National Open Source Strategy
December 2013
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
December2013
Outline
Background
Vision & Mission
Preliminary Targets
Strategic Objectives
Enablers
Challenges for FOSS in Egypt
Countries Experiences
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Background
 The National Open Source Strategy comes as a response to the
Prime Minister’s assignment to study the adoption of an open
source strategy in Egypt for the national benefit in 2012.
 The Strategy is a result of a deep conviction that Egypt needs
to be open to different types of software especially those
encouraging:
 Easy uptake
 Innovation
 Creativity
 Egypt developed a well thought strategy and pro-active steps
in this direction similarly to other developed and developing
countries .
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Background
 The FOSS strategy multi stakeholder committee includes:
 Ministry of ICT & Affiliates
 Ministry of Administrative Development
 Academic Professors from Egyptian Universities
 Private Sector
 NGOs
 The opinions and views expressed in the strategy resulted
from different rounds of discussions of committee members
and phases included:
 Formation of the multi-stakeholder committee
 Formation of the MCIT task force
 Identification of the professional consultancy team
 Consultations with civil society
 Consultations with private sector
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Vision
“ Building a well developed knowledge society
that benefits from a balanced ecosystem of ITproducing and IT-using sectors, towards
prosperity, freedom, and social equity”
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Mission
“To promote the development and adoption of
high-quality, open-source software-based
products and services as one fundamental pillar
of the knowledge society so as to raise
productivity, improve competitiveness, and
enhance the overall economic and social
wellbeing of citizens in Egypt.”
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Preliminary Targets
 Identifying Egypt's governmental Single Point of
Reference for FOSS
 Establishing Egypt's web-based FOSS assets library
 5-Year doubling the FOSS ecosystem including
numbers of SMEs, training providers, international
partners, and collaborating NGOs
 Implementing at least 3 yearly national projects
fostering FOSS usage
 Training a minimum of 1000 trainee per year
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Strategic Objectives
Ensure access to knowledge to all citizens
Harness the development of the ICT Sector
Ensure efficient budgeting and reduce ICT Expenses
Increase Technology Independency
Build a sustainable FOSS community for users and developers
Encourage and support SMEs in ICT exploitation
Raise public awareness about Open Source
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Strategic Objectives
 Ensure access to knowledge to all citizens
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Availing knowledge management and low cost institutional
repositories
Providing zero cost platform using different portable devices
such as, mobiles, tablets, or laptops)
Facilitating the accessibility for varieties of local / global
knowledge sharing & transfer
 Harness the development of the ICT Sector
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Increasing the competitiveness which will improve the quality
Strengthening the competitiveness of Egyptian ICT companies
by combining inexpensive manpower with free software tools
Enabling development of different ICT products and services by
allowing equal access to FOSS infrastructure
Boosting Egyptian software exports via growing expertise in
open standards
Lowering entry barriers to local developers
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Strategic Objectives
 Ensure efficient budgeting and reduce ICT Expenses
FOSS adoption reduces :
 Total cost of ownership (TCO)
 Cost of maintenance and support
 Cost of future expansion by adopting Open Standards.
 Increase technology independency
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Availing source code enables customization of software as desired
and moving towards content localization
Moving from vendors lock-in.
 Build a sustainable FOSS community for users and developers
 Creating vibrant FOSS community covering different society
sectors
 Stimulating local employment through consolidating support
capacity to FOSS-based micro enterprises.
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Strategic Objectives
 Encourage and support SMEs in ICT exploitation
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Encouraging SMEs to apply open source ICT solutions in business
Enabling more FOSS-based SMEs generating more jobs
Aiding entrepreneurs and small business with limited capital
 Raise public awareness about Open Source
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Encouraging the dissemination of knowledge
Clarifying the various benefits of using FOSS in society
Promoting the open culture concept
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Strategic Outcomes
 Reducing the government expenses on software licenses
 Pushing down TCO of government ICT infrastructure, software
licenses, and maintenance cost
 GDP growth
 Decreasing illegal usage of software licenses
 Enhancing the eco-system to foster business opportunities
 Generating job opportunities
 Increase the national security level
 Inspecting systems source code and improving security and quality
 Allowing organizations to comprehend software-related security
aspects and participate in maintenance of security.
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Strategic Outcomes
 Human capital development
 Increasing potential for self learning
 Enhancing human capital by developing their professional skills
 Empowering SMEs operating in ICT industry
 Availing opportunities to export FOSS technologies
 Opening markets for FOSS outsourcing services
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Ensure high level of leadership coordination (Body)
Construct policies that support FOSS usage & development
Promote FOSS usage in public sector agencies
Expand educational activities to build competitive OS supply capacity
Develop a capable infrastructure for the FOSS adoption
Secure sufficient and continual funding to support FOSS strategy
Empower SME operating in ICT industry
Collaborate with civil society
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Ensure High Level of Leadership Coordination (Body)
 Adoption of strategy should have a key leadership role for:
 Monitoring and implementing the FOSS strategy
 Acting as a centre point advocate for the high level action plan
 Orchestrating strategy among stakeholders to smooth implementation.
 Malaysia, India, Japan, and Malta among others, established a FOSS
leadership body.
KPI
Identification governmental single point of reference for FOSS
Targets
declared
Number of FOSS advocacy/awareness event/meeting
3 per year
Number of FOSS strategy implementation reports
4 per year
Number of partnerships with reputable, worldwide FOSS entities
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
2 for the first year,
then 1 yearly
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Enablers
Construct policies that support FOSS usage and development
 Setting the role of government as regulator to allow for a fair competition
between technology providers
 Reviewing current regulations and policies affecting the adoption of FOSS
 Developing systems with no procedural barriers to facilitate FOSS
adoption
KPI
Number of FOSS implementation, migration guidelines and
best practices to be circulated in the Egyptian ICT
Community.
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
Targets
One new version
every year
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Enablers
Promote FOSS Use in Public Sector Agencies
 Embedding FOSS culture of sharing, reuse, and collaborative development
 Motivating governmental entities to adopt, implement, and promote FOSS
 Training of government employees on FOSS to ensure the ability to
migrate.
 Building a Knowledge Asset Library for agencies implementing FOSS to:
 Register their initiatives & challenges
 Record predefined reuse policies
 Provide technical and administrative guidance
 Spread good practices throughout public administrations
KPI
Targets
Number of national public procurements targeting
development of FOSS-based products and services
Minimum 3 per year
Size of the Egyptian web-based FOSS assets library
Established and maintained
Collaborations with NGOs
Minimum 2 per year
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Conduct Educational and Training Activities
 Providing Training of Trainers (ToT) workshops and courses for educators
 Recommending FOSS tools for teaching, learning, and research
 Encouraging the exchange of Open Source experience among schools and
universities.
 Developing Open Source courses for each different categories of
stakeholders.
KPI
Targets
Number of institutes & training providers delivering
FOSS-related educational/training courses
Increase 20% per year
Number of FOSS-related educational & training courses
Increase 20% per year
Number of FOSS trainees
Minimum of 1000
trainees per year
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Develop a Capable Infrastructure for the FOSS Adoption
 The alignment of broadband strategy, cloud strategy & FOSS strategy will
increase the opportunities for the widespread use and adoption of FOSS.
 Assessing and identifying Egypt’s infrastructure capabilities for FOSS
implementation in government and private sectors (especially SMEs)
KPI
Targets
Size of governmental IT infrastructure
dedicated to running FOSS
As needed
Number of running enterprise FOSS
application software
One of the G-cloud computing
infrastructure will be based on FOSS
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Secure Continual Funding to Support FOSS Strategy
 The FOSS enablers and high-level action plan will need a suitable funding
that will help in the implementation of the FOSS strategy.
 For the primary phase of implementation , there should be plans for at
least the first two years to cover the main activities which includes:
training, coordination, raising awareness, monitoring, and evaluation
activities.
KPI
Targets
Budget size
enough to achieve targets
Number of sponsors
enough to achieve targets
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Empower SME Operating in ICT Industry
 Providing a motivating environment to offer FOSS based services.
 Support FOSS entrepreneurs through the affiliates programs such as
TIEC, ITIDA
KPI
Targets
Number of SMEs utilizing FOSS
Increase by 20% per year
Number of national programs that assist the ICT
industry on the development of FOSS-based
products and services based on market need
Minimum of 2 per year
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Enablers
Collaborate with Civil Society
 Civil society groups can serve as a source of demand for FOSS. They
represent an important market for businesses built around FOSS
industry
Collaborating with civil society (among others):
 Open Egypt (FOSS NGO)
 The Arab digital Expression Foundation (ADEF)
 Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AETF)
 The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
KPI
Targets
Number of NGOs involved in FOSS
All software-related NGOs
by end of 2nd year
Number of NGOs collaborations
Minimum of 2 per year
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Challenges For Foss in Egypt

Lack of Supportive Policies

Lack of FOSS Awareness

Lack of FOSS Human Capital

Migration Resistance
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Countries Experiences
 Brazil
 Government established the world’s first open source ATM system.
 Government converted 60% of state departments computers to use FOSS
(over 1 year)
 United Kingdom
 Over 25% of secondary schools use Linux operating system on at least one
computer
 35% of NHS organizations (300,000 users) are supported on Linux
infrastructure
 Malaysia
 Government reduced costs as follows:
• Licensing fees by 80%
• Development and consultancy by 58%
• Software support services by 7%
• Overall cost reduction: 30.5% in 2006
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
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Thanks
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology - Egypt
November 2013