3.3.1 Scope and Objectives
OSS in developing countries is unlikely to emerge as a real alternative to proprietary software if it is not given special attention and support in the national IT policy, as it will be eclipsed by the enormous influence of the major proprietary software players.
The objective of this report was to recommend the government’s role and mechanisms to enable successful OSS implementation in Albania. This work puts an emphasis on the IT policies, methodologies, and recommendations for public procurement and licensing, as well as other related activities which promote the use of OSS in public administration.
3.3.2 Results and Findings 3.3.2.1 Government Role and Strategy
No strategy should be taken and implemented without careful consideration of the local environment. Issues such as language, economic development, legal, environment and cultural attitudes can make a particular strategy impossible. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS, https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/document/government-open-source-policies) has carried out an Open Source Policy survey. The survey was conducted in 2010 has tracked governmental policies on the use of open source software as reported in the press or other media. The data in this specific report provides a snapshot of the current state of the government open source policies, divided into four categories:
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Research
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Mandates (where the use of open source software is required)
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Preferences (where the use of open source software is given preference, but not mandated)
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Advisory (where the use of open source software is permitted).
This survey also assesses whether an initiative was made at the national, regional, or local level, and whether it was accepted, under consideration, or rejected out of a total of 364 (three hundred and sixty-four) open source policy initiatives, as shown in the following table.
Figure , Country OSS Policies Analysis
According to [Kimolo, 2003], governments usually may position their role in policy making with respect to OSS into one of the three approaches:
No.
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Approach
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Description
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Key actions
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1
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Neutral
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This approach ensures that alternatives are supported and that discrimination against OSS is identified and removed.
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The government:
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adopts policies to ensure careful consideration of OSS in IT procurement processes and implements evaluation criteria for OSS products as well as procedures for adopting and maintaining open standards
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allows OSS to compete adequately with proprietary software
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initiates activities to enhance awareness, knowledge and understanding of OSS
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2
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Enabling
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This approach gears policies towards the creation of the capacity to implement and maintain the use of OSS.
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In addition to the neutral approach the government:
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develops capacity to guide on the selection and implementation of OSS
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actively promotes education and training on OSS products
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supports establishing user-developer partnerships.
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3
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Aggressive
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This approach actively encourages the development of OSS through legislation and policies.
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In addition to the enabling approach the government:
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actively supports OSS developer communities and development projects
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adopts strategies to increase commitment to OSS
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regularly audits the impacts of OSS on government service delivery
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actively participates in programs minimizing the risks associated with OSS
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standardizes on OSS where analysis proves it superior.
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Table , Government Strategic Positions to OSS
3.3.2.2 Promotion Mechanisms
Generally, governments use procurement rules and regulations as the main mechanism to promote its OSS implementation within the public sector. This mechanism can fall into the following four broad categories:
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Mandating OSS. This is the most radical approach as it mandates the usage of OSS systems throughout the government sector.
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Preferring OSS. Recognizing the difficulty of switching the entire government infrastructure over to OSS, many governments have moderated their approach by preferring OSS solutions for the new procurements.
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Mandating Open Standards. Mandating open standards often has a complementary effect on OSS systems. One of the most effective ways in which software vendors lock in their users is the use of proprietary standards.
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Best Value. This approach focuses mostly on the economic value of OSS, de-emphasizing the national and social benefits of wide scale OSS adoption.
3.3.3 Conclusions 3.3.3.1 Policy Guidelines adoption
Taking into consideration the current stage of utilization of OSS in the Albanian public administration, the local ICT business experience and capacities and the current education system, it is strongly recommended to the Albanian government to start implementing initially the neutral approach combined with some enabling initiatives, thus recognizing, guaranteeing and ensuring fair and equal competition of OSS with other proprietary software.
The main policy guidelines that government should adopt in its ICT strategy and policies are:
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OSS platforms are generally accepted, recognized and adhered by the public sector institutions and government public procurement.
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When using or developing software, public institutions must decide which software development model, such as the open source development and business model, best supports innovation and fast development of new products and services. As a rule in the case when the software developed for the public sector is using open source technologies, institutions should ensure that the accepted software is made available with an open source license.
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The State Agency responsible for development or acquisition of the software, ensures that the following main technical principles are carefully considered:
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Openness – that can have access to code and can be freely modified or customized that serving future needs of requested institutions, avoidance of vendor locked in as well as have potential reusability by other government institutions
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Cost Saving - Software that can provide the best value for money
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Interoperability – readiness and capability to integrate with other current or future systems and applications using open standards
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Reuse potential - application of open source software can allow the reuse of the same software more than once and in other public sector institutions without setting restrictive license terms like in many proprietary applications.
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OSS implementation should be based on the Technical Implementation guidelines plan prepared and specified by authorized and responsible State Agency. The implementation should provide valuable input into the establishment and the creation of the shared knowledge-based system.
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The Albanian Curricula should include the utilization of OSS platforms and applications during the learning process at all school levels.
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OSS implementation should be supported by increasing awareness to all stakeholders and creating training programs within the public administration. An OSS Coordination Office (OSSCO) that should be established within NAIS or MIAP, can be responsible for the coordination of all the activities related to introduction, promotion, development, implementation and strengthening of OSS implementation within Public Administration Institutions. Future and integrated role expansion may transform the Coordination Office into a Central Competence Center (CCC), but this is subject to the future developments. This OSSCO institutional building recommendation is further described in section 4.2.1.
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Public Authorized Institutions should promote that software solutions are constructed of smaller components enabled to communicate with each other via open standards. This allows the various software components to be replaced independently, thus promoting flexibility, reusability and competition.
3.3.3.2 Procurement Guidelines adoption
It is recommended that the Government of Albania should consider OSS platforms and applications alongside proprietary ones in making procurement decisions, actively and fairly.
The Albanian Procurement law states non-discriminatory principle in public procurement procedures. It is strongly recommended that Government of Albania’s Procurement Legislation should establish clear legal and institutional frameworks to prevent OSS software discrimination in public tenders and monitor the implementation of certain principles and requirements such as openness, reusability and interoperability of data, software and systems. Procurement decisions should be made on the basis of the cost effectiveness of the solution to the business requirement, taking account of total lifetime cost of ownership of the solution, including exit and transition costs, after ensuring that solutions fulfill minimum and essential capability, security, scalability, transferability, support and manageability requirements.
Based on the afore mentioned principles and further analysis of Albania’s Procurement Legislation, we recommend that the government incorporate and promote Open Standards (see 3.3.2.2 Promotion Mechanisms section of this document) in the acquisition, replacement and upgrades of its public sector software.
The main guidelines to be adopted with respect to software procurement policies are presented below:
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The Albanian Government will encourage the use of Open Standards. The Open Standards Requirements for Software are well defined by the Open Source Initiative (http://opensource.org/osr) and it is included in Annex 2 at Output 5-6 Report.
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The Albanian Government will ensure that at least the newly developed digital content using Government resources is made Open Content, unless analysis on specific content shows that proprietary licensing or confidentiality is substantially beneficial.
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Government software procurement should be based on merits, value for money, transparency, security and interoperability, as well as in accordance with other Government procurement policies and procedures.
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Government software procurement should ensure equal treatment and no discrimination of OSS solutions. NAIS shall verify and ensure that tender technical specifications allow for equal and fair competitions of OSS platforms and applications with proprietary ones.
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NAIS will update technology equipment and network platforms technical specifications to support both proprietary and OSS platforms.
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An authorized State Agency should identify, evaluate and select the suitable OSS alternatives for use in the public sector are matured and should be able to be supported by the community as well as any other party to ensure continuity of support. They should also comply with the Worldwide Open standards requirements.
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