FOSSCOM to oppose NASSCOM
companies and civil society groups supporting open source software standard in e-governance are planning to
form a separate pressure group. They have proposed to form fosscom to oppose the IT industry body nasscom that has been lobbying with the government to adopt proprietary software standards.
Free and open source software (foss) codes can be accessed by any software professional and modified free of
cost unlike proprietary software for which a licensing fee has to be paid to the company holding the software code. The Department of
Information and Technology's (dit) draft policy on e-governance seeks to enforce foss
(see 'Open Policy', Down To Earth, May 31, 2008).
But companies like Microsoft and Infosys have been pushing for proprietary software in e-governance through nasscom.
On June 17, a meeting of the dit apex committee was held where nasscom
opposed the draft policy. Its spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.
foss supporters say adopting proprietary standards as demanded by nasscom and
the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (mait) would make storing national data such as land
records, expensive. People would end up paying for using the proprietary software, they said. Proprietary standards would also lead to loss of
business opportunity for several small-scale IT companies that have adopted foss to save costs, said Jaijit
Bhattacharya of Knowledge Commons, India, a non-profit. He said fosscom would be an alternative platform that
will represent small-scale businesses.
foss has the support of companies like ibm, Red Hat and SunMicrosystems. Red
Hat shot off a letter to nasscom saying multiple proprietary standards in the same domain will bring e-governance
to a standstill.
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
.png)
Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.