PROMISES OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES – AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

In wake of financial downturn open source software appears attractive to many public sector organisations. Built on a licensing model that avoids binding contracts or financial obligation, it permits like-minded developers to share source code and collaborate in the continuous improvement and enhancement of software. Open source software reduces dependencies on software vendors, is continuously evolving, and does not pose any possibility of running the user into the blind alley or dead-end of development trajectory. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted in three Australian state governments. Purpose of this study was to assess the organisational readiness and potential of open source implementation in government agencies. It identifies the level of open source utilisation in these agencies and also highlights the barriers involved in utilisation of open source at a larger scale. The study concludes that success of OSS in government agencies is contingent upon critical aspects such as, its implementation enabling technical and economic value; its maintainability and adequate support available to sustain its utilisation

The rationales behind free and proprietary software selection in organisations

The aim of this paper is to critically examine the important assumptions behind the software-selection function in organisations. Software is incorporated in many situations within enterprises due to its unique ability to efficiently and effectively augment business functions and processes. Proprietary software with its inherent advantages and disadvantages remains dominant over "Free and Open-Source Software" (FOSS) in a large number of cases. However, the arrival of cloud-computing almost certainly mandates a heterogeneous software environment. Open standards, upon which most FOSS is based promotes the free exchange of information, a founding requirement of the systems embedded in organisations. Despie evidence to the contrary, the fact that FOSS is also available at low financial cost, combined with the benefits implicit in facilitating inter-process communication supports the view that it would be attractive to organisations.This paper approaches the paradoxical situation by examining the relevant literature in a broad number of disciplines. An important aspect examined is the roles that management, and in particular the executive, play in the software-selection functio. It is on the basis of these findings that the rationales of use for both proprietry and FOSS are discussed in a multi-disciplinary context. Understanding the rationales behind the software-selection function may provide academics and practitioners with insight into what many would consider an ICT-centric problem. However, by abstratcting to the managment context, as opposed to the technical context, the organisational issues surrounding both proprietary software and FOSS adoption are counter-intuitively brought to the forefront

Open Source Software Utilization in Australian State Governments

The financial meltdown has affected businesses around the globe. Businesses are facing extreme pressures to reduce overheads, rationalize costs, and consolidate operations. It is, therefore, decisive to scrutinize all of the options available to the business before making an investment into information technology infrastructure and select the best option within the available means towards growth and seizing long term opportunities. These considerations are even more important in government departments or agencies, where broader public good and the need to demonstrate responsible usage of taxpayer funds are always paramount. Open source technology presents itself as a viable alterative to proprietary software and offers best little opportunity cost and trade offs. Open source software technologies offer genuinely collaborative innovation, at a fraction of cost, and provide robust and secure solutions. This paper presents a study of the open source software penetration in Australian state governments departments, and puts into perspective the value that open source software can add to these departments. It examines why the adoption of OSS for e-government is successfully utilized elsewhere but not in Australia

ADOPTION OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN GOVERNMENTAL CONTEXT: A POSITIVISTIC CASE STUDY IN CHINA

As the rapid development of open source software (OSS) has deeply impacted global software industry, government agencies in different countries all over the world have started to realize the huge potentials of OSS application. Based on the TOE framework for organizational level IT/IS adoption, this paper proposes a conceptual model for examining the adoption of open source software in the governmental organizational context. A positivistic case study is conducted in the government agencies of Beijing, China, so as to validate and develop the proposed model, as well as to investigate the adoption status and related influence mechanisms. Findings from the analysis demonstrate the explanatory validity of the model, and provide potentially helpful insights for future practice

Open Source Software Collaboration: Foundational Concepts and an Empirical Analysis

This paper has three primary goals. First, we provide an overview on some foundational concepts – “peer-production,” “user-centric innovation,” “crowdsourcing,” “task granularity,” and yes, open source and open content – for they are key elements of Internet-based collaboration we see today. Second, through this discussion on foundational concepts, we hope to make it clear why people interested in collaborative public management and administration should care about open source and open source-like collaboration. After this argument is made, we provide a very condensed summary of where we are to date on open source collaboration research. The goal of that research is to learn about the factors that lead to successful or abandoned collaborations in the open source domain, in part to help us understand how “open source-like” collaborations can be deployed in areas outside of software. We have a lot to cover. Let’s get right to it

Where the Cathedrals and Bazaars Are: An Index of Open Source Software Activity and Potential

This article presents a framework to measure activity and potential for open source software development and use at a country level. The framework draws on interviews with experts in the open source software industry and numerous existing studies in the literature to identify relevant indicators. Several indices of diverse variable lists and weighting and aggregation methods were developed and tested for robustness. The results provide a first step toward more systematically understanding the current state of open source software internationally

Against all odds: how a government's open source software (OSS) implementation survived

In this study, we suggest that actors and their relationship in an information systems (IS) implementation influence the survival of a government's open source software (OSS) project. Specifically, we investigated the OSS implementation by the Malaysian government since 2002. Due to the numerous and enormous challenges faced by such implementation such as inertia and concern about the quality of the software, the odds are often stacked against such project to survive. The theoretical lens of this study was the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) while the case study research method was employed to identify the actors and their relationships in ensuring the survivability of the project. Our findings suggest that the survival of the project was strongly influenced by the network built by its human and non-human actors that led to the successful enrolment and translation of the implementation. Furthermore, the actors can be divided into main and supporting with each contributing uniquely to the government's OSS implementation

Open Standards and Government Policy: Results of a Delphi Survey

In an increasing number of countries governments consider to stimulate the role of open standards in public Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development. The aim of this work is to identify important issues related to government policy with regard to open standards and the development of public ICT infrastructure. This multi-method research presents results from an exploratory literature review and multi-round Delphi survey of key experts in the field of standardization

Negotiating open source software adoption in the UK public sector

Drawing on two case studies in the UK public sector our qualitative study explains how and why open source software has seen such a mixed response. Our narratives indicate that for both cases there was strong goodwill towards open source yet the trajectories of implementation differed widely. Drawing upon ideas of change(ing), mutability and materiality we unpack the process of adoption. The study shows that open source software has certain facets; code, community, coordination mechanisms, license and documentation. Each facet is not stable; indeed, it is changing and mutable. This creates possibilities, potential but also recalcitrance, and barriers. The interesting point of departure of our study is how open source software — a much touted transparent and open phenomenon — is by its nuanced and layered mutability able to make the process and practices surrounding it less visible. It concludes with clear policy recommendations developing from this research that could help to make open source adoption more sustainable in the public sector