MINISTER OF STATE FOR
INNOVATION AND PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
PUBLIC REPORT
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
Tirana, March, 2014
© Copyright 2014 MIAP - All rights reserved
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Glossary ............................................................................................................................................. 5
1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
2. Project Background, Objectives and Methodology ....................................................................... 7
2.1 Project background ............................................................................................................. 7
2.2 Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 8
2.3 Methodology and Tools ..................................................................................................... 8
2.3.1 Population frame ........................................................................................................ 8
2.3.2 Survey Design ............................................................................................................ 9
2.3.3 In-depth interviews .................................................................................................. 10
2.3.4 Field work ................................................................................................................ 10
2.3.5 Descriptive results .................................................................................................... 11
2.3.6 Qualitative Research ................................................................................................ 11
2.3.7 Constraints ............................................................................................................... 12
3 Summary of Works ....................................................................................................................... 13
3.1 Study of OSS in Albania .................................................................................................. 13
3.1.1 Scope and Objectives ............................................................................................... 13
3.1.2 Results and Findings ................................................................................................ 13
3.1.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 18
3.2 Best International Practices of OSS Utilization in the Public Sector ............................... 20
3.2.1 Scope and Objectives ............................................................................................... 20
3.2.2 Results and Findings ................................................................................................ 20
3.2.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 21
3.3 Open Source Software Policy and Procurement Guidelines ............................................ 22
3.3.1 Scope and Objectives ............................................................................................... 22
3.3.2 Results and Findings ................................................................................................ 22
3.3.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 24
4 Recommandations ......................................................................................................................... 28
4.1 Recommended Future research ........................................................................................ 28
4.2 Quick Path recommendation ............................................................................................ 30
4.2.1 Institutional Building ............................................................................................... 30
4.2.2 Create a New OSS Application Piloting the Creation of a Project Community ...... 32
4.2.3 Piloting OSS Desktop Infrastructure ....................................................................... 34
4.2.4 Assesment of OSS Potential in e-Learning .............................................................. 35
5 Quick Path Gantt Chart ................................................................................................................. 37
6 Annexes......................................................................................................................................... 39
6.1 Annex 1 – References ...................................................................................................... 39
3
6.2 Annex 2 – Workshop Documents .................................................................................... 39
6.3 Annex 3 – Questions and Indicators ................................................................................ 40
6.3.1 Public Sector CIO survey and indicators ................................................................. 40
6.3.2 IT Companies Survey and indicators ....................................................................... 41
4
GLOSSARY
Abbreviations
Explanation
BSD
Berkeley Software Distribution
CIO
Chief Information Officer
CS
Computing Science
DNS
Domain Name Service
EU
European Union
ISV
Independent Software Vendor
NAIS
National Agency for Information Society
OSS
Open Source Software
FSF
Free Software Foundation
FOSS
Free and Open Source Software
GNU
GNU is Not Unix
GPL
GNU General Public License
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
ICT
Information and Communications Technology
IIS
Internet Information Server
JDK
Java Development Kit
JRE
Java Runtime Environment
MIAP
Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration
PPA
Public Procurement Office in Albania
PDF
Portable Document Format
TCO
Total Cost of Ownership
XML
Extensible Markup Language
5
1 INTRODUCTION
This report represents the main output of 3 other documents/outputs in the series of reports and
activities carried out by the Consultants. It also consolidates important feedback and conclusions
received in the technical workshop whose agenda and participation details are included in section
6.2 Annex 2 of this report. It provides various policy and tactical recommendations, including a
roadmap of actions to successfully introduce and gain advantages of OSS in the Albanian public
sector institutions.
The titles and the links of the prepared outputs are listed below:
No.
Title
1
OSS Utilization
Administration
Output link
and
Findings
about
Public
Output 3 - Albanian
OSS in Public Administration Study.doc
2
Best International Practices in OSS Implementation in
the Public Sector
Ouput 4 - Best
International Practices.docx
3
Adoption of OSS Procedures, Policies and Procurement
Guidelines
Ouput 5 and 6 - OSS
Policy and Procurement Adoption.docx
4
Technical Workshop on Findings, Discussions and OSS The agenda and the participants
Training and Awareness on December 23d, 2013
of the workshop are included in
6.2 Annex 2
5
Final Report and Recommendation about the next Steps This Report
in the Process
Table 1, Project Deliverables
6
2. PROJECT BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY
2.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND
This project was supported by the Central Finance and Contracting Unit (CFCU) part of the
consulting services for: “Advisory support to MIAP for building capacities of CIO Technical
Council of Electronic Government: Open Government Partnership (OGP) Initiative and Open
Source Solutions (OSS) Program”. Since at the beginning, the Albanian Government has embraced
Open Government Partnership (OGP) Principles of transparency and open data challenge. With
OSS, control over the software and the knowledge expressed therein rests with the users. OSS
usage in the public sector is a natural approach in the development and acquisition of software
because:





The government’s clients are its citizens, all the natural and legal persons of the country.
The information is public, i.e. these persons at the same time are the owners of the
information kept and processed by government.
Government must therefore guarantee free (open, non-discriminatory) access to this public
information.
It must guarantee permanence of public data.
It must guard against misuse of the data in a way that might undermine national security as
well as the security of its citizens.
The characteristics of OSS make it much easier for the government to meet these requirements
because:


OSS uses (and where it does not, can easily be modified to use) open, standard data
formats. This allows free access to information and easier implementation of Open Data
principles.
Using and maintaining OSS does not depend on the cooperativeness of a single provider.
Due to the open source code, availability of compatible systems can be guaranteed. Many
providers can compete, public data can be permanent and development communities are
established around it.
The possibility of auditing the source code, thus guaranteeing it is free from code that maliciously
or inadvertently compromises data security and integrity, is necessary for the national security and
autonomy of a country as well as for the security of its citizens.
There are numerous projects from international institutions that suggest open source software has
particular features that are inductive not only in cost reduction, but also in supporting sustainable
development of software and capacity building. If properly implemented, OSS may provide the
following additional benefits that are relevant not only to the public sector but also to the
development of the IT market in Albania.
Strategic Benefits
 Developing local capacity/industry
 Reducing imports/conserving foreign
Other Benefits
 Increasing competition
 Reducing Total Cost of Ownership
7



exchange
Enhancing national security
Reducing copyright infringements
Enabling localization




(TCO)
Enhancing security
Achieving vendor independence
Social Benefits
Increasing access to information
Table 2, OSS Potential Benefits
Therefore, seeking to maximize the benefit from the use of OSS, MIAP started a project to study
the current level of use and knowledge of OSS in public administration; to assess the local IT
businesses’ experience and capability in supporting OSS; and to adopt its policy and procurement
procedures for setting sound practices for OSS implementation in the public sector in Albania.
Furthermore, in many developing countries there is insufficient local capacity to properly support
widespread OSS usage (or ICT usage of any kind) throughout the economy. Thus, OSS policies
can and should be linked with the creation and development of Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises (SMEs) to supply support services. In combination with an OSS government
procurement strategy, this can create a vibrant ecosystem with strong supply and demand.
2.2 OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the project are presented below:
A. Collect information on the current use, knowledge and awareness of OSS in the public
sector.
B. Collect information on the current use, knowledge, awareness, perception and the
capabilities to develop and services of OSS of the local IT private sector.
C. Carry out a quick research of few interesting international case studies of OSS utilization in
the public sector in order to identify and report some best practices and factors of success
in the utilization of open source software
Provide guidelines and recommendations to the government about how to successfully
evaluate and ensure a successful implementation and utilization of open source software in
the public sector in the Republic of Albania.
2.3 METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS
A combination of descriptive and qualitative research techniques was utilized to obtain insight into
the current situation of OSS use in Albania. The main Questions and Indicators used for Public and
Private Sector are listed in Annex 3.
2.3.1 POPULATION FRAME
8
Although, the definition of OSS implementation ecosystem is very broad, for the purpose of this
study, it was adopted a narrow definition of OSS ecosystem, which included Public institutions,
ICT companies that offer services and products related to computers, and computer networks and
systems, Universities where Computer Science is one of study fields, selection among the potential
donors community, NGOs specialized in the area of IT or OSS and so on.
Companies operating in the following sectors/subsectors were excluded from the study:
Telecommunication companies;
Internet providers;
General consulting companies;
Electronic equipment wholesalers and retailers;
Also, the study has not been focused at the individual or end-user or developer level. Due to the
time and scope constraints, the majority of survey responses have not been verified.
As a result, the first step of the study was to construct a population frame based on a few different
sources.
Sources for the construction of the population frame





NAIS (National Albanian Information System). NAIS coordinated and supplied responses
to the data collection questionnaires as well as made available a list of verified
public/government institutions and their contact persons.
Albanian Information Technology Association. AITA has a list of its current members and
potential future members which, though limited in number, includes some of the major
players of the IT sector in Albania.
Direct contacts from the IT community in Albania, either at University or Donors
community.
Online sources. Many IT companies have easily searchable websites. In addition, a number
of companies keep ‘Facebook’ and ‘LinkedIn’ profiles which can be searched using key
words.
Individuals. Many individuals are knowledgeable of IT companies and they could be a
helpful source of information.
2.3.2 SURVEY DESIGN
A number of specific factors were taken into consideration in developing the survey design. Given
the modest familiarity of the survey participants with interview surveys, it was decided to keep the
interview short and to avoid inclusion of questions regarding issues of sensitivity (such as detailed
questions about revenue, employment, structure of the company, structure of business, etc.).
The Survey enabled the anonymity of their responses, if chosen to stay anonymous.
9
The main instrument of the research was a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire was
prepared based on the best knowledge of the consultants and consulting with good similar
international practices. There were two conflicting needs considered in designing the
questionnaire: (1) the need to collect as much information as possible, and (2) the need to keep the
questionnaire as short and as simple as possible. In the end, it was opted for a short questionnaire,
designed for easy completion. The majority of the questions used in the questionnaire about Public
Institutions and IT companies were close-ended questions.
CIO Survey
Online ICT Companies Survey
The questionnaire for the Public
Administration was composed of 36
questions based on the following outline:
The questionnaire for the ICT companies was
composed of 39 questions based on the
following outline:
Background Information
General Information
Knowledge and Awareness of OSS
Company Profile
Usage of OSS
Knowledge about OSS
Perception of OSS
OSS Usage and the technical capacities of the
company
See section Error! Reference source not
found. of the Output 3 Report
OSS Perception and the Contribution to the
OSS Community
See section Error! Reference source not
found. of the Output 3 Report
2.3.3 IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS
In order to collect additional qualitative information and more insights into the OSS subject, over
20 detailed interviews were conducted with representatives from the vendors, companies, donors,
universities, and government. Interviews were semi-structured and focused on general approach,
knowledge, perception of OSS and its implementation in the Public Administration.
2.3.4 FIELD WORK
Fieldwork was conducted from October to December 2013.
Initially, an electronic copy questionnaire to gather information about the current level of OSS
usage in the public sector was provided by Consultants to NAIS that distributed it to over 43 public
administration institutions. While for the ICT Companies, an online survey was designed, prepared
and distributed over to them via online survey and email to them.
10
Here it is a list of activities regarding this phase:












Preparation of questionnaires and online survey forms end of October – mid November
2013
Review of the Information, reports, articles, whitepapers during early October – mid
November 2013
Submission of questionnaires to CIO’s or CIO representatives-end of October
Collection of questionnaires from CIO’s – November up to December 6, 2013
Analyses of CIO questionnaire data and interviews – mid November and December 2013
Preparation of public sector ICT staff knowledge of OSS – mid November 2013
Creation of the first draft of online survey for ICT businesses- mid November 2013
Online survey completion and approval from beneficiary – November 24, 2013
Submission of online survey and completion of the analyses and data of online survey –
December 2 to 11, 2013
Interviews and meeting with representatives from the private business and universities –
mid November to mid-December
Outline of report preparation - November 2013
Preparation of the final Document – November mid December 2013
2.3.5 DESCRIPTIVE RESULTS
There were 31 structured questionnaires from most major government institutions collected
through the collaboration of NAIS and 20 semi-structured interviews completed with
representatives from government, private IT business and academia representatives. To a small
extent, email was utilized to communicate with the interviewees. This was to inform possible
respondents about the OSS project undertaken by MIAP and to confirm their availability for
interviews.
In a few cases questionnaires were emailed to persons who were really interested to participate, but
were not be available for face to-face interviews.
2.3.6 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
The qualitative methods included several category-focus groups of interviewees representing the
main stakeholders as follows:





NAIS Representatives
Representatives of large international application vendors (Microsoft, Oracle)
Prominent representatives of Academia
Representative with largest system integrators and application development local
businesses
Representatives of OSS community as forerunners in the use of OSS and persons who were
keen to utilize FOSS
11

Representative of donors and other NGO that have supported or carried out research of
OSS in Albania in the past
These semi-structured discussions were facilitated by the Consultants to obtain more in depth
information on opinions, perceptions, and motivation about benefits and risks of the OSS
utilization in the Albanian public sector and how constraints and barriers could be overcome as
well as possible future directions.
Based on these estimates and the actual number of completed interviews, we can calculate a
response rate of 80 % considering that 20 out of 25 people participated in the interview process.
This can be attributed to personal visits by the consultants for the face-to-face interviews. The list
of the interviewers is presented in Annex 3.
2.3.7 CONSTRAINTS
The overall process is based on the following constraints:
1. No interview with IT personnel in Public administration. The interview provides proper
information for the orientation of the IT specialists in the Government.
2. Local government was not included.
3. Central Government is partially represented.
4. Short time
5. Challenging scope
6. Lack of a long-term software development strategy government wise
12
3 SUMMARY OF WORKS
This section includes a summary of works presented in the outputs 3, 4, 5 and 6 cited in Table 1,
Project Deliverables. This section is grouped by the output titles and structured according to scope
and objectives; results and findings and conclusions.
3.1 STUDY OF OSS IN ALBANIA
3.1.1 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the study was to collect information via primary and secondary resources, to
perform its descriptive and qualitative analysis about:
I.
The current use, knowledge and awareness of OSS in the public sector
II.
The current use, knowledge, awareness, perception and the capabilities to develop and
services of OSS of the local IT private sector
III.
Thought not part of the initial project scope, the report included the results from the
interviews held with representatives of the Universities focused in the CS field of study at
bachelor or Master level, and donors
The research was conducted through questionnaire surveys and a number of in-depth interviews
with the public administration CIO and/or their representatives, owners/managers of selected
companies, universities and donors. Altogether 31 out of 41 public sector institutions that
responded to the questionnaire on the utilization of OSS, 15 out of 57 IT businesses responded to
the online OSS survey, and to complement the inputs 20 additional semi-structured interviews on
knowledge, awareness, and usage of OSS were conducted with public, business and prominent
academic / professional representatives in the country.
3.1.2 RESULTS AND FINDINGS
The results of the surveys and interviews should be reported with caution on some areas, due to
several external factors such as lack of a limited proper population frame, lack of verification of
the completed surveys, and the non-inclusion of local public administration institutions. The
results of the study should primarily be used as a qualitative description of the OSS
implementation in Public Administration rather than as a quantitative indicator or statistic.
We are including in the remaining part of this section some of the main results of the study. For
any additional information or the full analysis, please read the “Output 3 – OSS in Public
Administration in Albania”.
13
3.1.2.1 PUBLIC SECTOR CIO SURVEY DATA ANALYSES
As shown in Figure 1, OSS Categories by Institution, the databases (MySQL, and Postgress) and
server operating systems (CentOS Linux, Zental, and other flavors of Linux) are being used more
often in the public sector institutions. State Police represents one of the Public Administration
Institutions, which is making use of almost every category of OSS.
There is also a fair distribution of OSS application presence, either at large public institution – i.e.
State Police, MASH, Ministry of Finance, General Directorate of Public Transport – or at smaller
scale institutions that make a higher use of IT applications, like the General Directory for the
Prevention of Money Laundering, AKCE, etc.
Category of OSS used in Public Administration by Institution
12
11
10
10
9
8
8
6
7
5
4
4
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
OSS Categories
Figure 1, OSS Categories by Institution
No formal training was reported by CIOs about OSS platforms including licensing, installation and
deployment or maintenance. At Public Administration level, the IT staff employees have selfdeveloped OSS skills in Linux, MySQL, and Apache web server as well as PHP development
tools. These ICT employees carry out the maintenance and support of the OSS applications.
14
With respect to the software development and acquisition model, the responses received from the
public sector CIO do not show any strong trend towards any specific model.
Software Development &
Acquisition Models
Total
Responder
s (out of
31)
Respons
e
Rate
In House Development
Open Source Software
Vendor Supported OSS
Proprietary Software
Combination of the above
18
17
16
18
21
58%
55%
52%
58%
68%
Response Answer
Counters (1 = Best
meets current needs to 5
= Not at all appropriate)
1 2 3 4
5
7 0 3 3
5
3 4 4 4
2
1 5 6 4
0
3 6 3 4
2
4 4 8 2
3
Weighte
d
Average
2,94
2,88
2,81
2,78
2,81
Figure 2, Software Development and Acquisition Model Preference
As summarized in Figure 2, Software Development and Acquisition Model Preference the
weighted average shows a very slight overall perception in favor of the proprietary application
acquisition. Nevertheless, other models preferences do not differ with a percentage of more than
5% (five percent).
Furthermore, as shown in Figure 3, Software Acquisition Model Top Preferences, only 2 (two)
institutions think that OSS is “not at all appropriate” for them unless supported by an external
supplier, whilst 4 (four) institutions find that an OSS alternative supported by an external supplier
to be a better alternative to the proprietary one.
Software Development &
Acquisition Models
In House Development
Open Source Software
Vendor Supported OSS
Proprietary Software
Combination of the above
Best Meet Current Needs
7
3
1
3
4
Not at all appropriate
5
2
0
2
3
Figure 3, Software Acquisition Model Top Preferences
Out of the 31 (thirty one) institutions that filled the survey forms, only one did not employ any IT
staff. As presented in Figure 4, Software Developers hired in the Public Sector, 65% (sixty five) of
the institutions do not employ any software developers.
Software Developers vs Total Number of ICT staff
No software developers
Software developers are less than 10%
Software developers are between 11% and 25%
Software developers are between 26% and 50%
15
Public Sector Institutions
Count
20
4
1
3
Software developers are between 51% and 75%
Software developers are more than 76%
2
Figure 4, Software Developers hired in the Public Sector
The General Directorate of Public Transport and ISKSH are the institutions with most developers
(between 51% and 75%) out of the 5 and 8 internally hired IT staff. The larger institutions with
more IT personnel have built an internal development team to support their business needs and
processes.
3.1.2.2 ALBANIAN IT BUSINESS DATA ANALYSIS
The following analysis and indicator values are calculated based on the answers received by 15
companies, which represents almost a 30% response rate. According to answers received by
respondents, 34.38% were aware of OSS and use OSS in their business.
The main source of information about the OSS is received either by the coworkers or the formal
education studies. The whole list of information sources about OSS is included in Figure 5,
Sources of Information for OSS. There is no any formal or sound knowledge source (excluding
education) that has been used to improve the OSS awareness and knowledge in the local private IT
businesses in Albania.
Sources of Information of OSS
Percentage
Work colleagues
28.12%
During studies
28.12%
OSS community
25.00%
Magazine/journals and other media
18.75%
Conference/workshop
15.62%
Academia
9.38%
Training
9.38%
Figure 5, Sources of Information for OSS
Figure 6, OSS Application Local IT Business Experience, shows the percentage of the local
Albanian IT business (survey respondents) with basic experience in using the OSS applications
within their organizations and implementing OSS platforms or applications for their customers.
No
OSS Applications
1
2
3
4
5
GNU/Linux
Apache
OpenOffice
Mozilla
Asteriks, FreePBX
Used within the
Company
21.88%
18.75%
18.75%
25%
9.38%
16
Implemented to
Customers
12.50%
15.62%
0%
0%
9.38%
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Alfresco
Android
MySQL/PostgreSQL
JAVA
Moodle, OpenSIS
Compiere, OpenERP,
Vtiger CRM finance
application
Jboss Application
Server
3.12%
15.62%
21.88%
18.75%
12.50%
0%
6.25%
15.62%
12.50%
6.25%
9.38%
6.25%
3.12%
3.12%
Figure 6, OSS Application Local IT Business Experience
Furthermore, IT businesses work in respect to servicing OSS is summarized in Figure 7, Local IT
Businesses OSS Delivery Experience. As noted, there is a low rate of engagement with the OSS
community, about 12.5%.
Main Services performed by Local IT Business with OSS
Rate
Modify the software according to customer requirements
21.88%
Free of charge distribution of customized OSS applications
12.50%
Support services for customers during the installation and implementation
of the application
21.88%
Reporting issues and bugs in the online OSS communities.
12.50%
Figure 7, Local IT Businesses OSS Delivery Experience
The main driver that IT businesses perceive to lead towards selection and implementation of OSS
solutions is “The low or no license fees”. Meanwhile, the low level of knowledge and training in
OSS applications and technologies is perceived as a barrier that prevents the cost- saving benefits
of OSS implementation.
3.1.2.3 INTERVIEW DATA ANALYSES
There were about 20 interviewers from different groups of interest, either vendors, ICT companies
engaged with commercial software implementation or OSS implementation, Academia,
Government and Donors.
The interviews were semi-structured. The overall outline of the interview was focused on the
knowledge about OSS, perception, potential capability to implement, and recommendations for
introducing it to the market.
17
In general, the main finding was that the OSS ecosystem and respective licensing models were
partially clear by the majority of interviewers. Therefore, the perceptions and feedback taken
directly through the face to face interview should be analysed carefully.
Almost all the interviewers were favouring the introduction of the OSS as a strong alternative
to Public Administration, but they all agreed for cautionary steps in this process due to its
challenges and the specific ecosystem of Albania for OSS. One of the main challenges was
considered lack of human capacities that can take over the design, selection, development,
deployment and the support of the OSS platforms and applications reliably.
Overall, based on the interviews, the OSS usage expansion identified the following challenges:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Lack of promotion, and knowledge from the main stakeholders.
Identification of low confidence from local IT businesses.
Lack of OSS culture in Albania.
Lack of structured and formal education about OSS desktop platforms and applications.
The K-12 Informatics curricula is based on proprietary tools.
The OSS education or installation at Universities is driven by the individuals (teachers) and
not by the educational system.
Lack of proper training in public administration and in ICT private sector.
There is no any OSS application repository, publications or other success stories, though
important OSS-based mission-critical government applications such as TIMS (State Police)
and ASACUDA (Albanian Customs Directorate) are successfully implemented.
Stocks of pirate copies of MS Office and other proprietary products in the market
Lack of specific policies, procedures, strategic approach, and any incentives for
encouraging the OSS use, development or contribution.
3.1.3 CONCLUSIONS
The main conclusions of the study are summarized below.
Public sector:



OSS platforms and applications are installed and used in the majority of public sector
ministries and other state institutions.
CIOs have a positive perception about OSS and they seriously consider the OSS development
and acquisition model, if it is well-supported by a reliable supplier.
On the other hand, the data about the current level of utilization of OSS in the public sector
institutions indicates that there is a lack of properly structured, systematic OSS platform
support, lack of mature OSS communities and cooperation among them.
Private sector:

There is a low number of IT businesses with solid and reliable experience in provide
maintenance and support service to their clients for OSS platforms and applications.
18


The low level of awareness and the modest organizational strength of this community represent
a challenge for large overhauled transformation projects.
Positive drive and commitment to support public administration in OSS projects was strongly
demonstrated from several businesses and academic representatives.
Based on the study, the main challenges to overcome towards a successful public administration
OSS use and implementation are shown below:
Awareness, Education
and Knowledge



Capacities and
Training




Strategic directives



Difficulty to leverage the scattered OSS knowledge among the
professional community in Albania.
Lack of awareness activities about OSS platforms, applications,
principles, and licensing models.
Insufficient knowledge about professional OSS application lifecycle
management.
Insufficiency of OSS qualified capacities within the Government
sector, private sector and Academia.
The use OSS applications is mainly done by freelancer’s community
The lack of inclusion of OSS education or other use incentives into
any school level curricula or research activities
Lack of training facilities for OSS, while for the proprietary software
trainings (such as Microsoft) are already established and promoted.
Lack of specific strategic directives that can ensure equal treatment
and financial incentives to use of OSS, accompanied by policies,
procedures that protect and regulate fair competition.
OSS usage not integrated into current government ICT strategy and
policy
Lack of support structure as a catalyst on OSS knowledge within
government
Migration, Integration Migration and integration difficulties due to the insufficient documented
systems and data format uniformity across government entities
represents a challenge for any kind of IT systems.
Similar experiences
OSS utilization, successful and unsuccessful practices locally, regionally
and internationally are not shared and used as references.
Table 3, Albanian OSS Implementation Challenges
19
3.2 BEST INTERNATIONAL PRACTICES OF OSS UTILIZATION IN THE PUBLIC
SECTOR
3.2.1
Abbreviations
Explanation
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
Open source software is today a major player in mainstream IT economy. Its coverage ranges from
simple utility software to large-scale software systems and covers systems as well as enterprise
software. Weber [1] lists an impressive list of commercial IT that relies on OSS including among
others, Google, Yahoo, IBM, Reuters, Merrill Lynch, etc. OSS has also found its way to the
public administration. Large parts of the U.S. government including the Defense Department and
the Department of Energy work with open source software. Likewise EU is playing an active role
in fostering the use of OSS and open innovation in the public administration across Europe.
An objective of this study was to collect and analyze some international case studies of OSS
implementation in the public administration, from which to derive conclusions and
recommendations regarding the use of open source software in the Albanian public administration.
3.2.2 RESULTS AND FINDINGS
A detailed list and benefits to be gained as well as challenges faced from a number of countries
that have carried out large scale OSS implementation projects are found in “Output 4 - Best
International Practices” report.
Different countries have triggered OSS initiatives and developed respective strategies for different
reasons corresponding to different strategic advantages of OSS mentioned in
20
BSD
Berkeley Software Distribution
CIO
Chief Information Officer
CS
Computing Science
DNS
Domain Name Service
EU
European Union
ISV
Independent Software Vendor
NAIS
National Agency for Information Society
OSS
Open Source Software
FSF
Free Software Foundation
FOSS
Free and Open Source Software
GNU
GNU is Not Unix
GPL
GNU General Public License
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
ICT
Information and Communications Technology
IIS
Internet Information Server
JDK
Java Development Kit
JRE
Java Runtime Environment
MIAP
Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration
PPA
Public Procurement Office in Albania
PDF
Portable Document Format
TCO
Total Cost of Ownership
XML
Extensible Markup Language
21
1 Introduction. This is due to the fact that every country’s circumstances are different. Some
examples of these different driving forces for establishment of OSS are:


Reducing imports and investing in developing local capacities were the driving force in
countries such as Slovenia, Malta, Russia, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, but also in many
case studies in Germany.
Increasing the security of the national ICT infrastructure and protecting the privacy of the
government data was a driving force in China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea.
•
Reduction of copyright infringement was the main driving force in Vietnam as a means to
facilitate that country’s negotiations in trade agreements with the US and in entering the
World Trade Organization.
•
Increased access to powerful yet localized ICT applications was the motivation for
Iceland and South-Pacific to start OSS initiatives.
It is worth mentioning, that the private sector may provide other reasons to adopt OSS
implementation, which is mostly based on a profit-driven business model.
The reviewed case studies about the migrations from Windows/Office to Linux/OpenOffice
conducted at the French Gendarmerie, the city of Munich and the Swedish police, demonstrate that
OSS is a viable alternative for large-scale deployment in the desktops of the public administration
with a lot of advantages. Both the city of Munich and the French Gendarmerie (two of the three
biggest migration projects in Europe) have seen dramatic drops in the total cost of ownership
(TCO) of their IT environments. Officials of the city of Munich report that the LiMux project has
saved around 11 million Euros per year. Representatives of the French Gendarmerie report that the
migration has saved them €2 million per year. Both projects also report improvements on quality
of the solutions, ease of maintenance and abundance of available OS applications with very good
interoperability that respect open standards. The LiMux project clearly demonstrates how OSS
helps the local industry, since 95% of the contracts in the context of the project went to local
SMEs. The French Gendarmerie case study demonstrates that the support question is not a real
issue, as there are sufficient companies that offer support services, such as Canonical, an Ubuntu
support provider.
However, the case studies, especially the most detailed one - the LiMux project of the city of
Munich - also clearly indicates that deploying open source to the public administration does not
mean “out-of-the-box” and a “free lunch”. The LiMuX project took almost 10 years from inception
to being fully operational. It required several carefully conducted studies and consulting as well as
development project involving consulting and development companies. Also the data available
about the OSS project at the Swedish police indicate that the project, although well planned and
carefully conducted, is already over time and it seems to take up a good amount of the IT budget of
the police. However, when considering these facts from the Albanian perspective, one has to
consider that the size of any similar project in Albania would be by far much smaller in terms of
equipment volumes than the case studies at hand (e.g., 85,000 PCs across 4,500 police stations in
the French Gendarmerie case study). Nevertheless, a careful analysis of the functionality, use and
22
end user experience might be carefully conducted to ensure an effective, operational and
maintainable solution.
As indicated in the Output 4 report, OSS has its cost and it is important that the decision makers
become aware that probably the biggest benefit of OSS adoption is the independence from
vendors lock-in. The cost reduction represents another driving force for taking migration
decisions. But either way, the OSS implementation benefits are taken in medium to long-term
period rather than in short-term.
3.2.3 CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the main learned lesson shows that that OSS carries a great potential for the Albanian
public administration that goes beyond the mere potential of reducing the cost of IT.
However, there are also significant challenges related to the usage of OSS that need to be
addressed properly, including establishment of the right policies, personnel training, OSS
ecosystem creation in the Albanian IT market, careful integration with the existing IT environment
and so on.
Finally, the decision makers should be aware that deploying OSS is not for free. While the cost for
licenses can drop significantly, costs for packaging, deployment and maintenance remain. At the
end, the decision makers should consider a move to OSS as long-term investment, which needs to
be planned carefully, with a great potential on return on investment. The method of choice in
enrolling an OSS initiative would be to follow an agile and iterative process. The successful case
studies were all conducted in well-defined iterations, during which only a small amount of the
overall infrastructure was migrated, from which lessons were derived for the next iterations.
3.3 OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE POLICY AND PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES
3.3.1 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
OSS in developing countries is unlikely to emerge as a real alternative to proprietary software if it
is not given special attention and support in the national IT policy, as it will be eclipsed by the
enormous influence of the major proprietary software players.
The objective of this report was to recommend the government’s role and mechanisms to enable
successful OSS implementation in Albania. This work puts an emphasis on the IT policies,
methodologies, and recommendations for public procurement and licensing, as well as other
related activities which promote the use of OSS in public administration.
3.3.2 RESULTS AND FINDINGS
3.3.2.1 GOVERNMENT ROLE AND STRATEGY
23
No strategy should be taken and implemented without careful consideration of the local
environment. Issues such as language, economic development, legal, environment and cultural
attitudes can make a particular strategy impossible. The Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS, https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/document/government-open-source-policies)
has carried out an Open Source Policy survey. The survey was conducted in 2010 has tracked
governmental policies on the use of open source software as reported in the press or other media.
The data in this specific report provides a snapshot of the current state of the government open
source policies, divided into four categories:
1. Research
2. Mandates (where the use of open source software is required)
3. Preferences (where the use of open source software is given preference, but not mandated)
4. Advisory (where the use of open source software is permitted).
This survey also assesses whether an initiative was made at the national, regional, or local level,
and whether it was accepted, under consideration, or rejected out of a total of 364 (three hundred
and sixty-four) open source policy initiatives, as shown in the following table.
Figure 8, Country OSS Policies Analysis
According to [Kimolo, 2003], governments usually may position their role in policy making with
respect to OSS into one of the three approaches:
24
No.
Approach
Description
1
Neutral
This
approach The government:
ensures
that a. adopts policies to ensure careful consideration of
alternatives
are
OSS in IT procurement processes and implements
supported and that
evaluation criteria for OSS products as well as
discrimination
procedures for adopting and maintaining open
against
OSS
is
standards
identified
and b. allows OSS to compete adequately with proprietary
removed.
software
c. initiates activities to enhance awareness,
knowledge and understanding of OSS
2
Enabling
This approach gears
policies towards the
creation
of
the
capacity
to
implement
and
maintain the use of
OSS.
3
approach
Aggressive This
actively encourages
the development of
OSS
through
legislation
and
policies.
Key actions
In addition to the neutral approach the government:
a. develops capacity to guide on the selection and
implementation of OSS
b. actively promotes education and training on OSS
products
c. supports establishing user-developer partnerships.
In addition to the enabling approach the government:
a. actively supports OSS developer communities and
development projects
b. adopts strategies to increase commitment to OSS
c. regularly audits the impacts of OSS on government
service delivery
d. actively participates in programs minimizing the
risks associated with OSS
e. standardizes on OSS where analysis proves it
superior.
Table 4, Government Strategic Positions to OSS
3.3.2.2 PROMOTION MECHANISMS
Generally, governments use procurement rules and regulations as the main mechanism to promote
its OSS implementation within the public sector. This mechanism can fall into the following four
broad categories:
25
a) Mandating OSS. This is the most radical approach as it mandates the usage of OSS systems
throughout the government sector.
b) Preferring OSS. Recognizing the difficulty of switching the entire government infrastructure
over to OSS, many governments have moderated their approach by preferring OSS solutions
for the new procurements.
c) Mandating Open Standards. Mandating open standards often has a complementary effect on
OSS systems. One of the most effective ways in which software vendors lock in their users is
the use of proprietary standards.
d) Best Value. This approach focuses mostly on the economic value of OSS, de-emphasizing the
national and social benefits of wide scale OSS adoption.
3.3.3 CONCLUSIONS
3.3.3.1 POLICY GUIDELINES ADOPTION
Taking into consideration the current stage of utilization of OSS in the Albanian public
administration, the local ICT business experience and capacities and the current education system,
it is strongly recommended to the Albanian government to start implementing initially the
neutral approach combined with some enabling initiatives, thus recognizing, guaranteeing and
ensuring fair and equal competition of OSS with other proprietary software.
The main policy guidelines that government should adopt in its ICT strategy and policies are:
a) OSS platforms are generally accepted, recognized and adhered by the public sector
institutions and government public procurement.
b) When using or developing software, public institutions must decide which software
development model, such as the open source development and business model, best
supports innovation and fast development of new products and services. As a rule in the
case when the software developed for the public sector is using open source technologies,
institutions should ensure that the accepted software is made available with an open
source license.
c) The State Agency responsible for development or acquisition of the software, ensures that
the following main technical principles are carefully considered:
i) Openness – that can have access to code and can be freely modified or customized that
serving future needs of requested institutions, avoidance of vendor locked in as well as
have potential reusability by other government institutions
ii) Cost Saving - Software that can provide the best value for money
iii) Interoperability – readiness and capability to integrate with other current or future
systems and applications using open standards
iv) Reuse potential - application of open source software can allow the reuse of the same
software more than once and in other public sector institutions without setting
restrictive license terms like in many proprietary applications.
26
d) OSS implementation should be based on the Technical Implementation guidelines plan
prepared and specified by authorized and responsible State Agency. The implementation
should provide valuable input into the establishment and the creation of the shared
knowledge-based system.
e) The Albanian Curricula should include the utilization of OSS platforms and applications
during the learning process at all school levels.
f) OSS implementation should be supported by increasing awareness to all stakeholders and
creating training programs within the public administration. An OSS Coordination Office
(OSSCO) that should be established within NAIS or MIAP, can be responsible for the
coordination of all the activities related to introduction, promotion, development,
implementation and strengthening of OSS implementation within Public Administration
Institutions. Future and integrated role expansion may transform the Coordination Office
into a Central Competence Center (CCC), but this is subject to the future developments.
This OSSCO institutional building recommendation is further described in section 4.2.1.
g) Public Authorized Institutions should promote that software solutions are constructed of
smaller components enabled to communicate with each other via open standards. This
allows the various software components to be replaced independently, thus promoting
flexibility, reusability and competition.
3.3.3.2 PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES ADOPTION
It is recommended that the Government of Albania should consider OSS platforms and
applications alongside proprietary ones in making procurement decisions, actively and fairly.
The Albanian Procurement law states non-discriminatory principle in public procurement
procedures. It is strongly recommended that Government of Albania’s Procurement Legislation
should establish clear legal and institutional frameworks to prevent OSS software discrimination in
public tenders and monitor the implementation of certain principles and requirements such as
openness, reusability and interoperability of data, software and systems. Procurement decisions
should be made on the basis of the cost effectiveness of the solution to the business requirement,
taking account of total lifetime cost of ownership of the solution, including exit and transition
costs, after ensuring that solutions fulfill minimum and essential capability, security, scalability,
transferability, support and manageability requirements.
Based on the afore mentioned principles and further analysis of Albania’s Procurement
Legislation, we recommend that the government incorporate and promote Open Standards (see
3.3.2.2 Promotion Mechanisms section of this document) in the acquisition, replacement and
upgrades of its public sector software.
The main guidelines to be adopted with respect to software procurement policies are presented
below:
27
a) The Albanian Government will encourage the use of Open Standards. The Open Standards
Requirements for Software are well defined by the Open Source Initiative
(http://opensource.org/osr) and it is included in Annex 2 at Output 5-6 Report.
b) The Albanian Government will ensure that at least the newly developed digital content using
Government resources is made Open Content, unless analysis on specific content shows that
proprietary licensing or confidentiality is substantially beneficial.
c) Government software procurement should be based on merits, value for money, transparency,
security and interoperability, as well as in accordance with other Government procurement
policies and procedures.
d) Government software procurement should ensure equal treatment and no discrimination of
OSS solutions. NAIS shall verify and ensure that tender technical specifications allow for
equal and fair competitions of OSS platforms and applications with proprietary ones.
e) NAIS will update technology equipment and network platforms technical specifications to
support both proprietary and OSS platforms.
f) An authorized State Agency should identify, evaluate and select the suitable OSS alternatives
for use in the public sector are matured and should be able to be supported by the community
as well as any other party to ensure continuity of support. They should also comply with the
Worldwide Open standards requirements.
28
4 RECOMMANDATIONS
This section includes recommendations and concrete actions for the Government of Albania in
order to lay the foundation for the continuation of the OSS initiative started with the following
objectives in mind:
Reduce total
cost of
ownership
Independence
from vendors
lock-in
Reduce digital
divide
Creating Value
through Open
Innovation
Ensure
interoperability
through Open
Systems
Develop OSS
user and
developer
community
Enables the ICT
growth through
OSS
implementation
The following guiding principles were considered:





OSS platforms and applications should best fit and meet the purpose of use by the
respective end user
OSS platforms and applications will complement existing systems in a less disrupted
manner
Co-existence with other legacy in-house or proprietary system
Leveraging on existing facilities, hardware, software and expertise
Independence from hardware and software vendors lock-in
4.1 RECOMMENDED FUTURE RESEARCH
We recommend that additional research be undertaken in the near future with the goal to build an
effective long-term OSS strategy for Albania, at least for a time frame 2014-2020 compliant with
the National ICT Strategy. The main areas of research are detailed in the remaining part of this
section:
29





Evaluate the maturity of current open source use in few public sector institutions. Public
sector institutions that have a larger OSS installation base will be targeted to further analyze
their experience - especially in the areas of development, implementation, and maintenance - as
well as identify potential reuse of their solutions as a whole or on specific components by other
institutions.
Elaborate in further details the current utilization of OSS within public institutions – number
of staff that use OSS application, purpose of use and especially evaluate the end user learning
experience and their comfort level.
Study of the state of the art and of the potential expected savings from migration to using
OSS
o This survey describes the investments occurred in the last two years on software for
various governmental agencies. In the study, every agency declares the use of the
software resources in the peak and bottom capacity of their work. A thorough analysis
of software resources used in a time unit would certainly give more clear evidences for
the need to move the IT infrastructure to OSS solutions.
o The survey should include an analysis of how much can the software investments
decrease in a unit of time (e.g., 2 years) in case (some of) the IT services migrate to
OSS solutions, including cloud. TCO can be used for the study. The survey can
conclude by providing suggestions of how the savings can be invested in the IT sector
in Albania in general and specifically in bootstrapping an OSS ecosystem in Albania.
Standards, Procurement, and Change Management. In addition to specific small-scale
migration/introduction case studies, long-term strategies and policies need to be developed or
adapted to guide real larger-scale introduction or migration projects. Lessons learned from
small-scale case studies can be used as input to define policies.
o Standards. State agencies should adopt common data standards to make data sharing
between agencies easier, and they should prioritize operating on platforms that can
easily communicate.
o Procurement. The PPA (Agency of Public Procurement) needs to implement
comparison tools to transparently compare OSS providers.
o Managing change. As with any transition, migration incurs overhead. In addition, the
adoption of openness requires better understanding of how solutions are designed, built,
and how they interoperate. It is therefore crucial to evaluate the medium- and long-term
benefits in comparison to this initial overhead in order to make a procurement decision.
Roadmap towards OSS introduction and integration. OSS introduction and migration
needs well-defined long-term roadmaps to avoid chaos and ineffective use of resources. Such a
roadmap needs to be designed by a group of experts from several public administration
agencies, led by MIAP and NAIS. Possible steps towards such a roadmap could be as follows:
o Every agency defines a roadmap to integrate, consolidate OSS solutions into their IT
infrastructure. The plan contains the details of how to integrate and/or substitute current
software to OSS and how to migrate the data from the former to the latter. The goal will
certainly not be to replace existing applications that are built to support the e30

government initiatives of the last years. The goal should rather be to define clear
guidelines as how the OSS can be used in the future or in areas that do not directly
interact with the existing landscape. If the study identifies areas where interaction
between OSS and existing proprietary-based software is needed, a clear plan as how to
integrate the two in a seamless way is required.
o An expert group selects on behalf of MIAP and/or NAIS a few migration scenarios out
of the roadmaps provided by different agencies. In addition, other existing plans, if any,
for investments in governmental IT services in the near future can be identified, where
OSS could be considered from the very beginning. These scenarios can be used in a
first step towards a more large-scale OS migration strategy. The selected migration
scenarios will serve as “proofs of concept”, as case studies in the process during which
expertise is built and lessons are learned about good practices and pitfalls. These
studies can also serve as an initial benchmark to concretely quantify potential benefits
of OSS migration. For each selected migration/introduction scenarios, a clear plan of
the steps to conduct as well as a clear budget plan need to be carefully developed.
Open Source Business Eco-System. The existence of a business open-source ecosystem
consisting of companies with expertise in the open source market is a prerequisite for a
successful open source strategy in Albania. Some small scale pilot projects similar to the
LiMux project, but in a much smaller scale, e.g., migrating the workstation environments of a
municipality or of a ministry to open source operating systems and applications on top of them
can help not only in gaining first hands-on experience with open source software in public
administration, but would also be very helpful to start building the afore mentioned business
eco-system. On top of that, the government should define a strategy for building a sustainable
OSS business ecosystem in Albania, including a plan for improving the education in this
respect and for raising the awareness in the society. A functioning OSS business ecosystem
could in a long term not only serve the needs of the public sector and of the IT market in
Albania, but could also have good chances in the outsourcing business.
4.2 QUICK PATH RECOMMENDATION
These recommendations pave the path towards successful OSS introduction; enable the
implementation of OSS pilot projects; and the creation of an OSS community. They are listed
based on the importance and duration of the process, as below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Institutional building
Create a New OSS Application Piloting the Creation of a Project Community
Piloting OSS Desktop Infrastructure
Assessment of OSS Potential in e-Learning
4.2.1 INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING
31
One of the key actions, which ensures sustainable institutional model, is the establishment of the
OSS coordination office.
Title:
Establishment of OSS Coordination Office (OSSCO)
Description:
The OSSCO will be established within NAIS or MIAP. This new office, will
responsible for the coordination of all the activities related to introduction,
promotion, development, implementation and strengthening of OSS
implementation within Public Administration Institutions.
Goal:
Key Objectives:
Duration
Key Activities
Main
stakeholders
Associated
documents
The office will be composed of 1 (one) to 2 (two) persons at its initial stage.
To enable the promotion and coordination of OSS activities and projects
within Public Administration, to generate and leverage benefits of OSS for
the whole Albanian public sector, to develop and maintain a working plan,
procedures and guidelines in compliance with the Government ICT strategy
that are necessary for the functioning of this office
 Coordinate the awareness and knowledge sharing within the public sector
 Coordinate training activities about OSS
 Coordinate the creation and update of OSS rules and procedures for use
in public sector institutions
 Promote the cooperation among the OSS stakeholders (in Government,
Academia, Private Sector, NGO) within the country and out of the
country.
 Define and maintain acceptable standards for the implementation and use
of OSS platforms within the public sector
 Initiate OSS projects
 Coordinate with MIAP the start of the necessary actions within the
Government of Albanian for the implementation of rules and procedures
recommended in sections 3.3.3 and 3.3.3.2 Procurement Guidelines of
this report
3 (three) months (Expected January – March 2014)
6 (six) months the adoption of policies and procedures, after the
establishment of the office
 Identification of at least one person within MIAP or NAIS who will be
responsible for the OSSCO
 Establishment of Mission, Vision, Objectives and key activities of the
office.
 Launch it within first three months of 2014.
 Initiate the process of policies and procedures adoption.
MIAP, NAIS, Public Procurement Agency, Private stakeholders, Academia
N/A
32
4.2.2 CREATE A NEW OSS APPLICATION PILOTING THE CREATION OF A
PROJECT COMMUNITY
It is recommended to initiate a new OSS application development project to create a new
functionality for a public institution. The objective of the project and the functionality developed
will have to be identified based on the needs and priorities of the Albanian government for the
coming years.
Title:
Description:
Goal:
Key
Objectives:
Duration
Key
Activities
Developing a functional solution for a public institutions following the open
source development model
The open source development model favors a more fluid development process
characterized by increased intra-team collaboration, continuous integration and
testing, and greater end-user involvement This project will consist in the
development of a new application supported by community running on OSS
platform and using OSS application tools It is recommended that the beneficiary
institution should have at least one employed software developer personnel.
Piloting the creation of a community that support Government of Albania OSS
development projects
 Create a new software application that provides a solution for a new functional
requirement of a public institution
 Introduce the open source development model within the CIO community of
the Government of Albania
 Pilot the creation of a community that will support current and future
government OSS development projects
Up to 9 months for the first stable build
 Select and qualify a new functionality of public institutions that needs to be
developed
 Establish the project team (two to three developers from the government and
any third party consultant if necessary, who will take the ownership and will be
the main contributors for delivering the initial alpha version of the
functionality). They will serve as the maintainers to ensure any future
submitted code from the interested members of the community meets the
overall vision and standards set for the project before integrating into a single
body of code for the project
 Register the project under a new or existing OSS community
 Market the project in the community and create the project contributors
mailing list
 Early distribute new features developed within the project community as an
33
Main
stakeholders
Associated
documents
alpha release, even though it may contain known and unknown bugs to collect
feedback and allow users to test and provide input “release early and often”
 Repeat the incremental development approach according to the open source
development life cycle until a stable build can be move in the production
environment of the public institutions
 Assist end users, collect feedback and make use of the project community to
provide additional feedback, bug reports, and fixes, which are integrated into
the next development release.
 Project Closing and Evaluation Report
 Rollout Project (Expand it to other Public Units)
MIAP, NAIS, Pilot Public Agency, Local or International Software Development
Businesses or Freelancers, other Consultant if needed.
https://www.eclipse.org/projects/dev_process/development_process.php
http://home.deib.polimi.it/bellfollowinasi/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=docs:lf_os_dev
_model.pdf
http://www.nandana.org/2012/09/open-source-oslc-implementations.html
34
4.2.3 PILOTING OSS DESKTOP INFRASTRUCTURE
This project will serve to gain experience for larger-scale deployments of OSS desktop
applications in the future as well as for building up a repository of components that can be
deployed in larger-scale when necessary.
Title:
OSS solution for Desktop Use
Description:
This pilot project enables the installation, configuration and the
implementation of OSS platform and applications, in a preselected public
administration institution or municipality. The minimum number of PCs
should be 30, and the maximum number not more than 50. Some of the PC
should be new and not configured, and the rest should be pre-installed
Windows-based. This pilot will provide a simulation of a real-life situation
of PCs in one Public Agency.
Goal:
Key Objectives:
Duration
Key Activities
Main
stakeholders
Associated
documents
The Agency should have at least one IT qualified personnel, employed by
the Agency.
This pilot process will create a standard practice and identify all the steps to
be undertaken for other large scale implementations and roll out plans either
at central government institutions local municipalities.
 Identification of challenges of Desktop OSS implementation
 The consolidation of the methodology of project implementation
 Preparation of a Rollout plan for all similar agencies
 Gradual Desktop OSS implementation
Up to 6 months per one unit
 Select the Pilot Public Agency
 Identify the main stakeholder, and perform the process for the
identification and selection of the Project implementer
 Analyze the current needs and desktop applications is use
 Define the target desktop application configuration using OSS
applications
 Create the rollout plan
 Assist end users for a period of 3 months
 Project management (execution, monitoring and evaluation)
 Project Closing and Evaluation Report
 Rollout Project (Expand it to other Public Units)
MIAP, NAIS, Pilot Public Agency, Implementer
A document that shows alternatives to proprietary software that can run on
Linux (Ubuntu) or a Microsoft Windows based computer are provided in the
attached document. This document together with the example of WollMux
from the city of Munich can serves as a good OSS configuration starting
base for other future projects.
35
Desktop Propietary Employed solutions WollMux.docx
and Equivalent Desktop OSS
Alternatives.xls
4.2.4 ASSESMENT OF OSS POTENTIAL IN E-LEARNING
There are various educational solutions that run on OSS platforms and applications. Taking into
consideration the priority of introducing and equipping students of K-12 schools with portable
devices we strongly recommend that an analysis and assessment of the current OSS solutions in elearning is considered in order to choose the best affordable option.
We list some important resources and references of OSS tools utilization in the education sector,
which could be the subject of further analysis. Of course, the list is not exhaustive, and other
resources or OSS projects can be included in due course. The analysis should also guide the public
institutions in selecting the right portable devices. In any case, the choice shouldn’t be based on
the price alone, but device management issues, design fit for educational purpose, software
upgrades including security patches, and other factors need to be carefully considered.
Some important resources and references of OSS tools utilization in the education sector are listed
in the following table.
Open Educational
Resources
K12 Educator's
Guide to Open
Source Software
Open educational resources, O.E.R (http://classroom-aid.com/educationalresources/open-educational-resources/) are teaching, learning, and research
resources that reside in the public domain or creative common area and are
freely available to anyone over the Web. They are an important element of an
infrastructure for learning and range from podcasts to digital libraries to
textbooks and games. There are more resources about Open Source
Multimedia and Open Content Curricula.
Redhat "K12 Educator's Guide to Open Source Software"
http://mairin.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/a-k12-educators-guide-to-opensource-software/) provides useful references to applications, learning
materials and other tools for use in K-12 education
Open source on
Tablets and PCs
in schools in
Brussels Region
Students and teachers at 160 high schools in the Brussels Region have started
to use free and open source applications. The project includes the use of open
source desktop tools such as LibreOffice, an office productivity suite, and
Mozilla Thunderbird, an email client. For more information please read
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/open-source-tablets-andpcs-schools-brussels-region
An Open Source
tablet
specifically
The new Amplify tablet is a 10-inch Android-based slate, which will be preloaded with study materials
36
designed for
education
http://www.atelier.net/en/trends/articles/edtech-open-source-tabletspecifically-designed-education_418385
OSS applications moodle.org, dokeos.com, claroline.com, sakaiproject.org, olat.org
for course
management
Google Play
Google resources in Education, and Android apps for education
http://www.google.com/edu/tablets/
http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/edu/about.html
Khan Academy
Khan Academy and its viewer for its content on Android tablets links
http://www.khanacademy.org
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.concentricsky.android.khan
As mentioned in section 3.3.3.2 Procurement Guidelines we recommend that the Government of
Albania mandates the generation and supply of “Open Content” from any digital content provider.
37
5 QUICK PATH GANTT CHART
The following Gantt chart shows a possible timeline for the implementation of quick path recommendations, including the Policy and
Procurement guidelines adoptions provided in sections 4 Recommandations
Figure 9, OSS Implementation Gantt
The brief explanation of the Figure 9 represents the key steps towards the OSS introduction and its implementation process in the
Public Administration.
1) The first key activity is the establishment of the Coordination Office, which will enable the coordination of all the activities related
to OSS implementation in Public Administration, and it will ensure Government commitment towards model sustainability. This
action is expected to last no longer than the first 3 (three) months of 2014.
2) Once the office is established, it will address the process of OSS implementation policies and procedures, which will regulate all
the OSS related public administration future activities. This is expected to last at least 6 (six) months, but no longer than end of
September 2014.
3) The Assessment of OSS solutions in e-Learning is another key activity which is expected to provide input for the integration of the
OSS solutions into the e-learning strategy.
4) The encouragement of an OSS community creation is another expected result and a challenge from the government. The
identification of a public entity with at least two developers may serve as a good basis for developing a functional prototype,
which will follow all the guidelines of OSS life development cycle.
5) The selection of one public sector institution with tens of PCs may serve as the pilot model for the OSS desktop alternative
implementation.
6) The development of a Roll-out Master Plan and its execution are expected to be carried out during the last quarter of 2014 and at
least till the end of 2016.
39
6 ANNEXES
6.1 ANNEX 1 – REFERENCES
-
Open Source Definition: http://opensource.org
http://opensourceforamerica.org/learn-more/oss-licensing-overview/
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Open_Source_FAQ.pdf
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.html#x1-80002.2.2
http://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/sarkozy-administration-open-source-spending-grows-30percent-annually
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda_fy04_m04-16
- Kimolo, N. (2003). The role of african governments in the promotion of open source.
- http://www.fossfa.net/ http://www.ubuntu.com/sites/default/files/active/CasestudyGendarmerie-Nationale-v1.pdf
6.2 ANNEX 2 – WORKSHOP DOCUMENTS
OSS Technical Workshop Agenda
Technical Workshop
Agenda Ver 1.4 (eng).pdf
OSS Technical Workshop Participants
Prezence List OSS
Techical Workshop 23Dec13.pdf
6.3 ANNEX 3 – QUESTIONS AND INDICATORS
The section 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 describe the key knowledge areas and capacity being questioned from
the qualitative and quantitative used as part of the information gathering work as well as the
related indicators submitted in the surveys for public sector CIO and IT businesses.
6.3.1 PUBLIC SECTOR CIO SURVEY AND INDICATORS
Public Sector CIO Survey – Key questions
No.
Question
1
What categories of OSS application are
being used more by public sector
institutions?
What is the level of OSS utilization in
the public sector?
2
3
What is the level of knowledge and
training of the public sector ICT staff in
OSS applications?
4
Which software development and
acquisition model does the ICT
management staff of public sector
institutions fits best for the future?
41
Indicators
Rating of the category of OSS applications
that are mostly used across public sector
institutions
Percentage per each category of OSS
applications vs. total number of
applications (proprietary or in-house
developments)
for
each
category
institution or group of institutions wise.
Size and type of OSS solutions that are
being maintained by public sector
employees, as well as any formal training
reported
Weighted average across development
model selection from all public institutions
that provided questionnaire response data
as well as of each of the two categories
grouping of importance rate selection of
the
most
appropriate
software
development model. CIO’s were requested
to rate the importance (5 = requires very
much changes and adaptation of existing
practices and processes, 1 = satisfies
internal needs without or with a minimum
changes to existing practices and
processes) one of rate the these five
development
models:
“In-house
development”, “Open Source Software”,
“Vendor
Supported
Open
Source
Software”,
“Proprietary
Software”,
5
What are the internal manpower
capabilities and skills of public sector
institutions to serve and maintain internal
ICT infrastructure and desktop based
general purpose applications?
6
What are the advantages of the OSS
solution?
7
What are the risks of the OSS solutions?
“Combination of the Above Alternatives”
Percentage of ICT staff vs. totals staff of
organizations, percentage of ICT staff vs.
total number of workstations and server
infrastructure that they have to maintain,
general skillset coverage of ICT staff vs.
current applications being supported.
Lists of advantages reported from the
interviews of the 3 most heavy users of
OSS institutions in the public sector
Lists of risks reported from the interviews
of 3 public sector institutions that do not
use at all OSS.
6.3.2 IT COMPANIES SURVEY AND INDICATORS
ICT Industry Survey – Key questions
No.
Question
1
Are Albanian ICT businesses aware of
OSS?
2
Do they understand the principles of
OSS, of proprietary software, and of the
OSS licenses?
3
What are the sources of knowledge?
4
What is the extent of their OSS solutions
usage within their organizations?
42
Indicator
We provided 3 simple question (16, 18 and
25) to form the best understanding about
the level of awareness
We provided 2 simple statements relating
to the basic OSS principles on our
questionnaires (questions 19 and 21 on the
online survey). As a measure of awareness
of the basic OSS principles, we chose to
use the conjunction of these questions, i.e.
we call an online survey “aware of the
basic OSS principles”, if she or he
answered “True” to all of these questions.
Another possibility would have been to
use a (weighted) sum of correctly
answered questions to obtain degrees of
awareness.
The online survey allowed responded to
check alternatives of OSS sources of
knowledge (question 18)
The number of respondents who indicate
that they are currently using OSS within
6
What is the extent of their OSS solutions
offering to customers?
7
What is the extent of their OSS supply
and servicing capabilities?
8
What is the level of engagement of the
local business within the OSS
community?
43
their business.
The number of respondents who indicate
that they are currently serving OSS to their
customers.
The category of OSS applications they are
aware of the type of development and
services performed
Percentage of the number of local ICT
business that provide contribution to OSS
projects and community