Hasannudin Saidin

MSCOSCONF

The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), a government body which has the appearance of a very corporate Malaysian company is organising and funding a new conference this week. It's called the Multimedia Super Corridor Open Source Conference (MSCOSCONF), to be held from 31st May to 3rd June 2009.

The Malaysian Government has been a strong supporter of Open Source, from their hard work on the Open Source Master Plan back in 2004 which outlined support for Free and Open Source in their procurement policies.

This was somewhat put in confusion due to the ill defined "Technology Neutrality" principle, which is evident in the lack of direction since 2006. However the momentum within the government has been strong, especially in the drivers at MAMPU, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Planning Unit under the Prime Minister's office.

They proceeded to organise the Malaysian Government Open Source Software Conference (MyGOSSCON) in 2007 and 2008, which highlighted local and international speakers. These talks were mainly targeted at government officials and public service employees.

The Free and Open Source Software community of Malaysia also organised a more developer and community centric conference in 2008 called foss.my 08.

What is interesting about the MSCOSCONF is that it combines all the aspects of the previously organised conferences. From community, to developers, to business and also to the government sector. I personally find this a huge step forward in MDeC addressing the need to bring these sectors of the FOSS ecosystem together, and to create a more cohesive meta-community for the future.

However I do have some issues with this inaugural conference.

Apache not good enough?
The official website of MSCOSCONF is running on IIS. IIS is a proprietary product. The majority of websites on the web runs a fully fledged Open Source product called Apache as a webserver. When queried on why the mscosconf website is running on IIS, there were rumours that the front facing IIS just a "proxy" however. The other rumour was that it was because one of the sponsors only have Windows machines to host the website. Whatever the case, this is strange because the community have offered to sponsor the hosting of the website with a certified freedom stack.

This fortunately can be resolved easily in the future.

The Microsoft "Competition"
It's great that Microsoft has been playing a significant role in terms of sponsorship for this event. Their efforts in publicity and community relations have been positive, together with their support for the foss.my 08 event.

What is interesting is that they are currently sponsoring a competition which sports a RM10,000 prize in the porting of popular PHP webapps which currently exist on a completely free stack, to a completely closed stack. Yes, the purpose of the competition is to port webapps which run using Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) to Microsoft Windows, Microsoft IIS and Microsoft SQL Server, PHP (WIMP). This contest was a misnomer and spun as LAMP2WIN, as should be more accurately called LAMP2WIMP.

This to me is a bizarre requirement and totally goes against the philosophy of what an Open Source competition should be. I'm not sure what rationale was during the design of the competition, but this could have been easily designed with a more "Free" objective.

For example, instead of moving apps and restricting choice, perhaps the competition could move the otherway: porting dotNet apps to the FOSS stack, for example a Linux, Apache, MySQL, Mono config. Or abstracting the database layers of certain popular MSSQL projects to cater for all types of databases? Or to ensure that MS SQL is fully supported as database drivers from a Linux webserver?

Projects like these would be infinitely superior with wins to Microsoft, the FOSS developers and the FOSS end users. Thats real choice.

Constructive criticisms for MDeC
The change in "direction" from MDeC has been dramatic. From apathy last year, to full support of FOSS this year, has been very surprising to us whom have witnessed the tepid commitments in the past. It seems that the people heading this initiative are genuinely determined to put their support behind FOSS from now on. However the entire MDeC machinery needs time to catch up to get into the spirit of things. For example, and ironically, the "Sponsorship Prospectus" (amongst others) which has the purpose of wooing potential sponsors to promote open source, is written and published using Microsoft Office 2007.  It may seem like a normal business decision to use whatever tools they are familiar with, but to us freetards, it seems rather distasteful. Also they need a better copywriter in their social media alerts.

For the Future!
However, I know that these issues can be easily resolved in the near future, and its still very heartening that MDeC is finally warming up to the community of fedora.my ubuntu.my, php.net.my, foss.my, fosschix.my and all the other freedom loving geeks in Malaysia. The speakers lineup is certainly impressive, and I look forward in meeting with the distinguised delegates. We hope to see more events like this, and cheer on the teams at MDeC and OSCC who have worked so tirelessly in hopefully making the next 4 days a huge success.

yk

Ubuntu usage in Ampang Parliament Office

[Disclaimer: OMB is politically neutral and does not promote any particular political party nor alliances. We are however proponents of Openness in Technology and would love to highlight any efforts by any organisation which has the same vision]

Thanks to SweeMeng, I found this blog entry by JomLinux, which featured a YouTube video of Mohd Fahmi walking through some machines he set up for the office of Ampang's Member of Parliament.  What is interesting is that he is the Secretary for the MP and was given the mandate to fix up the IT systems of the office given a rather restrictive budget.

Here is the YouTube video (in Malay):

OpenMalaysia Blog managed to ask him more about his efforts, conducted in English with some translations from the video for the benefit of our international audience.

OMB: How did you get involved with Linux?

Fahmi: I started to use Linux in 2006 to service the PCs at the Parti Keadilan Rakyat Headquarters (PKR - a Malaysian political party). In early 2006, I used to get attacked by viruses every month. I searched for an alternative and I found Linux. I tried Ubuntu, which was pretty hard to use at that time! The bonus was being able to configure Beryl just to see the "WOW" factor. I fell in love with FOSS and am now married to open source. So a virus creator brought me to FOSS.

OMB: What is Jom Linux?

Fahmi: Jom Linux was a company founded by me last year. I am the President with the help of my friends Daing (Sales Manager), Din (Media Manager) and Pian (Administration). We all share the same vision which is to invent a new culture for computer industries in Malaysia, especially in the consumer market.

OMB: Is the Ampang MP Office a client?

Fahmi : I'm currently working as the Secretary (Setiausaha) for the Ampang MP Office and I spend most of my time at the Parliament of Malaysia. I am also the 'IT Advisor' for the MP. She used to call me whenever her computer froze, and I can't remember how many times her laptop or desktop was infected with viruses and displaying the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

OMB: How long have you been working with them?

Fahmi: For almost two years. At the end of 2007, I transfered from PKR HQ to Ampang MP. I have aspirations in the future to concentrate in Linux as a business, as Linux has always been my dream.

OMB: Why Ubuntu?

Fahmi: Simple Question; Simple Answer: Ubuntu is easy and user friendly. I tried Fedora, OpenSUSe - all have nice GUIs but I hardly to use them.

OMB: What drives the need for FOSS?

Fahmi: There is a variety of computers in the office, from 10 year old Pentium IIs while the majority are AMD Semproms with 1GB RAM. So the setup is pretty low cost. We only had a new desktop after 1.5 years, as it depends on available budget. Most of the money is for the poor and misfortuned, so computer items is usually the last item on the budget. Ubuntu and FOSS helps.

OMB: Is security and issue?

Fahmi: Security is always an issue in our office. Many people come into the office to do some sort of work. Sometimes they use our computers without permission or without our knowledge. We have sensitive data which is not for the public That's why Ubuntu is useful. All computers are password protected, and when someone wants to use our computers, they just need to click on the "Guest Session" on the top right corner of the Panel, and voila: Our sensitive documents are hidden!

"Only Linux are allowed through this door
Windows users - please use the window"

OMB: Who initiated this move fo FOSS?

Fahmi: It's an effort driven by myself, with cooperation from my colleagues. Luckily the MP didn't complain when I changed the whole System. I think its just as long as they can do their job than 'buntu' (which ironically means 'locked' or 'closed' in English) for the rest of the day when a BSOD strikes.

OMB: Do you think that more Government / Political bodies should use more FOSS?

Fahmi: I think its hard for government to enforce the use of FOSS. Why should they? They can purchase expensive software because of our taxes. As long as they are happy with their computers they don't see it or just dont get it. But the 'shining light' can be seen in political movements, because they are always short of money. How many political guys use wordpress for blogging? Even Anwar Ibrahim Blog uses Wordress. Ampang blog the same too. And more than that, we all use Linux servers. Some use Joomla.

OMB: How do you think the Government can help in FOSS uptake?

Fahmi: In my opinion, it would be better if the community built their FOSS market without any help or interference from Government agencies like MOSTI, MAMPU, MIMOS, etc... Stop relying on them. I think the government still lacks a good blueprint on how to adopt FOSS. Apologies if my words are too harsh.

OMB: Has IT budgets tightened due to the economic outlook?

Fahmi: From my experience, IT budgets is always tight, whether the economy is up or down. The Parliament of Malaysia allocates RM6000 for IT budgets for each MP.

OMB: On average, what is the deployment costs per Ubuntu seat compared to Windows?

Fahmi: For Windows with the complete software suite: Windows, Office, Anti-Virus and other stuff, we can save RM1K+ per desktop. That's why many Malaysian like to use pirated software. I believe if Linux and FOSS keeps pushing forward to become more populare, many illegal pirate CD distributors will go bankrupt.

OMB: What is the maintenance cost per Ubuntu seat per year compared to Windows?

Fahmi: 50 sen to burn Ubuntu CDs , the internet costs for security upgrade, and a little bit of patience ....

OMB: Are the end users encouraged to engage the FOSS community for support?

Fahmi: Many end users think want their computers to Just Work. 90% of the end users don't even care about the community or contribute or engage the community. The progress of the Malay Ubuntu translation project is very slow.

OMB: What was the initial reaction to the Ubuntu desktop?

Fahmi: Laughter! Because of the name Ubuntu, they said that "Ubuntu makes me buntu" (blocked out of ideas) ... perhaps we should change it to uPintar or uBijak ("clever" and "smart"). However after installation, training was not required. They just proceeded with their work. They become more accustomed to FOSS after time. In the video, there is an old lady called Kak Mek. She used Ubuntu from the beginning of her career in the Ampang Office. I didn't give her any training. She was just fine with OpenOffice. So the saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is a complete myth.

 

Kak Mek is a user of Ubuntu, "Who says Ubuntu is difficult?"

OB: Do you change the default file format of OpenOffice.org from ODF?

Fahmi: Most of the time, no, because almost all of the files are shared within the office, which uses OpenOffice as the primary software. When the files need to be used outside we convert as Windows is still dominant outside.

OMB: Do you think FOSS has a future in Malaysia?

Fahmi: Definitely, Yes.

"Linux will be the dominant desktop in the future"

Well done Fahmi, and the Ampang MP Office!

[Disclaimer: OMB is politically neutral and does not promote any particular political party nor alliances. We are however proponents of Openness in Technology and would love to highlight any efforts by any organisation which has the same vision]

UK really gets FOSS

The United Kingdom has put out an Action Plan to make use of Open Source and Open Standards. Building on its 2004 policy, they report that FOSS usage has since increased specifically in web servers, NHS systems and Directgov components, they have also noticed that enterprise class OSS support services have grown, and the major IT players are now actively supporting FOSS and Open Standards. CIOs too are now more comfortable with FOSS as the FUD around cost, licensing and risks are now better understood and neutralised.

The business needs of wanting more re-use of existing IT assets, more transparency in the procurement process and a establishment of a valid IT ecosystem were also drivers in this decision. So its not just about licensing fees which governments can reap from adopting pro-FOSS policies.

What is important are the key points in The Way Forward. The UK govt recognises the importance in communications between the citizens on their adopted solutions, and the interop enabled by using Open Standards. Getting the best value for money is of course a priority. What is encouraging is their far sighted desire to strengthen the skills, experience and capabilities of both Govt and its suppliers. This is important as it will be true meritocracy in terms of appointing suppliers, whereby the govt have the know how in deciding who to contract, whilst the best supplier will always win. Previously it really depended on artificial business restrictions where only a select few would have the magical appointment of being the authorised distribution / reselling / service rights, or arbitrary licenses which determined whether a company was successful in winning contracts.

The collaborative process of sharing and re-use, which is intrinsic to FOSS, has been recognised by the UK govt, and they expect it to help stimulate innovation, reduce costs and risks and improve time to market. I'm not sure how well this can be implemented, but at least they have a structure, the CIO Council to handle this aspect of FOSS development.

"No procedural barriers to the adoption of FOSS" is a fantastic policy. This gives FOSS a fighting chance. Archaic requirements like "but we need 3 competitive quotations on the zero licensing fees" would now be things of the past.

What is even better is that UK is now imposing requirements on proprietary vendors, who have gotten away with for too long, that they will now have to "demonstrate the same flexibility and ability to re–use their solutions and products as is inherent in open source."

Leveraging FOSS to open up closed software is also a good thing.

In the Policy section, we read even better ideas. Infact we see an idea of calculating the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to its logical conclusion.

Procurement decisions will be made on the basis on the best value for money 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 fulfil minimum and essential capability, security, scalability, transferability, support and manageability requirements

To summarise:

TCO = license cost + (exit + transition) costs + security costs + transferable costs + support costs + manageability costs

This is where the real TCO of proprietary software will go sky high. For those vendors who love lock-ins, their exit/transition costs will be prohibitive. For those who have poor security or virus prone, you will be held accountable. Then for those suppliers who dictate user unfriendly EULAs which restrict transferability, well ... make it more consumer oriented, or die!

Where Malaysia succeeded in 2002 by having the FOSS preferential policy and dropping the ball in 2006 by removing it, the United Kingdom in 2008 have this clause:

Where there is no significant overall cost difference between open and non-open source products, open source will be selected on the basis of its additional inherent flexibility.

There you have it. Malaysia was there first ("In situations where advantages and disadvantages of OSS and proprietary software are equal, preference shall be given to OSS"), but due to her weak leadership, she lost it an now her prior colonial power succeeds. How sad. I wonder what the UK govt reaction would be when CompTIA and its (in)famous Institute for Software Choice (ISC) starts complaining about WTO / FTA / anti competitive issues on this item, as what had happened in Malaysia?

The document then becomes far more proactive in moving towards FOSS. They are now taking aggressive steps in avoiding proprietary lock-ins, and would rather "take exit, rebid and rebuild costs into account in procurement decisions and will require those proposing proprietary software to specify how exit would be achieved."

UK also demands for proprietary software to be transferable within Govt depts and to be purchased with volume discounts. This is fair as as a single entity, it is probably the largest customer for any country. In the Action Plans (#5), it states that the onus now is on the suppliers to provide proof that FOSS alternatives have been studied and rejected before proprietary products are considered. This is absolutely fantastic, where currently glossy brochures and substantial perceived discounts was all the vendor had to provide to pitch for a deal.

The policy on open standards does not say much, but in the Action Plans (#8) it specifically says that ODF (ISO 26300) is required for compliance. OOXML is also mentioned, but merely as "emerging open versions of previously proprietary standards" which is probably the most generous description Ive heard. Its quite clear that the "defacto" binary Microsoft Office docs and Macro enabled OOXML are out.

For its Re-Use plans, the UK govt finally understands why it is important to release as open source the software it has commissioned to develop.

As far as Government Policies go, this one to me is fantastic. There is no pie-in-the-sky rhetoric, no unnecessary jargon, no vague handwaving, but has solid action plans, sound reasons for adoption and projects a great vision. The way it exploits all of FOSS strengths and turns it against the current procurement processes which hugely favours proprietary products is just genius.

Malaysia had the opportunity to be the pioneer in FOSS in the government, this but with weak policy leaders, (looking at you, Minister of Science,) the FOSS phenomena could not be exploited. The news from UK however is inspiring and very encouraging. Many thanks to the folk who got that going! Kudos to Tom Watson, MP of West Bromwich East, Minister for Digital Engagement, and twitterable at @tom_watson.

yk

Blackberries to support OpenDocument Format

Its official. Those prevalent Blackberry devices will support ODF natively mid 2009, as announced by RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie, during IBM's Lotusphere conference:

RIM's BlackBerry smartphone users can now access IBM's Lotus Symphony word processing documents, with the eventual capability to use presentations and spreadsheets from Symphony, built on the Open Document Format, as an alternative to Microsoft Office. Lotus Symphony document viewing will be available in the second quarter of this year.

This is significant as many enterprises have had to hold back on ODF deployments due to key infrastructure compatibilities, and Blackberries happen to be one of them. It is wonderful to see the market forces from end users to governments requesting ODF support, and now we are seeing the fruits of this demand; all major vendors will support ODF.

Even Microsoft's Windows Vista 7 have enhanced their built in rich text editor, Wordpad, to natively support ODF (screenshot from Han).

yk

The Black Screen of Death

Just yesterday, Microsoft Malaysia posted a new advertisement in a Malaysian daily which gloated that it now had control of all the software pirates in Malaysia. This new "feature" targets pirates by making the background of the desktops black, making it easy for law enforcers to fine the law breakers.

I don't know about you, but this ad is just begging to be parodied. So the art team here at OpenMalaysiaBlog came up with THE advertising programme Microsoft should have run instead:

As with all proprietary software, please read the fine print by clicking on the images above.

yk.

OOXML won't be accepted in South America.

Over the past month, the team at OpenMalaysiaBlog was really happy to showcase the good work Malaysians have done in government agencies and state governments in adopting OpenOffice.org in their offices. Some were driven from MAMPU's direction, but most were self initiatives, some even starting way back in 2003.

I personally, have been deliberately avoiding OOXML news because basically, I was sick and tired of it; where the latest ridiculous situation is where the same people who voted for the standard, get to vote against the appeal of the decision. Surely it shouldn't be an immediate voting procedure (ala BRM), but more of a consensus gathering effort? What happened to the process of working out the sustained objections as espoused by ISO procedures? As far as I know, since the Contradiction documents prepared by all the NBs back in Feb07, there has been no effort by ISO to work that out. Looking at the ISO process, its clear its broken and when there are forces determined to push it through, it will push it through.

Looks as though that this process has pissed off more people though. Entire countries. Continents even. In the  International Congress of Society and Electronic Government (CONSEGI) 2008; Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba and Paraguay signed a joint declaration against the latest decision by ISO to ignore the appeals.

They reiterate the issues of ISO "bending of rules" to fast track DIS29500, ignoring the contradictions with ODF, the growing and widespread use of ODF based applications in these countries, and questions the "vendor neutrality" of ISO, where its reputation and relevance is now suspect. [See below for transcript, and scanned image of the letter]

The event is far more than these few countries criticising ISO. It has a far greater impact on the FOSS world in southern countries, and as described by a participant, "the event in Brasilia was the Mecca of free software in the world". Check out the long list of speakers from relevant representatives from government agencies, international speakers and institutions. This blog better describes the discussions:

Gathered in the framework of South-South Coalition Dynamics, which occurred during the first day of CONSEGI, representatives of South Africa, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Paraguay, Sao Tome and Principe , Uruguay and Venezuela discussed ways and strategies to spread the use and development of open source software and open source, e-government programs and digital inclusion.

So even though Microsoft may have gotten the ISO certification it desperately needed, the damage done has been considerable. The past two years brought together the international community, raised more awareness to real open standards than before, and unfortunately for them, pinpointed them as a common "enemy." It looks like countries south of the equator have clearly indicated that OOXML will NOT be recognised as any form of government interoperability format.

And the backlash has only just begun ...

yk.

CONSEGI 2008 DECLARATION

We, the undersigned representatives of state IT organisations from Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela,  Ecuador, Cuba and Paraguay, note with disappointment the press release from ISO/IEC/JTC-1 of 20 August regarding the appeals registered by the national bodies of Brazil, South Africa, India and Venezuela.  Our national bodies, together with India, had independently raised a number of serious concerns about the process surrounding the fast track approval of DIS29500.  That those concerns were not properly addressed in the form of a conciliation panel reflects poorly on the integrity of these international standards development institutions.

Whereas we do not intend to waste any more resources on lobbying our national bodies to pursue the appeals further,  we feel it is important to make the following points clear:

1.The bending of the rules to facilitate the fast track processing of DIS29500 remains a significant concern to us.  That the ISO TMB did not deem it necessary to properly explore the substance of the appeals must, of necessity, put confidence in those institutions ability to meet our national requirements into question.

2.The overlap of subject matter with the existing ISO/IEC26300 (Open Document Format) standard remains an area of concern.  Many of our countries have made substantial commitments to the use of ISO/IEC26300, not least because it was published as an ISO standard in 2006.   

3.The large scale adoption of a standard for office document formats is a long and expensive exercise, with multi-year projects being undertaken in each of our countries.  Many of us have dedicated significant time and resources to this effort.  For example, in Brazil, the process of translation of ISO/IEC26300 into Portuguese has taken over a year.

The issues which emerged over the past year have placed all of us at a difficult crossroads.  Given the organisation's inability to follow its own rules we are no longer confident that ISO/IEC will be capable of  transforming itself into the open and vendor-neutral standards setting organisation which is such an urgent requirement. What is now clear is that we will have to, albeit reluctantly, re-evaluate our assessment of ISO/IEC, particularly in its relevance to our various national government interoperability frameworks.  Whereas in the past it has been assumed that an ISO/IEC standard should automatically be considered for use within government, clearly this position no longer stands.

- Aslam Raffee (South Africa)
Chairman, Government IT Officer's Council Working Group on Open Standards Open Source Software

- Marcos Vinicius Ferreira Mazoni (Brazil)
Presidente,Office of Federal Data Processing

- Carlos Eloy Figueira (Venezuela)
President, National Center of Information Technologies

- Eduardo Alvear Simba (Ecuador)
Director of Software Libre, Presidency of the Republic

- Tomas Ariel Duarte C. (Paraguay)
Director of Information Technology, Presidency of the Republic

- Miriam Valdés Abreu (Cuba)
Director of Analysis, Office for Computerisation.

OpenOffice.org deployed in Malaysian Schools

Just announced today (27 August 2008), The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) are working with the State Government of Terengganu to further increase the adoption of Open Source Software in government and schools. This is announced at the "Open Source Software Seminar for Accelerated Adpotion" held at Wisma Darul Iman, Terengganu.

OpenOffice.org in Schools Pilot launched today by the Chief Minister of Terengganu supports the increased adoption of OSS and deployment for the upcoming generation of Malaysians. OpenOffice.org is an Open Source software alternative for office productivity software. The pilot phase in the state involves deployment to over 100 schools since January 2008. From January 2009, all 467 schools will start using OpenOffice.org in the state.

What is interesting is that the pilot project began early this year with little fanfare, and now 8 months on, over 100 of Terengganu schools have already upgraded from their old office suites to OpenOffice.org. What will be interesting is the future impact this would have, ala Philippines.

This, however is stunning:

Over the next 2 years, the Ministry of Education plans to build on this initiative and deploy OpenOffice.org in over 300,000 PCs in schools throughout the country.

300,000 PCs in schools nationwide will have OpenOffice.org. Why?!!!

The savings in licensing costs, support for open standards and platform neutrality and increased security from threat of document viruses of this software will provide better delivery of education services by students and teachers.

Thats why! Costs, Open Standards and Security. I love it that the Government is finally understanding the term "platform neutrality"! They are finally understanding that the "Technology Neutrality" stance is actually a powerful means of procuring the best value product and not tied in to any one vendor. It is definitely not an excuse of being apathetic on issues which are important to Malaysia's interests.

300,000 PCs would certainly be the largest deployment of OOo in the country. Well done to the Ministry of Education for going ahead with this. What is encouraging in that this is not just a MOU type announcement; they have been doing this consistently over the year and are only announcing this when there has been significant progress in the "pilot project":

The Terengganu State government has also setup a community training centre that has trained over 20,000 state citizens with IT skills using open source software on 585 Linux desktops.

This news is wonderful, and it highlights the domino effect with OpenOffice.org as the catalyst, as a FOSS solution are increasingly being used by government agencies. As this builds momentum, vendors will not be able to resist the demand for OOo to be pre-installed on all their machines. Instead of the dreaded Microsoft "Works" (a misnomer; because "Works" doesn't work) pre-installed, it would be infinitely more useful if vendors pre-installed OpenOffice.org.

The project is being implemented with the support of the Terenganu State Education Department with commitment and financial support from the State Government of Terengganu through the Implementation Committee chaired by B. En. Ahmad Razif bin Abdul Rahman the director for the Science, Technology and Human Resources Committee for the State of Terengganu. The implementaiton of this project hopes to achieve increased knowledge sharing and innovation for computer users with the optimum license and minimal cost.

Its great to have forward thinking excos like En Ahmad Razif who has the will to drive initiatives like this.

Adoption of the open source office suite, OpenOffice.org for state government agencies is now official in the states of Melaka, Kedah, Pahang and Sabah. States like Melaka and Kedah have been deploying OpenOffice.org and OSS since 2003. Most recently Pahang State Government has issued a circular on the states intention for all state agencies to migrate to Openoffice.org. Combined they have saved millions in ringgit for licensing fees, expenditure now spent locally to provide better public services in their respective states.

If you ever get the question, "How do you make money from FOSS?", tell them that's the wrong question. Millions of ringgit saved. Well done MAMPU. Well done Ministry of Education. Well done State Government of Terengganu.

I wonder what Microsoft Malaysia thinks of all of this.

Perhaps they were too preoccupied with the OOXML saga last year to notice the major changes in government choices?

yk

"Software Patents in Malaysia?"

In ComputerWorld Malaysia, next to the article about Linux in schools in Philippines, was this interesting box. Im not sure whether it was an advertorial, but it seems like a reignition of the software patent debate.

5 Minute Reading:
"Software Patents in Malaysia?"
by Noriswadi Ismail

Challenge me if this statement is quite misleading: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) within the Information Communications & Technology (ICT) industry in Malaysia is largely segmented". To quantify, ideally, most of the IPR components that hit the national headlines are mostly on infringement. And of all the decided cases in our national courts - are purely surrounded by invalidation and infringement cases - so much so, the ICT industry is still hoping for more development and progress.

There are some initiatives by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) to suggest a move towards software patents. It was sometime, in the first quarter, this year; I had attended a well-organized conference by MDeC. Officials form the Japan Patent Office and Malaysian Intellectual Property corporation (MyIPO) were invited to provide their views and stance on software patents. There were invited consultants who impressed the attendees with their overall insights to - from basics to the advanced level understanding. During the wrap up session, I had personally opined:-

i) That MDeC and MyIPO should gauge extensive feedbacks, through a public consultation paper, from Malaysia's ICT stakeholders on software patents;

ii) That the result of the consultation should be diffused and disseminated to the stakeholders; and

iii) That MDeC and MyIPO should consult a well-coordinated forum with the Attorney General' Chambers ("AG Chambers") to consider such practice notes, guidelines or amendments to the existing Malaysian Patents Act.

Though these three (3) items may sound such a Herculean task, however, from the ICT industry perspective, it's timely for Malaysia to have its own stance. Putting the legal debate on patentability of software aside, for the time being, the ICT industry is hoping for a quantum leap that could stimulate software innovation culture. Some players may argue that software patent stifle innovation. To a certain extend, it has its merits. Arguably, the global software patents landscape are diversified due to its territorial nature of IPR protection and enforcement. Some countries allowed software patents. Some countries allowed software patents with conditional guidelines and some countries are very much grey on this subject matter. On this case, where is Malaysia heading to?

Assuming: If software are deemed to be patentable, the next challenge that will be faced by Malaysia's ICT industry is the monopoly of other competitors and big players. Whilst there is no competition regulations and laws addressing such concerns, perhaps, MDeC, MyIPO and the AG Chambers should add this in their must-to-do list in the nearest future. To move forward, my urge to all the readers - policy makers, stakeholders and ICT industry players, what do you think about Software Patents from other angles - business, economic and others? Your views are highly sought in shaping our public policy engagement in Malaysia.

Email me your thoughts at: noriswadi@heitech.com.my

The writer is a British Chevening Scholar and Group General Counsel / Company Secretary of HeiTech Padu Berhad.

Although this call for comments appears to be neutral, there are some issues which cause concern regarding Noriswadi's position:

1. He only says that there are some countries who allow it, some who allow it with conditions and "some countries are very much grey on this subject matter." There is no mention that there are countries which have clearly rejected software patents, namely India, UK and the entire European Union.
2. He seems to be calling out for more proactive moves on MDeC and MyIPO to re-invigorate the local software scene and "hoping for a quantum leap that could stimulate software innovation culture". Maybe a policy move could achieve the effect, but encouraging software patents I believe is the wrong way to go about it.
3. He forgets to include are the most important stakeholders of this issue; the Malaysian public. We are unfortunately net importers of technology. We need the freedom to choose whatever technology available, be it proprietary to FOSS (Technology Neutrality). Software patents will hinder FOSS adoption due to scare tactics or legal suppression by patent holders. End users will have to bear the burden for artificial monopolies, legal and licensing costs.
4. He does not elaborate on what actual benefits software patents would bring to the local ICT industry. He just says "To a certain extend [sic], it has its merits". Perhaps the merits and demerits could be elaborated on to give a complete picture for Malaysia to decide?

Back in 2006, PIKOM held a seminar on this very issue, and I had the pleasure to listen to and summarise talks by Ng Wan Peng and Deepak Pillai. Wan Peng was from MDeC, and she concluded in her talk entitled "Policy considerations in the patentability of computer implemented business methods"

 

Here are some interesting points from her presentation.

The MDeC report [in 2005] also noted that in the Malaysian Software Development environment, we are still a net importer of technology. It asked these questions,

Will Software Patents help:

• increase Foreign Direct Interests?
• reduce the deficit in Technology balance of payments?
• reduce transactional and social costs?

For all three queries, the answer was a resounding 'No'. A strong legal framework is an important but relatively small criteria in selecting a country for investments. The other criteria comes from able workforce, stable government, language and cultural preferences and other major economic reasons. IP protection is important, but not as important as the rest.

In conclusion,

MDeC's position on Software Patents are:

• Retain status quo: Software Patents are possible on stringent criteria: if it shows innovation and novel ideas
• Business Methods are clearly not Patentable
• and a review of position in 3 years time ...

I guess 3 years on, the 2005 report is now due for a review, and that is probably why we are getting renewed interest in software patents.

Deepak's presentation  "Intellectual Property - Know your rights," was just as interesting;

He notes that Software patents are seen as an inhibitor of the production of  both FOSS and proprietary Software Development in Malaysia. Reason being is that it puts developers and users at risk of patent infringement suits. It also requries developers to conduct searches to be aware of existing patents before proceeding with development work. This is wasteful in both monetary, manpower and time resources. The USPTO system of granting software is open to abuse as registration is easily acquired and a challenge requires substantial financial capacity which not many start-ups have the deep pockets.

However Software Patents are not the cause of the problems facing the software industry now... its the ease in which the USTPO is awarding patents to the applicants. A regular mechanical patent requires detailed schematics and actual operational machines before it can be awarded to the applicant. However Software Patents just requires a 'concept' to be documented. No actual implementation in code is necessary! This provides huge leeway in terms of approval criteria and subsequently interpretation in enforcement. To me, it highlights the huge difference between Hardware (Traditional) Patents and Software Patents. One being undeniably useful, and the other redundant.

I had the opportunity to ask him: "Why do we need Software Patents to protect software? Does Copyright Law provide sufficient protection?"

Deepak immediately answered "Yes, current Copyright Law is sufficient in protecting Software Intellectual Property."

I do hope that En. Noriswadi's intentions are sincere in that he is looking genuine input from stakeholders. I do also hope that he is more sensitive to aspects of this debate from the FOSS perspective. More importantly he does his homework on the full benefits and disadvantages of software patents.

It is interesting to note that globally,  the software patent mess is starting to rear its ugly head yet again. In the EU, Charlie McCreevy is trying to legalise software patents with a US-EU patent treaty, and in India the Patent Office is working on a Draft Patent Manual to allow software patents.

Candlelight Vigil held to protest against
software patents on 23 Aug 2008 in Bangalore

... and it looks like Malaysia is also going to join the party.

yk. 

Malaysia's Sabah State Government moves to OpenOffice.org too.

In this post, OpenMalaysiaBlog continues to cover Malaysia's various State Governments' steady migration from proprietary office suites to OpenOffice.org.

In this very concise notice, Sabah's State Government has announced that they will be joining the OOo bandwagon! Translated from Malay for our international readers:

"In-line with the directive from the Director of the State Computer Service, the KSIT TSKN (Deputy Chief Secretary of Sabah, IT Support Group) will be installing the OpenOffice.org office suite on all micro computers and notebooks belonging to the State Government of Sabah. Our team requests that all staff will be informed about this installation

For your information, courses on the usage of this application has been prepared by INSAN (Public Sector Training Institute) and the relevant staff from your departments may attend this course."

It then quotes MAMPU's migration to install OOo on all its computers, yes the one with the famous word: "dihapuskan" which literally translated means "eradicate" or "wipe from the face of the earth" with regards to current Microsoft Office installations.

Isn't it amazing how "easy" it is? State after state, from Pahang, Kedah, Melaka and now Sabah. Thats the reality of todays environment. When there is a freely available alternative, which is functionally capable, why spend the money of fancy features which you will not use?

Even if Microsoft Malaysia manages to pull off a USD30 (or RM99) version, state governments will be hardpressed to justify spending any more money then necessary.

yk.

"23,000 Linux PCs forge education revolution in Philippines"

Interesting news from our neighbour Philippines - it was a two page article in the August edition of Computerworld Malaysia, page 18 entitled: "Open Education". I tried to search for the article in computerworld.com.my, but failed to get any results. However Google worked, and here is the article published online by Computerworld Australia: "23,000 Linux PCs forge education revolution in Philippines"

Here are some interesting bits of information:

With funding from the Japanese government, the PCPS program started around the 2000 timeframe when the contractors installed Windows PCs, but five years later it was discovered a lot of the computers were not being used because nobody knew how to use them.

There goes the myth that Windows is friendly and everybody knows how to use them. When it comes to education, its the first opportunity to teach kids how to do things. Not get them ingrained in only one way of doing things on one product.

Ricardo Gonzalez said, "The project dragged on for four to five months to a point where Microsoft matched the price by offering Windows XP for $US20 a copy and throwing in Office for $US30, but we still came out cheaper. Microsoft was also providing free training to high school teachers."

So even when Microsoft Philippines was authorised to slash prices (with questionable sales tactics of 70-90% discounts) for this project, Microsoft was still the more expensive option. Its funny because when it comes to the education of kids, there is no mythical "migration" costs, and therefore Microsoft's standard arguments of Total Cost of Ownership studies with retraining goes right out the window. In a few years, Microsoft will become even more expensive because of the "migration" costs from Linux to Windows X, and I wonder if that will be a factor in their TCO studies.

"Because we saved so much we gave the government 3000 additional units, so now another 300 schools have Linux networks," Gonzalez said.

From an initial contract of 10,000 units, Gonzalez provided 3,000 additional units. I don't know about you, but I'd figure that a 30% surplus in deliverables is certainly a key indication that Open Source is key in providing great value. What do you think?

The key part of the article to me is this soundbyte from Gonzalez:

"People in the government now understand Linux can do so much for so little outlay," he said. "In a brand new computer 50 percent goes to the operating system and office suite, so how many people can afford that?"

When you have a proprietary OS and the office suite factored into the price, it does come up to 50% of a price of a new computer. Why should this be the case, especially in developing countries in Asia? I highlighted this in my complaint on the Microsoft Tax post a few weeks ago.

23,000 computers deployed by a 3 man team is certainly phenomenal. Lets see of other countries around the region are moving in this direction especially in the education sector, where in the long term it matters most.

Well done, Ricardo Gonzalez!

yk.