Since the launch of the Malaysian Public Sector Open Source Software (OSS) Master Plan programme in July 2004, it is estimated that the government saved some RM48 million in terms of licensing fees alone. However, this amount will be even greater if development cost of building software is tabulated.
Under the master plan, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Unit (Mampu), was tasked to guide, facilitate, coordinate and monitor the implementation of OSS in the public sector, via the setting up of an Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC) run and managed by Mampu.
The main objective of OSS was to consider alternative software to proprietary solutions to reduce the total cost of ownership. Other objectives include increasing the choice of software usage, increasing interoperability among systems, increasing growth of ICT and OSS industry as well as OSS user and developer community.
Mampu deputy director-general (ICT) Dr Nor Aliah Mohd Zahri says that while savings by the government is important, it is more crucial to develop human capital in OSS. “It is important to develop local talent so that we don’t have to depend on external developers. As such, various ministries and industry players should work together to provide training or platform for local talent to develop source codes for OSS,” she tells [email protected] at the inaugural MSC-Open Source conference.
The focus areas under human capital development include creating greater OSS awareness among users in the public sector, re-skilling of government agencies’ IT personnel and embedding OSS curriculum in education.
Naturally, the initiative to develop human capital in OSS should start at schools and universities. This will enable students to explore and participate in OSS activities that leverage new technology and innovation.
So far, five universities and polytechnics have included OSS in their syllabus. These are Politeknik Ungku Omar in Perak, Universiti Utara Malaysia (Kedah), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (Melaka), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (Perak) and Asia eUniversity (Kuala Lumpur).
As for the public sector, OSCC has trained over 30,000 staff, providing hands-on training like Certified Linux Administrator 02 and Certified OpenOffice.org/Linux. It has also developed content based on myspamguard and openoffice writer for e-pembelajaran sector awam, which allows access from public sector to OSS training via online education.
Apart from training and programmes, Nor Aliah says the availability of source code and reference materials from the Internet, as well as OSS communities, should also encourage R&D efforts. “OSS communities are the backbone of the OSS movement and it is an ideal platform for idea swapping and mutual scrutiny of techniques and codes all in a ‘birds of a feather’ environment,” she adds.
Not an easy task
Recalling the early days of implementation of the master plan, Nor Aliah says it was a challenge to get the public sector to accept the change, as they were sceptical and resistant to change.
“However, Mampu together with non-profit organisations, Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry (Pikom) and other government agencies, continued to drive the OSS master plan by creating awareness,” she adds.
Under the master plan, there are three phases of implementation. The first phase, from 2004 to 2006, focused on laying the foundation and early adoption where OSS policies and guidelines were developed.
The turning point where OSS initiatives started to gain prominence was the success of its pilot projects, says Nor Aliah. “By showcasing the success of pilot projects, more people can relate to OSS and are convinced of its benefits. The various agencies then picked it up on their own accord,” she adds.
Currently, 64% of some 724 government agencies, or 464 agencies, are using OSS, which is a great leap when there were less than five government agencies willing to use OSS in the early stage of the master plan, says Nor Aliah. The four agencies under the pilot project back then were Ministry of Finance, Public Service Department, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.
The pilot had successfully achieved the OSS objectives of the master plan. The four pilot agencies benefited from adopting OSS as they had access to greater functionalities, enhanced integration across different systems and centralised data storage that enhanced their reporting capabilities. In addition, significant savings were achieved then via the reduced usage of proprietary software. There were 80% savings in overall licensing cost, 58% reduction in development and consultancy efforts and 7% savings in software support services.
Today, the master plan is in its second phase, which runs from 2007 to 2010, under accelerated adoption. This is where the achievements of phase one will be perpetuated while new products and services are established to accelerate the adoption of OSS.
Among initiatives under the current phase of implementation are to initiate a local OSS certification programme for public sector personnel, advanced virtualisation facility to enable agencies to evaluate and test OSS solutions and enhancement of smart partnership programmes.
Nor Aliah says the smart partnership programme brings together three groups — public sector, R&D and business communities — in a collaborative effort to increase OSS solutions and support services. One of the activities is the industry participation plan.
The industry participation plan workshop, which was held on Oct 1, 2007, saw 40 participants from various business communities coming together to share ideas and suggestions to enhance collaboration in four areas in OSS, namely, R&D, application development, technical support and implementation and human capital development.
Meanwhile, phase three of the master plan, which starts from 2010 onwards, aims to make public sector agencies self-reliant. They are expected to be equipped with sufficient knowledge and a good grasp of OSS to be able to move forward at their own pace. This stage will also see these agencies enhancing existing solutions and identify new opportunities using OSS-based technologies.
Suffice to say that the benefits of adoption OSS are aplenty. Not only will government servants harnessing the technology help to save costs, they will be able to achieve carbon efficiencies while improving service levels, something the public eagerly looks forward to.
This article appeared in [email protected], the technology section of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 758 June 8 - June 14