On Developing Open-source Countries

A reflection on open-source based government

“Stronger protection and enforcement of copyright rules may well reduce access to knowledge required by developing [countries] to support education and research, and access to copyrighted products such as software,” notes the commission. “This would have damaging consequences for developing their human resources and technological capacity, and for poor people.“ (ZDNet UK, 2002.09)

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Full report: Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy

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Talk back from the past:

I am a firm believer in the notion that the more a society participates in it’s adoption of change — the more apt the society will become to change — thus achieving with each cycle a more adaptive society.

Open-source is a model that promotes self-participation and appears most obvious as a choice candidate for developing countries seeking almost any type of modernization.

That said, I dare say developing countries should appear to naturally gravitate towards open-source with or without the push of an outside convening party.

This is a good thing! For a countries’ information infrastructure, like it’s political system, should be built by it’s people for it’s people and should not depend upon 3rd party closed-source products that are inevitably influenced by developed markets — which are of course very different geo-politically than that of the developing countries’ emerging market. This especially holds true today as it is likely a countries’ government and hence it’s political system will depend upon a modern information infrastructure.

The future progress of a developing country will do well by open-source — for in the world of information, open-source is itself a developing country with deep historical lineage born within the first animal to record information for all to see.

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Open-source + Government today?:

• Open source back on the SA agenda
• Positive Moves For Open Source
• Open for Business
• UK gov’t report cites merits of open source
• French Eye Open Source, e-Government Savings

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Related: The Center for Open Source and Government