Open software becomes a national strategy in Egypt

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued a national strategy for the adoption of open source software this week. 

The strategy marks the Egyptian government's blessing of a market now ready for open source software, and not limited to the competitive and often monopolizing closed-source proprietary software. Unlike proprietary software, the source code of open software is available for distribution and development by users and developers alike. 

The national strategy was informed by a committee of academics and civil society groups as well as representatives of entities affiliated with the ministry. 

"This is a good example of academic research supporting policy," said Nagla Rizk, professor of economics specialized in economies of knowledge, who drafted the strategy. Rizk worked with a team of researchers at the American University in Cairo's Access to Knowledge for Development Centre, which she leads, on providing pertinent research that informed the strategy she drafted. 

In the strategy, open software is advocated as a vehicle for development with a focus on human capital, since it runs on a pool of skilled developers. It is also advocated as a means to decentralize and democratize knowledge, which is  otherwise limited to large corporations developing proprietary digital solutions.

In this context, competitiveness is allowed in the market to counter the monopoly of major software corporations over the technology market, which mostly sell closed-source products. 

The strategy team also used the document to show how open source bears potential for Arabizing and localizing the web in general, as opposed to closed-source software, for which the ability to make changes is limited. 

Security is another argument used in the strategy to advocate the use of open source software "from the point of view of users of technology who are allowed the ability to perform independent examination of each and every software system they use," the strategy stated. The openness of the technology allows for better scrutiny for its users. 

Aspects of the strategy include the promotion of open source software use in government agencies and the conducting of training to build developers' capacity. The strategy also calls for sustained funding to support open source development and the empowering of small and medium enterprises operating in the field. Overall, the presence of a leadership within the government that ensures the strategy is applied is considered key to its success. 

Some of the open source advocacy community however still desire a more aggressive government stance. "We participated in putting forward the strategy, but there are concerns," said Ahmed Hussein, a member of Open Egypt, a civil society group. 

According to Hussein, their call was for the government to entrust a full migration to open source software adoption, which they were hesitant about, showing concerns that there is not enough capacity. "It doesn't live up to our aspirations as a community," he added, citing how it is impossible for the government to let go of its collaboration with major multinationals. 

"This is a small victory on the long and tedious road of advocacy for openness and access to knowledge. Open Source is a culture; it reflects a philosophy of freedom and democratization of knowledge," Rizk claimed.  

Like others, Rizk made a tribute to the recently deceased Ali Shaath, who co-founded Open Egypt, a group on the forefront of open source software advocacy.