[wos] (Fwd) [Wsis] [Presse] Open-source software gets boost at UN

[Volker Grassmuck]

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Date sent:      	Fri, 12 Dec 2003 14:23:03 +0100 (CET)
From:           	"Markus Beckedahl" <markus at nnm-ev.de>

Open-source software gets boost at UN

http://www.iht.com/articles/121033.html

Jennifer L. Schenker IHT
Thursday, December 11, 2003

GENEVA A months-long backroom battle led by Brazil, with support from
India, South Africa and China, against the United States over open-source
software took center stage Wednesday at the UN information summit meeting
here.

Samuel Guimarães, executive secretary in Brazil's foreign ministry, told
government representatives at the summit meeting's opening sessions that
free-to-share software is crucial for the developing world because it
enables poorer countries to develop their own technology instead of having
to import it.

That message put the maneuvering for open-source software business at the
highest levels of global policy, with proponents and critics both
struggling for the endorsement of intra-governmental agencies such as the
UN.

Brazil wanted the summit talks to endorse the idea that the digital divide
cannot be bridged with proprietary software and that open-source software,
which is developed collaboratively and exchanged freely over the Internet,
is the best path forward.

The language was watered down considerably in the summit meeting's written
declaration after pressure from developed countries, according to
participants, but the free software did get a mention as an important
option for developing countries to consider.

"Companies that sell proprietary software are going to have to accept that
there is competition and that is good for developing countries because it
leads to affordable pricing and increased access," said Raoul Zambrano, a
UN adviser on information and communication technologies, in an interview.

The information and communications technology arm of the UN Development
Program is currently advising governments that ask on how to use open
source as a tool to build local skills. But Zambrano said the UNDP is
cautioning them not to mandate open source for their governments because
that creates another type of monopoly. The goal, he said, is to create
choice and competition.

The UNDP plans to announce that it will open a regional center in Europe
to help governments in the Balkans and Baltics move to open-source
software.

The debate over commercial software such as Microsoft's dominant operating
system, Windows, and collaborative software has become a rich versus poor
argument at the UN meeting, which is trying to address how to close the
digital divide.

Veni Markovski, head of the Bulgarian president's information technology
advisory council and head of the local branch of the Internet Society,
said he had approached the UNDP to get help for his country and was
motivated to do so because he was shocked by the outcome of several
government contracts involving Microsoft products.

In the first case, the government spent $13.6 million on Microsoft's
Windows XP products in 2002. He claimed that it was later discovered that
the government paid twice the list price for the software, which was
purchased through a Microsoft retailer.

A Microsoft spokeswoman and another member of the Bulgarian delegation at
the UN talks, Roman Trifonov, denied that the government had overpaid for
the software,

Another contract, involving a contract for an e-government portal on the
Internet, which would allow citizens to access government services online,
required citizens to use Windows XP or Windows 2000 and to use Internet
Explorer as their browser, Markovski said.

Trifonov, an adviser to the minister of state administration, countered
that any computer user with certain system tools could access the portal.

A third contract, for $1.5 million, was for 35,000 software licenses for
schools, but Markovski maintains that there are no more than 850 computers
in schools that could run the software.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the contract was jointly issued by the
Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and that it covers up to
15,000 computers for public schools, with the rest being used by
universities and the Academy of Science.

"I am convinced that the end result of the influence that Microsoft has on
the government here is that the end user, the citizen, doesn't have a
choice and the government doesn't have a choice," Markovski said.

Microsoft confirmed Wednesday that it was in talks with the UNDP about
"how to leverage each others' competencies." The software giant, which has
said it will invest $1 billion on helping to bridge the digital divide,
said that it did not require its software be used when the company
participates in such a project. "People at the end of the day have the
right to choose and we support that," the spokeswoman said. "It is a tough
call for a lot of agencies and groups when Microsoft offers to give away
software to schools and governments," said Peter Dravis, an independent
consultant who wrote a report about open-source software for the World
Bank. But he said there was strong bottom-up demand for open-source
software, so even a handful of Microsoft deals with governments would not
ensure market dominance.

International Herald Tribune



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