, and look to improve that rating even further in the future. With all the challenges we have faced in the past, now more than ever, our information infrastructure and our cyber space have to be absolutely secure.
“If there is one common thing that can help, facilitate all of the above it is open source. And we have been making use of open source to overcome these challenges, and maximise on these opportunities. Sri Lanka with limited resources have made great strides in the field of ICT in the past years, and come to be globally acknowledged for it in many different forms. Some of these successes can be attributed (both directly and indirectly) to the astute and strategic adoption of open source. More can be achieved in the future by sticking with it.
Smart Sri Lanka
“Talking about government, Sri Lanka’s e-Development Agenda is also in a transition phase. I did mention earlier that change and transformation are inherent in our professional lives today. We are transitioning from e-Sri Lanka to Smart Sri Lanka, which is our future ICT vision. This was announced by none other than the President himself when he inaugurated the recently concluded WSA World Congress.
“Smart Sri Lanka will be the next phase of ICT led transformation, focusing on a smart-government, on smart jobs, and on a smart information society. Innovative and pioneering growth areas, especially in the ICT product and application development space such as open source will, play a key role in this effort.
“As mentioned before, the Government of Sri Lanka, which has already identified ICT as a vibrant growth sector, will continue to be committed to the ICT led development initiatives, and the ICT Agency will continue to play its facilitating, catalysing, and idea actioning role in this effort”.
