Ian Lynch on Malaysia’s Open Source Strategy
Ian Lynch, a longtime OOo community member and founder of The INGOTs project, recently returned from Malaysia, where he studied the government’s strategy to adopt open source. He describes his experience in “Malaysian Government’s World Leading Open Source Strategy“:
“My recent trip to Malaysia at the invitation of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) provided a great insight into the Malaysian Government’s strategy to move all public administration to Open Source software. The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and the Open Source Competency Center (OSCC) published implementation guidelines in August 2008. In contrast with political strategies that are more about presentation and spin, this publication is a refreshing object lesson in planning for change, taking into account the existing position and infrastructure.”
Malaysia has been talking about migrating to open source for several years now. Unlike some other countries, however, Malaysia has also taken concrete steps in the form of pilot projects. It has reached some very positive conclusions:
“In 5 pilots across 4 ministries, savings reported were
- 80% on software licensing costs
- 58% in development and consultancy
- 7% in software support
- 31% overall.”
Lynch concludes “Malaysia shows that… putting the needs of the tax payer before those of shareholders of private companies is a responsibility governments ought to be taking more seriously.” He describes Malaysia’s growth toward a technology leadership position in Southeast Asia, and how open source has played a key role in that process.