ORGANIZATIONS have conventionally relied on commercial software products to back up their operations. But rising software costs has brought the value of commercial software into question.

Open-source software, as a relatively new development in the field of information technology systems, has risen in popularity as a possible solution.

But if local firms value low-acquisition cost, why aren’t more organizations adopting open-source software?

“Simple. Because even as an industry, we are not yet prepared to go with the stream,” says Winston Damarillo, an entrepreneur with a proven track record of building successful technology start-ups.

Damarillo is the founder of Gluecode Software, an open-source Java application server company, which was recently bought by International Business Machines Corp., and of Exist Global, a strategic software-engineering services company.

“Nonacceptance just indicates that we are a couple of years away from taking advantage of open-source software to its fullest. We would snag behind,” he adds. 

Talent portfolio

IN order not to lag behind, Exist Global, where Damarillo is the chairman of the board, is closely collaborating with universities, starting with the advancement of open-source software development course for De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila.

Aside from DLSU, it has been providing intensive six-week trainings for students at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and Lyceum of the Philippines.

“We decided to do that because we are not getting enough open-source software talent from the universities to address our growing need for qualified engineers. This is a great way for us to augment what was lacking from talent portfolio of new graduates,” says Damarillo.

“It is our intent to broadly share the open-source engineering course to other universities in Manila, Cebu and beyond,” he adds.

Exist Global’s president and chief executive Steve Nathan notes that the company has about 80 people working in Manila, and 50 in Cebu. “As it continues to collaborate with various schools, Exist Global will increase its headcount to 200 by end-2007,” he says.

Proactive initiative

WHILE a bill filed in Congress that proposes the use of open-source technology in government is drawing lackadaisical support from the country’s lawmakers, Damarillo remains bullish that they will soon give a nod to the bill.

“That is, if we have vocal advocates of this bill. It is equally important for our software industry to shift its current passive stance to a more proactive initiative,” points out Damarillo, adding that the open-source movement represents the best chance for the country to participate in global software innovation. 

House Bill 5769, also referred to as the Free and Open Source Software Act, mandates the use of open-source software in government and public academic institutions. The bill, authored by Bayan Muna party-list representative Teodoro Casiño, was filed September last year but only underwent a single hearing in the previous Congress.

Casiño’s bill also tasks the Commission on Higher Education, the National Computing Center and the Department of Science and Technology to promote free and open-source software in the academic community by providing libraries, organizing competitions, and encouraging research in the field.

“Significantly, the bill provides legal recognition of free and open-source licenses,” says Damarillo. “Whether open-source [software] is going to succeed is no longer a question. For the Philippines, it is simply a matter of whether we are going to be on the forefront or at the end of the movement.”

 

Sway the mindset

DAMARILLO says 90 percent of the Global 2000 companies will use open-source software by 2010, quoting a projection from the market research company Gartner.

A recent survey by the International Data Corp. (IDC) shows that businesses in Australia, China, India and South Korea say that between 25 percent and 70 percent of their software is now based on open source. The study, conducted between February and March this year, queried top executives from about 1,000 companies of all sizes.

“These included not just office-productivity programs but storage and enterprise applications aimed at managing a corporation’s resources and customer relationships,” says Damarillo.

Essentially, IDC says monetary value isn’t the major issue. Instead, most companies perceived open source to offer better shelter against security infract and felt that they could obtain better vendor support from open-source companies than proprietary software providers.

Meanwhile, three years from now, the state of consumerism of open-source software in the Philippines, says the venture capitalist, wouldn’t be “very good. Therefore, we need to sway the mindset of every consumer of software [sic] and create an industry around it.”

And, as Asia is starting a little late, Damarillo says certain aspects of the open-source culture need to be “demystified.” Asian companies, he adds, need to become familiar with the concept of collaboration and the sharing of intellectual property that comes with the open-source process.

“Open source is the best solution to address the digital divide,” he underscores.

Community-based approach

TO make open source work, Damarillo encourages users to collaborate and contribute to the code as well, improving the programs they use through the open-source process and driving innovation in this manner.

Come late-November, Damarillo is organizing Open Source Summit Asia, a five-day conference in Hong Kong.

“[This] will help people in Asia understand the culture of open source, and invite companies from China, Malaysia, the Philippines and other Asian countries to interact with the creators of open-source software, so that they realize that they, too, can contribute to the process and benefit from it,” he says.

Participants in the summit will be able to talk to officials from the Apache Software Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation, two organizations that represent how best to enhance software using an open, community-based approach.

Damarillo says: “The best process model for inviting people to join a development community has been perfected in Apache.”

The Eclipse Foundation, on the other hand, has used the open-source process to do what Microsoft and Apple haven’t been able to execute. Its recent achievement, Eclipse Europa, was made up of 21 different projects and 17 million lines of code, all delivered on time.

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