Tomorrow is Software Freedom Day, but very few Caribbean countries will be recognising its importance, and promoting it, although it is essential to many organisations in the region.
For the past 12 years, and on 15 October, Software Freedom Day is celebrated worldwide. Admittedly, from the term ‘software freedom”, it may not be entirely clear what is meant, and correspondingly its importance. However, Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
We, here at ICT Pulse, are big supporters of FOSS, which we have discussed in previous articles. However, to recap, FOSS is software that is licensed for anyone to use, copy, study, and change, and the source code is made freely available for it to be altered or improved.
Select benefits of FOSS
Though many of us might be partial to feature-rich proprietary software, they can be quite expensive to purchase and to upgrade on a regular basis, as required by the owner. As a result, our reliance on them can be especially challenging to Caribbean organisations that are not as well-resourced as their counterparts in more developed countries.
Further, due to the collaborative environment that FOSS fosters, it benefits from the input, testing and improvements of a community of software developers. Hence widely used products tend be very stable and reliable.
Additionally, FOSS promote transparency and accountability. Unlike proprietary software, where the source code is like black box that cannot be accessed. With FOSS and for those who understand and are interested, they can study the source code and so know what they are installing and using.
SFD 2016
On SFD, and through volunteer teams worldwide, the goal is to “educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business” (Source: Software Development Day). Unfortunately, and as the map below shows, only Belize, Dominican Republic and Guyana, in the Caribbean islands/CARICOM community have organised the local SFD events.
Whilst it might be too late to organise more SFD events across the region for this year’s celebration, the importance of FOSS to developing countries, such as those in the Caribbean, should not be trivialised. Several government ministries, departments and agencies, along with non-governmental and non-profit organisations, rely to a considerable degree on FOSS products for a broad range of specialist needs and activities that they could not otherwise be able to afford..
Further, many of those organisations tap into the global developer and knowledge base communities that support their specific FOSS product, and so benefit from the expertise and ability to customise programmes to their specific needs. However, there is scope for those communities to extend into the region, and so help to build the capacity of our software development and tech communities.
Image credits: Jacob Bøtter (flickr)
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