Accelerating and promoting the use of FOSS in Africa

Yves MIEZAN EZO

IT Systems Urbanization ConsultantCHALA Project Manager

ISOC France Administrator

Accelerating and promoting the use of FOSS in Africa

Sommaire

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Great experience and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Great experience and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

FOSS Definition

• FOSS is defined following the principles of freedom

• a matter to use freedom to • run, • copy, • distribute, • study, • change,• improve the software

FOSS is not a freeware or a shareware

Mitigating Financial Crisis with OSS ­ IGF 2009

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FOSS FOSS

Office Suite

IIS Apache

ISA

Antivirus Mail client

Type of software Proprietary Type of software Proprietary

Operating systems

Windows, MacOS, Sun Solaris, …

Linux, Ubuntu, Redhat, 

Mandriva, OpenSolaris..

.

MS Office, Star Office, Lotus Notes, 

…

OOo, Koffice, …

Web server DatabaseOracle, SQL 

Server, Informix, …

MySQL, PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB, 

…

Proxy Squid BrowserIE, 

Netscape,...

Firefox, Safari, 

Konqueror,...

Security ISA, Checkpoint,...

IPTable, Snort, 

IPFIlter, …Mail server

Microsoft Exchange, 

Groupwise, …

Qmail, Exim, Sendmail,...

Norton, McAfee, 

KasperskyClamaV, 

Outlook, CC Mail

Thunderbrid, Kmail, 

Evolution, …

Challenges

1. FOSS started from an obscure, unknown position in comparison to proprietary software

2. FOSS freedom principles mitigates a clear business model / revenue stream

3. Perceptions and attitudes against FOSS and its use

4. Explicit lack of political will

5. Infrastructure and access remains a major challenge

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Great experience and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

The huge african potentiel

➢ 70% of the worldwide population lives in developping courntries➢ + de 5 billions people➢ In  

➢ China, Pakistan, Nigeria, ➢ Bangladesh, Indonésie, Inde

➢ 45% of this population is 15 years old or less➢ 44% of them lives in Africa

➢ Huge increase of the NTIC activities

➢ Ex : The mobile phone penetration rate goes from 3,6% in 2006 to 8% in 2007...

➢ The UN axes its social and economic policy in Reasearch and edcuation

➢ Capacity builind policy based on the Millenium goals

The huge african potentiel

Source : Union Internationale des Telecoms, BAD, OCDE, UNECA

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Great experience and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

Concrete experiences and projects

➢ Several public and private initiatives to develop actions aiming to reach the millenium goals and reducing the numerci gap➢ FOSS strategies in Tunisia, South Africa, Vietnam, Brazil, …➢ Infrastructure and acces strategic policies in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, ,...➢

➢

➢

➢  Ressources Éducatives Libres : more than 4500 GFDL (GNU Free Documentation Licence), coming from 350 University.➢ Campus numériques in more than 60 countries (Burundi, Haiti, Bulgarie, Moldavie, Maroc, Algérie, Madagascar, Comores, Cambodge, Vanuatu, ...)

➢ Business  consortium➢ CHALA ­ Club des Hommes et femmes d'Affaires du Libre en Afrique➢ FOSSFA – Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa

➢ Users consortium➢ AAUL – Panafrican FOSS Association ➢ The CJK Initiative ­ China, Japan and Korea Consotrium➢  Software Livre – Latin american consortium

➢ Initiatives politiques➢ GovWiFi, Digital 21 strategy – Hong Kong : the whole free wifi city➢ Seneclic – Senegal : reducing the numeric gap by FOSS based educative equipment➢ Linux Educacional 2.0 – Brazil : 54 000 research laboratoies computers and servers on GNU/Debian KDE

Concrete experiences and projects

Concrete projects➢ Akwaba (Côte d'Ivoire)

➢ The proprietary billing program of the regional ISP ran off➢ The editor told the ISP it will take 1 month to solve the problem➢ The IT manager raise his own team to develop another billing software, based on LAMP in less than a month➢ Akwaba is now used in Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger...instaed of the former proprietary software

➢ OpenYalim (Mali)•  OpenYaLIM is an Open Source software build to provide medical 

diagnosis to remote area in development countries. This software is developped by IDC SARL (www.idcmali.com)

• It provides recording of the patient file and pictures, dispatchs the file via Internet to the specialist, and, after the interpretation of exams, returns  reports to the former hospital

• http://www.openyalim.org/news.php

Concrete projectsRIF – Ressources Internet Francophone

➢ Panafrican FOSS mirrors sites ➢ The project is born in 2001, created by IFN, IRD, AAUL and CHALA 

➢ The goal : ➢ Ensure local FOSS download, by using the national or regional Internet 

instead of using the international one➢ 5 countries : 

• Burkina Faso,• Cameroon, • Côte d’Ivoire, • Madagascar• Mali

➢ IT infrastructure base in local campus with a high broadband and huge datacenter

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Concrete experiences and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

18

FOSS Adoption trend

• Apache : 54% penetration rate

• Database : 43%

• Operating systems : 23%

• Supervision / Hypervison : 51%

• Security : 46%

• Desktop : 18%

19

FOSS Adoption trend

Reducing costs is no longer the main criteria

20

FOSS Adption trend

32 CPU install and + 16 CPU / year (eq. To 80 CPU after 4 years).

BEA WebLogic Premium : 14 000 € per CPU and 21 % support and maintenance with 30 % discount on licences and the 1st  year of support.

 6 bi­proc (dual core) servers eq. to 12 CPU. Illimited users and perpetual licence.

21

FOSS Adoption trend

J2EE + Database stack

Oracle migration to EnterpriseDB

22

FOSS Adoption trend

33%

25%17%

17%

8%

Non mature offerSupport and MaintenanceSecurityAvailability of ressourcesRisky development

Main fears

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Concrete experiences and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

24

Costs Benefit Analysis – Big one

• French Finance Ministry (2003) Weblogic → Jboss migration : 21 m€ to 3 m€

(3 years licences & support)

• Hard distributor - Aix/Websphere to Linux/Jboss migration : server costs

divided by 7

• French Bank - Oracle to OSS database : 19 k€ / CPU for Oracle compared to

100 k€ for unlimited PostgreSQL servers

• French Parliament : Linux Desktop → <150 € / year

Cost Benefit Analysis – Small enterprise

• Small Enterprise• Marketing – 5 Staff• Finance – 10 staff• Common – 7 Staff• Production 50

• Total: 72 staff

Cost Benefit Analysis

• Typical Enterprise Needs• Desktop Resources• Operating System• Office Applications• Business application/ERP (not included in this study)

• Network Resources• Login and authentication• File sharing• Messaging and Groupware• Relational Database Engine

Cost Benefit Analysis

Proprietary Software – Microsoft

Function Product No Lic Unit Price/USD

Amount/USD

Desktop Operating System Windows 7 (upg) 75 200 15000

Office Applications MS Office 2007 (Upg) 75 239 17929

Authentication and File/Print Server

windows server 2008 (CAL) 75 29 2175

Groupware and Messaging Microsoft Exchange Enterprise 2010

Microsoft Exchange Enterprise 2010 ­CAL

50

25 41

3970

1025

Enterprise Database Server MS SQL Server Enterprise 2008 75 8420

TOTAL INVESTMENT 48,515

Cost Benefit Analysis

FOSS

Function Product No Lic Unit Price/USD

Amount/USD

Desktop Operating System Ubuntu Desktop

Office Applications OpenOffice

Authentication and File/Print Server Ubuntu Server

Groupware and Messaging eGroupware + Cyrus Imap

Enterprise Database Server MySQL 6.0

TOTAL INVESTMENT

Cost Benefit Analysis

Related Costs

• Implementation

• Training

• Support and Maintenance

For Open Source, the above costs could potentially be higher

depending on the availability of skills

The cost of ownership may be appreciated on a short period depending on the fit between your need and your independance

Cost Benefit Analysis

Related Costs Estimates (Europe)

Proprietary/USD Open Source/Euros

Implementation 10,000 ­ 12,000  10,000 ­ 15,000

Training 5,000 – 6,000 5,000

Annual Support and Maintenance

4,000 3,000

1. Definitions

2. The huge african continent potential

3. Concrete experiences and projects

4. FOSS adoption trend within companies

5. Cases studies

6. How governments may help FOSS promotion

How governments may help FOSS

• Several government initiatives do exist : • Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action

Plan in Great Britain (2009) : Using OpenSource each time it gives a better « quality/price » advantage

• Instructions for IT Services in Brazil (2009) : an application list that the state IT services are obliged to use because the efficiency has been proved. This list contains the e-learning module « e-Proinfo », developped by the brazilian Education Ministry, Plone or Zope.

• FOSS national strategy in Tunisia (since 2006) : an incitative policy to adopt FOSS.

• ISP FOSS Web servers : 73%• ISP FOSS mail server : 99%• ISP FOSS databases : 36%• Administration IT staff certified in FOSS : 151 (on 1594)

How governments may help FOSS

• In South Africa : • 2007 : Announcement of a national FOSS adoption strategy• Creation of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

(CSIR) and the State Information Technology Agency (Sita)

• Government Open Source Software Resource Center (GOV-OSS-RC) www.gossrc.org

• The African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR)• Capacity building in software engineering ; Partnership of 13

African Universities in an alliance that includes North America, Europe, and Afghanistan

• The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) in South Africa with official LPI Training Partner. The LPI qualifications are an internationally recognised Linux industry certification.

How governments may help FOSS

• All these initiatives have to be recognized and applauzed

• But FOSS promotion begins with Education of choice• In school, with FOSS and non FOSS• In IT schools with specialisation degrees and diploma

• And with affirmation of the stakes• Reducing the numeric gap doesn't mean doing the same as the

neighbourgs• Local initiative is the key

How governments may help FOSS

• Create, optimize and implement national IT training plans for teachers

• Sharing and capitalizing on available expertises-countries• Promote available education means

• Including in other field such as Literacy tuition, Hygiene Health, Agriculture,..;)

• Encourage creation of strategies of mutualisation of the means of education at sub-regional, regional and interAfricain levels

• Create in every state, a « TIC for development » department, working and supporting IT programs as the priority development policy• Ministry of Education will lead as Ministries of Health, Agriculture,

Economy and Finances, Industry, Energy, Telecommunications, the Equipment will have vocation to be part of the global program.

Thank You