Applying Open Source Software in a Development Context: Expectations and Experiences

This article discusses the experiences of the Uganda Martyrs University, of migrating its information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The purpose of the evaluation was to make an on-the-ground assessment of the claims about the development potential of FOSS. The article provides an overview of FOSS and the role it can play in development and relates the case study, the progress the organisation has made and the problems that were encountered. Finally, the authors draw some conclusions on the experiences in the case study and set out a possible agenda for successful rollout of FOSS in developing countries, especially in Africa.

The article explains that there are multiple levels to be considered in order to get a good understanding of the impact of different FOSS initiatives. The micro level refers to individual users that decide for or against FOSS. At the meso level organisations that take actions to integrate FOSS into their total software infrastructure are considered. Finally, the macro level where policies and actions at a national level are considered. At the macro level, some success factors in bridging technological gaps include:

• Implementation should produce value: Value is related to economic value, that is, the reduction of costs and saving of foreign currency; and social value, that is, a wider access to information and computer training.
• Adequate capacity to implement, use and maintain: There need to be enough trained people to support and use the FOSS solution. Training of users and developers should be a high priority.
• Policy support for a FOSS strategy: Support for FOSS needs to expand to all key players at governmental level, departmental level, information technology (IT) professionals and computer users in general.

The article explores experience of the Uganda Martyrs University in moving to FOSS. The evaluation of the first phase showed that the acceptance of the new systems was not as high as expected. It was found that the importance of awareness creation of the underlying motives of the university to move to FOSS was underestimated. The second phase was also difficult. Although there were relatively few technical problems, there was a high level of resistance of the staff at the university to the new software. There was a divide between the staff and the students in terms of the software used. Staff tended to continue to use proprietary software while students moved more on the open source software side.

The migration at Uganda Martyrs University allowed the organisers to draw some important lessons about a large-scale migration to FOSS. Installation of FOSS on the server side was a big technical challenge as there was little hands-on guidance and support available to help the system administrators in the university.

The introduction and the rollout of the migration project at the university revealed that a continuous flow of information to the users is needed. The approach at the university was a top-down approach with a presentation for management and senate, an initiation workshop, and a mid-semester workshop for all staff and individual support for all users. This approach was not found to be enough. The migration of the students before the migration of the staff was also found to have been disadvantageous. The expectation that the staff would support new software and request for installation of FOSS on their machines turned out to be a miscalculation.

The article concludes that migration to FOSS has a number of challenges. The need for educational material for FOSS is high. The material currently available is mostly very technical and not understandable by general users. The need for appropriate support in implementing FOSS is also high. The usefulness of the international mailing list community was found to be very low, since the
questions posted were considered basic and not challenging to members on the list and discussions in the mailing lists were too difficult and not yet applicable to the situation at hand. In order to support the migration in developing countries, it is suggested that international organisations need to consider setting up a support centre that deals with the questions of the system administrators and users in these countries. It is also suggested that if developing countries are to adopt FOSS, it is very necessary for those in economically developed countries - especially development agencies that promote FOSS - to do so as well.