NEWS: RM10mil for open-source movement

KUALA LUMPUR: Open-source communities in Malaysia are getting a juicy carrot in October from the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) as an encouragement.

That’s when MDeC is kicking off a RM10mil fund aimed at promoting open-source activities among Malaysian software developers and others in the communities.

MDeC chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said the money would be used to fund open-source training, promotions and collaborations.

He said the open-source movement is all about collaboration and this needs to be encouraged.

“Malaysians do not lack ideas; we are lacking in business networking and collaboration (activities),” he said.

“We’re not looking for a Malaysian single-cell organisation to be the next Google or Microsoft.

“We want Malaysians to be part of international collaborative efforts building new open-source applications,” he explained.

Badlisham was speaking at a press conference at the inaugural MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009 here.

Booster shot

According to MDeC, there are 420 MSC Malaysia companies developing open-source applications and services, and last year they earned a total of RM400mil.

These companies were successful in developing solutions for customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and other segments.

MDeC, which is guardian of the MSC Malaysia initative, wants to double that revenue to RM800mil within two years.

One of the ways to do this, it believes, is to promote open-source applications to small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), which number in the thousands in this country alone.

“SMEs have always been hesitant to embrace technology because of the cost and complexity of deploying solutions,” Badlisham said.

But there are no such barriers to implementing open-source technology, he said, adding that the users would also only have to pay for support services.

MDeC will be organising workshops to promote open-source technology to SMEs during National ICT (information and communications technology) Month, from July 20 to Aug 20.

The event is organised by The Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Government first

The Malaysian Government has been headed towards open-source since 2004.

Datuk Normah Yusof, Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) director-general, said the Government is an early adopter of open source.

Mampu focuses on initiatives that can upgrade the efficiency of Malaysian public services, including IT initiatives such as open source.

“We launched our Public Sector Open Source Software (OSS) Master Plan in 2004 and have been actively executing the plan ever since,” Normah said.

The OSS Master Plan was launched with the goal of creating and enhancing the efficiency of public services through the use of open-source software that is touted as being more cost effective than proprietary software.

Under the plan, Mampu said it successfully rolled out 1,124 OSS-related projects and that more than 60% of government agencies have currently adopted open-source technology.

According to Mampu, this has resulted in a 30% savings in costs in total because each agency that adopted open source reduced the licensing fees they had to pay for proprietary software.

“Another benefit is that these agencies have had the opportunity to become self reliant in terms of technical competency,” said Normah.

“OSS with its readily available source codes and its support from global communities presented an excellent learning opportunity.”

Under the OSS Master Plan, Mampu was also tasked with establishing the Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC) — a single point of reference to guide, facilitate, co-ordinate and monitor the implementation of OSS in the public sector.

The OSCC has gained international attention. “Saudi Arabia has requested our assistance to establish its own OSCC and we have obliged,” Normah said.

“We have also been asked to present our master plan at many international OSS forums, such as Linux World in San Francisco, and at others in Hawaii, South Africa, Beijing, Bangkok and Sudan.”

Time for talks

The four-day MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009 began on May 31 with Hackathon Day featuring workshops and tutorials on open source.

MDeC organised the conference with Mampu and is supported by the Malaysian Open Source Community. The event, held annually, ends today.

This year, the conference attracted more than 650 local and international participants. Its theme was “Open to Change” and it targeted business executives, software developers and open-source communities in Malaysia.

Among the open-source gurus that spoke were Chris DiBona, open-source program manager at Google; Gerry Messer, Redhat president Asia Pacific; and Oliver Bell, regional technology officer at Microsoft Asia Pacific.

For more information on the conference, go to
www.mscmalaysia.my/opensource.