Introduction to Free Software - SELF | Sharing Knowledge about ...

© FUOC • P07/M2101/02709 89 Free Software
Many applications used or promoted by the public administrations are also
used by many other sectors of society. For this reason, any public investment
in the development of a free product benefits not only the administration
itself, but also all its citizens, who will be able to use the product for their
computer tasks, perhaps with the improvements made by the Administration.
Note
A very particular case, but one with enormous impact, which displays this better use of
public resources is program localisation (adaptation to a community's uses and customs).
Although the most visible aspect of localisation is the translation of the program and
its documentation, there are others that are also affected by it (from use of the local
currency symbol to presenting the date and time in the formats of the community in
question, to the use of examples in the documentation and ways of expression adapted
to local customs).
In any case, obviously if a public administration uses funds to localise a particular application
tailoring the application to its needs, it is more than likely that those needs
coincide with those of its citizens, meaning that it will generate, not only a program
that satisfies its own requirements, but also, one that can be made available to any citizen
able to make the most of it at no additional cost. For example, when an administration
finances the adaptation of a computer program to a language that is used within
its community, it will not only be able to use that program within its own offices, but
also offer it to citizens, with everything that this involves in terms of developing the
information society.
6.1.2. Difficulties of adoption and other problems
However, although there are many advantages for the administration using
free software, there are also many difficulties that need to be faced when it
comes to putting it into practice. Of them, we would particularly mention the
following:
1) Lack of knowledge and political commitment
The first problem that free software encounters for entering the adminis-
tration is one that other organisations undoubtedly share: free software is
still an unknown quantity for the people who make the decisions.
Fortunately, this is a problem that is gradually being solved, but in many
spheres of the administration free software is still perceived as something
strange, so decisions about using it still involve certain risks.
In addition to this, we tend to come a cross a problem of political decisi-
on-making. The main advantage of free software for the Administration
is not the cost (since the cost, in any case, is high, especially when we are
talking about a roll-out for a large number of workstations), but as we have
already said, benefits are above all strategic. And therefore, the decision
falls within the political, rather than the technical sphere. Without the
political will to change software systems and the philosophy with which
they are contracted, it is difficult to progress with the implantation of free
software in the Administration.
2) Poor adaptation of contracting mechanisms
The contracting mechanisms that the Administration uses nowadays, ran-
ging from the usual public tender models to cost itemising, are funda-
Bibliography
Readers interested in a report
on the advantages of free
software for the administration,
written in the US context
of 1999, can consult "The case
for government promotion
of open source software"
(Mitch Stoltz, 1999) [213].