One of the speakers at our recently organized Dataquest e-Governance Summit in Kolkata was very upset. He had his PowerPoint presentation in Linux, and we were not able to open it on our laptop for the projection. He lashed out at us for blocking open software and said that the first thing the Government of India must do to ensure that e-governance succeeds in the country is to move to open systems.

I am used to such comments coming from diehard open systems fans, but what surprised me was the response that he got from the audience, which comprised senior government functionaries. There was a huge applause and a long round of clapping in support of his Window bashing.

I am aware of pro open systems sentiments of some state governments in the South. The recent decision by the Kerela government, for instance, to allow its more than half a million senior school students to take the mandatory IT exams only in GNU/Linux is a clear pointer toward the governments thinking. In an adjacent state, everyone is aware that every purchase of a Microsoft product goes through such a stringent scrutiny on cost comparisons, that it is now becoming impossible. But this was Kolkata.

While the easy route to explain all this is anti-Microsoft sentiments, what I could gather from most speakers and delegates was that they actually believe going for Windows is a costly proposition. Most seem to believe that countrywide e-governance will take-off only on very low-cost or free solutions that Linux claims to offer.

This kind of support for open systems was far low in e-governance conferences that I have seen in in the earlier years. And I thought Microsoft has been able to strengthen their case, which has a lot of merits also. Apparently, there are quite a few people and governments that they still need to convince. Richard Stallman, the global guru of free software, at the moment is doing a better job, at least in some of the states in India.

Ibrahim Ahmad

Policy makers must ensure that both Windows and Open Source are leveraged for faster implementation of e-gov, rather than it becoming a bottleneck

It is a little too early to predict whether this will turn into a Windows versus Open Source war and spill out on the streets, but what is sure is that Open Source is not fading away as we were all made to believe a few years back. Actually, if the governments mandate in favor of open systems in two very basic and fundamental placesschool educations and e-governancewe will see the impact on almost every aspect of life as far as India goes. Everything ranging from e-commerce, education, and citizen services could become open source-based. Open Source could become the de facto.

Obviously, all this is easier said than done. The Indian market is still influenced heavily by solution providers whose orientation has been exports, where its only Windows. Unless and until long term solutions and support commitments for Open Source is available from vendors, it is going to be risky. Also, India will have to be part of the global practices and preferences to really leverage e-governance. There, Windows has a huge lead over Open Source.

At the moment, Open Source in India is just about beginning to happen. And so is e-governance. My plea to policy makers in the government as well as solution providers is to ensure that both Windows and Open Source are leveraged for faster implementation of e-governance, rather than it becoming a bottleneck.

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