The Malaysian Government launched its OSS master plan in 2004. This launch came after their decision to endorse FOSS a development tool in 2002. The OSS plan and initiative is are part of a larger government lead economic development programe that strove to propel the overall political- social and economic position if the country were to be a first world nation by 2020 through providing efficient and quality service. In order to achieve this more open and developed nation, decision makers suggest that, “FOSS helps pave the road towards moving the economy to a technology driven, knowledge-based one.
Allowing one to ‘peek under the hood’ and learn how some piece of software works, is crucial to a nation where skills are still being developed. It allows a nation to play a part in the international software community, and not be dependent on 100% foreign built proprietary software”.
Initiative objectives
The objectives set were to:
1- Reduce total cost of ownership
2- Increase freedom of choice of software usage
3- Increase interoperability among systems
4- Increase growth of ICT industry
5- Increase growth of OSS industry
6- Increase growth of OSS user and developer community
7- Increase growth of knowledge based society 8- Reduce digital divide
Along with the objectives, the Master Plan of 2004 identified seven strategic “thrusts” as an outline to propel a later developed action long with eight policy areas. The plan outlines several key goals that the government wishes to achieve and breaks them down into shortmedium and long-term stages. At the forefront of the document is the reiteration of setting up various research initiatives to orchestrate in depth research and analysis if the current situation of different aspects of FOSS implementation and hitherto suggest the best solutions to achieve these pre-set goals. To monitor and implement the overall project, the government established the Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC) that same year.
Malaysian OSS Implementation Guidelines
In 2007 the Malaysian government publicized its Open Source Software (OSS) Implementation Guidelines document which not only served as a guide to OSS implementation in the areas outlined in 2004, but also served to increase awareness in the public and to provide a consistent approach and common framework to the overall OSS project. These were made in different phases of implementation.
Results
By the end of the first phase, there were quiet some measurable success, although they fell short of the initial goals. However, Malaysia is considered an international case of a success story of FOSS implementation.
By the end of phase 1, 60 percent of all IT personnel were trained in OSS. One percent of web servers were OSS based, and 42 percent of web operating systems were likewise OSS based. The estimated costs of savings were (2006):
1- 80% of savings in overall licensing cost
2- 58% reduction in development & consultancy efforts
3- 7% savings in software support services
4- 30.5% savings in overall cost
In 2008, more figures were shared by the Malaysian government that indicate the extent of their success:
1- 3000 government employees trained on various OSS products
2- About 200 state agencies using OSS on both the server and the client side
3- OSS applications are mainly developed by the local community or the OSCC
4- By March 2008 an estimated 120 state agencies have fully migrated desktop users to OSS
PhaseII will attempt to perpetuate the success of phase 1 and has re-adjusted goals for the upcoming time frame. Hence, FOSS has had measurable success in Malaysia.
The major factors that have allowed for the success of the Malaysia project are argued to be the careful planning and research of the best solutions that would target the main objectives the government seeks to achieve. This is followed by clear implementation and careful monitoring and evaluation of results over a specified period. This has allowed for accountability and steady progress of the overall initiative concerning FOSS.
Furthermore, the government did not simply decree rules to be made but engaged with civil society at a great deal and started to install the use of FOSS at all levels of the education system in order to ensure long term sustainability.
In the elaboration of their eight plan scopes: adoption, procurement, ownership, technology, implementation, knowledge sharing, education and training, there are various key interesting and beneficial concepts that should be considered. One of which is an OSS maturity model that determines OSS feasibility for implementation, determined by the software’s functionality, usability, quality, security, performance scalability, architecture, support, documentation, adoption, community and professionalism.
Another factor contributing to Malaysian success is the careful selection of pilot projects to try out policies as well as introducing FOSS to users who would likely be enthusiastic about trying new products and could eventually spread the use of these products to those in their circles that might be more wary. In terms of procurement, a gradual plan is to cover all aspects of the procurement process of the software from outlining needs of the agency to adopting an open and transparent bidding system and final careful review and acquisition. Different licensing models are also stipulated serving as a guideline and kind of a unifying system by which software acquired must fall under to be considered an FOSS and hence in line with the overall objectives. Licensing stipulations cover copying and distribution, modification, licensing and warranties. Furthermore, there is an interest in creating a “Knowledge Sharing Bank” made of documents shared by different agencies about their experiences with different FOSS products for public agencies to have a reference archive of FOSS in order to determine which products work or are most useful.
Finally, further to the education factor that is beneficial, it should also be noted that training does not only involve technical aspects but also the soft business skills necessary for software companies to be successful business ventures.