Open source software public report



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3 Summary of Works

This section includes a summary of works presented in the outputs 3, 4, 5 and 6 cited in Table , Project Deliverables. This section is grouped by the output titles and structured according to scope and objectives; results and findings and conclusions.



3.1 Study of OSS in Albania




3.1.1 Scope and Objectives

The purpose of the study was to collect information via primary and secondary resources, to perform its descriptive and qualitative analysis about:



  1. The current use, knowledge and awareness of OSS in the public sector

  2. The current use, knowledge, awareness, perception and the capabilities to develop and services of OSS of the local IT private sector

  3. Thought not part of the initial project scope, the report included the results from the interviews held with representatives of the Universities focused in the CS field of study at bachelor or Master level, and donors

The research was conducted through questionnaire surveys and a number of in-depth interviews with the public administration CIO and/or their representatives, owners/managers of selected companies, universities and donors. Altogether 31 out of 41 public sector institutions that responded to the questionnaire on the utilization of OSS, 15 out of 57 IT businesses responded to the online OSS survey, and to complement the inputs 20 additional semi-structured interviews on knowledge, awareness, and usage of OSS were conducted with public, business and prominent academic / professional representatives in the country.

3.1.2 Results and Findings


The results of the surveys and interviews should be reported with caution on some areas, due to several external factors such as lack of a limited proper population frame, lack of verification of the completed surveys, and the non-inclusion of local public administration institutions. The results of the study should primarily be used as a qualitative description of the OSS implementation in Public Administration rather than as a quantitative indicator or statistic.

We are including in the remaining part of this section some of the main results of the study. For any additional information or the full analysis, please read the “Output 3 – OSS in Public Administration in Albania”.


3.1.2.1 Public Sector CIO Survey Data Analyses


As shown in Figure , OSS Categories by Institution, the databases (MySQL, and Postgress) and server operating systems (CentOS Linux, Zental, and other flavors of Linux) are being used more often in the public sector institutions. State Police represents one of the Public Administration Institutions, which is making use of almost every category of OSS.

There is also a fair distribution of OSS application presence, either at large public institution – i.e. State Police, MASH, Ministry of Finance, General Directorate of Public Transport – or at smaller scale institutions that make a higher use of IT applications, like the General Directory for the Prevention of Money Laundering, AKCE, etc.

Figure , OSS Categories by Institution

No formal training was reported by CIOs about OSS platforms including licensing, installation and deployment or maintenance. At Public Administration level, the IT staff employees have self-developed OSS skills in Linux, MySQL, and Apache web server as well as PHP development tools. These ICT employees carry out the maintenance and support of the OSS applications.



With respect to the software development and acquisition model, the responses received from the public sector CIO do not show any strong trend towards any specific model.

Software Development & Acquisition Models

Total Responders (out of 31)

Response
Rate

Response Answer Counters (1 = Best meets current needs to 5 = Not at all appropriate)

Weighted Average

 

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

 

In House Development

18

58%

7

0

3

3

5

2,94

Open Source Software

17

55%

3

4

4

4

2

2,88

Vendor Supported OSS

16

52%

1

5

6

4

0

2,81

Proprietary Software

18

58%

3

6

3

4

2

2,78

Combination of the above

21

68%

4

4

8

2

3

2,81

Figure , Software Development and Acquisition Model Preference

As summarized in Figure , Software Development and Acquisition Model Preference the weighted average shows a very slight overall perception in favor of the proprietary application acquisition. Nevertheless, other models preferences do not differ with a percentage of more than 5% (five percent).

Furthermore, as shown in Figure , Software Acquisition Model Top Preferences, only 2 (two) institutions think that OSS is “not at all appropriate” for them unless supported by an external supplier, whilst 4 (four) institutions find that an OSS alternative supported by an external supplier to be a better alternative to the proprietary one.

Software Development &

Acquisition Models
Best Meet Current Needs

Not at all appropriate

In House Development

7

5

Open Source Software

3

2

Vendor Supported OSS

1

0

Proprietary Software

3

2

Combination of the above

4

3

Figure , Software Acquisition Model Top Preferences

Out of the 31 (thirty one) institutions that filled the survey forms, only one did not employ any IT staff. As presented in Figure , Software Developers hired in the Public Sector, 65% (sixty five) of the institutions do not employ any software developers.



Software Developers vs Total Number of ICT staff

Public Sector Institutions Count

No software developers

20

Software developers are less than 10% 

4

Software developers are between 11% and 25% 

1

Software developers are between 26% and 50% 

3

Software developers are between 51% and 75% 

2

Software developers are more than 76% 




Figure , Software Developers hired in the Public Sector

The General Directorate of Public Transport and ISKSH are the institutions with most developers (between 51% and 75%) out of the 5 and 8 internally hired IT staff. The larger institutions with more IT personnel have built an internal development team to support their business needs and processes.


3.1.2.2 Albanian IT Business Data Analysis


The following analysis and indicator values are calculated based on the answers received by 15 companies, which represents almost a 30% response rate. According to answers received by respondents, 34.38% were aware of OSS and use OSS in their business.

The main source of information about the OSS is received either by the coworkers or the formal education studies. The whole list of information sources about OSS is included in Figure , Sources of Information for OSS. There is no any formal or sound knowledge source (excluding education) that has been used to improve the OSS awareness and knowledge in the local private IT businesses in Albania.



Sources of Information of OSS

Percentage

Work colleagues

28.12%

During studies

28.12%

OSS community

25.00%

Magazine/journals and other media

18.75%

Conference/workshop

15.62%

Academia

9.38%

Training

9.38%

Figure , Sources of Information for OSS

Figure , OSS Application Local IT Business Experience, shows the percentage of the local Albanian IT business (survey respondents) with basic experience in using the OSS applications within their organizations and implementing OSS platforms or applications for their customers.



No

OSS Applications

Used within the Company

Implemented to Customers

1

GNU/Linux

21.88%

12.50%

2

Apache

18.75%

15.62%

3

OpenOffice

18.75%

0%

4

Mozilla

25%

0%

5

Asteriks, FreePBX

9.38%

9.38%

6

Alfresco

3.12%

0%

7

Android

15.62%

6.25%

8

MySQL/PostgreSQL

21.88%

15.62%

9

JAVA

18.75%

12.50%

10

Moodle, OpenSIS

12.50%

6.25%

11

Compiere, OpenERP, Vtiger CRM finance application

9.38%

6.25%

12

Jboss Application Server

3.12%

3.12%

Figure , OSS Application Local IT Business Experience

Furthermore, IT businesses work in respect to servicing OSS is summarized in Figure , Local IT Businesses OSS Delivery Experience. As noted, there is a low rate of engagement with the OSS community, about 12.5%.




Main Services performed by Local IT Business with OSS

Rate

Modify the software according to customer requirements

21.88%

Free of charge distribution of customized OSS applications

12.50%

Support services for customers during the installation and implementation of the application

21.88%

Reporting issues and bugs in the online OSS communities.

12.50%

Figure , Local IT Businesses OSS Delivery Experience

The main driver that IT businesses perceive to lead towards selection and implementation of OSS solutions is “The low or no license fees”. Meanwhile, the low level of knowledge and training in OSS applications and technologies is perceived as a barrier that prevents the cost- saving benefits of OSS implementation.


3.1.2.3 Interview Data AnalysEs


There were about 20 interviewers from different groups of interest, either vendors, ICT companies engaged with commercial software implementation or OSS implementation, Academia, Government and Donors.

The interviews were semi-structured. The overall outline of the interview was focused on the knowledge about OSS, perception, potential capability to implement, and recommendations for introducing it to the market.

In general, the main finding was that the OSS ecosystem and respective licensing models were partially clear by the majority of interviewers. Therefore, the perceptions and feedback taken directly through the face to face interview should be analysed carefully.

Almost all the interviewers were favouring the introduction of the OSS as a strong alternative to Public Administration, but they all agreed for cautionary steps in this process due to its challenges and the specific ecosystem of Albania for OSS. One of the main challenges was considered lack of human capacities that can take over the design, selection, development, deployment and the support of the OSS platforms and applications reliably.



Overall, based on the interviews, the OSS usage expansion identified the following challenges:

  1. Lack of promotion, and knowledge from the main stakeholders.

  2. Identification of low confidence from local IT businesses.

  3. Lack of OSS culture in Albania.

  4. Lack of structured and formal education about OSS desktop platforms and applications. The K-12 Informatics curricula is based on proprietary tools.

  5. The OSS education or installation at Universities is driven by the individuals (teachers) and not by the educational system.

  6. Lack of proper training in public administration and in ICT private sector.

  7. There is no any OSS application repository, publications or other success stories, though important OSS-based mission-critical government applications such as TIMS (State Police) and ASACUDA (Albanian Customs Directorate) are successfully implemented.

  8. Stocks of pirate copies of MS Office and other proprietary products in the market

  9. Lack of specific policies, procedures, strategic approach, and any incentives for encouraging the OSS use, development or contribution.

3.1.3 Conclusions


The main conclusions of the study are summarized below.

Public sector:

  • OSS platforms and applications are installed and used in the majority of public sector ministries and other state institutions.

  • CIOs have a positive perception about OSS and they seriously consider the OSS development and acquisition model, if it is well-supported by a reliable supplier.

  • On the other hand, the data about the current level of utilization of OSS in the public sector institutions indicates that there is a lack of properly structured, systematic OSS platform support, lack of mature OSS communities and cooperation among them.

Private sector:

  • There is a low number of IT businesses with solid and reliable experience in provide maintenance and support service to their clients for OSS platforms and applications.

  • The low level of awareness and the modest organizational strength of this community represent a challenge for large overhauled transformation projects.

  • Positive drive and commitment to support public administration in OSS projects was strongly demonstrated from several businesses and academic representatives.

Based on the study, the main challenges to overcome towards a successful public administration OSS use and implementation are shown below:

Awareness, Education and Knowledge

  • Difficulty to leverage the scattered OSS knowledge among the professional community in Albania.

  • Lack of awareness activities about OSS platforms, applications, principles, and licensing models.

  • Insufficient knowledge about professional OSS application lifecycle management.

Capacities and Training

  • Insufficiency of OSS qualified capacities within the Government sector, private sector and Academia.

  • The use OSS applications is mainly done by freelancer’s community

  • The lack of inclusion of OSS education or other use incentives into any school level curricula or research activities

  • Lack of training facilities for OSS, while for the proprietary software trainings (such as Microsoft) are already established and promoted.

Strategic directives

  • Lack of specific strategic directives that can ensure equal treatment and financial incentives to use of OSS, accompanied by policies, procedures that protect and regulate fair competition.

  • OSS usage not integrated into current government ICT strategy and policy

  • Lack of support structure as a catalyst on OSS knowledge within government

Migration, Integration

Migration and integration difficulties due to the insufficient documented systems and data format uniformity across government entities represents a challenge for any kind of IT systems.

Similar experiences

OSS utilization, successful and unsuccessful practices locally, regionally and internationally are not shared and used as references.

Table , Albanian OSS Implementation Challenges


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