The document discusses Sri Lanka's adoption of free and open source software (FOSS) for eGovernment applications. It outlines the roles of eSri Lanka and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) in promoting FOSS. ICTA's policy is to prefer FOSS for software procured or developed internally. The Supervisory Vendor Development Approach is used for projects like the Performance Monitoring System, Crop Price Portal, and Lanka Gate - a middleware platform and country portal. Current issues include a lack of FOSS awareness and technical skills within the government.
1. Adoption of FOSS for eGovernment
in Sri Lanka
Wasantha Deshapriya
Director
Re-engineering Government
ICTA
wasantha@icta.lk
2. Agenda
eSri Lanka and ICTA
ReEngineering Goverenment (ReGov)
ICTA's Policy stance in relation to FOSS
Why FOSS
Adopted Methodology to overcome barriers –
SDSA
Project implemented or in the pipeline
Current Issues; Weaknesses and Strengths
ICTA FOSS Strategies
2
3. and
eSri Lanka is a multifaceted, multidonor,
multistakeholder based development initiative
Attempts to every business, every village and
transform the way govt works
Implemented by ICTA
Main Donors
• Government of Sri Lanka
• World Bank
• Korean Exim Bank
3
4. Information and Commumication
Technology Agency
Established by ICT Act No 27 of 2003 of the
Government of Sri Lanka and strengthened by
subsequent amendment Act No.33 of 2008
Functions under the Presidential Secretariat
Established in 2003 but financially enabled in
2005
4
7. Re-Gov Principles
ReGov believes eGovernment as a way of
Administrative Reforms
Works under the directions of National
Administrative Reforms Council
Reengineering the processes and
simplification of forms are identified as key
steps
ICT is used as a tool for ReEngineering
Government 7
8. Internet Intranet
Government to Business Government to Government
Mobile
G2B Country Portal G2G
G2C
S
T
e-Foreign Employment
A
K
e-People Registry
eLocal Government
ENTERPRISE IT ARCHITECTU
E
e-Procurement
E RE
H Information
Filing
-
eSamurdhi
e-Motoring
e-Pension
O Bank
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
Solution
G
Policy, L APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE
e-Bill
O
E-HRM
D
standards V
MANAGEMENT
e-Tax
E Security Education Health Taxation
STANDARDS
E
R
R
Agency Specific Applicat ions
N
T
A
R
N
People Hub
A
Service Mgt C Cross-Agencies Applications
N
E People Hub
S
I Government Internal Applications
F
T
One stop Services
Internal Solutions|
R
I
A Customer Relationship Business Intelligence
O
M
N
E
Establishment
TECHNICAL
W
Security
INFRASTRUCTURE ARCHITECTURE
BUSINESS
F
Hub
O
R
R
HR policy E-Government Supporting Infrastructure
A
K
Lanka Gate
M
and HRD E Nation- Wide ICT Infrastructure
Mobile Payment Credit Card
W
LIX.
O LIX. Payment Gateway
Gateway Land
Establishment
R
INFORMATION ARCHITECT Hub
CentralisedAlert Triggered
K Monitoring Server
Hub
Monitoring Server NCS Command
URE
Applications CentreHelpdesk
Databases
Mainframe
Customer’s Routers
Servers
Location
Lanka Government Network
Information Management MetaData Management
Outsourcing Solutions
Regional Telecom Network
8
9. Study Period Laksala
Study Period eHuman Resource Management
Disaster Management with Sahana
Reengineering
Government Road map Study Period eSamurdhi
eNational ID Card
Study Period
Document Conversion (BMD)
Vehicle Revenue License
Government Information Centre + Web Development + Web Hosting
Study Period eDivsional Secretariat
Study Period ePensions
Study Period eForeign Employment
ELocal Government
eLocal
Study Period
Land Register
Government Web Portal
ePopulation Register
Study Period
` Lanka Gate
Lanka Government Network CM and CDBM
Training – Senior Management, CIO, Middle Management & end Users
eGovernment Policy, Technology Standards for government, Information Security
eGovernment Blue Print study, Planning & Conceptualizing
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
G2G G2B
Enablers G2C
9
10. WHY FOSS???
Strategic Benefits
• Developing local capacity/industry
• Reducing imports/conserving foreign exchange
• Enhancing national security
• Accelerate adoption of Open Standards
• Reducing copyright infringements
• Enabling localization
• Avoid Vendor locking
10
12. Why FOSS???
Social Benefits
Increasing access to information
Enabling local communities to build their own content and
replicate it without any restrictions
ICTA considers Strategic, Economic and
social benefits to the country
Role of ICTA; not only strategic policy
maker (or influencer which ever is right)
but also as an executers 12
13. Roles and Responsibilities of the ICTA:
Provide guidance and consultation to the
●
government organizations on Open Standards
compliance and Free and Open Source
Software use.
To actively engaged in activities for “leveling
●
the playing field”
14. ICTA's Policy stance in relation
to FOSS
Free and Open
Open Source Software
Standard (FOSS)
Prochoice/Best
Software procured Mandatory value/freetochoose/
from outside vendors valueformoney
Software developed Mandatory Preferable
internally by the ICTA
14
15. Methodology
Public Procurement
• For replication the solution should have a zero license cost
• Custom code developed for a particular solution is
owned by ICTA, while ICTA should have access to
any other source code for modification, enhancement
and bug fixes
• If the vendor wants to share the IP right of the
custom code, that has to be negotiated (preferably
a reduction in pricing)
Inhouse development
• Work with University interns
• Have a small but highly capable team of SW architects, SW 15
engineers who have mastered FOSS technology
16. Methodology..
Supervisory vendor development – Sw Development
Services Approach – SDSA
• Having conducted a high level system study (essential to use
RUP), the internal architects designs the high level
architecture
• R&D to find out the best product (Preferably FOSS)
considering social and economic factors (which promote
FOSS) and TCO
• Highly modualrized solution is developed in modular
approach
• ICTA procures SW development teams to develop such
systems in 36 months periods
16
17. Methodology.. SDSA...
SW development life cycle is closely
supervised by SW expert Groups under
the leadership of ICT
• SW Architecture Expert Group
• SW Design Expert Group
• SW Testing Expert Group
• SW Code Review Expert Group
• SW QA Expert Group
17
21. Project implemented or being
implemented (4)
Lanka Gate – Middleware Infrastructure
and Country Portal for Information and
eServices
• Has four core modules
• 1. Country Portal
• 2. Lanka Interoperability Exchange
• 3. Credit Card Payment Gateway
• 4. Mobile Payment Gateway
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22. Lanka Gate Initiative - Overall
Architecture
Visitors
Citizens Businesses Government
Open
Standards
Multiple Access Channels
(eg. Web, Mobile, Email, etc.)
Ot h e r Ap p lic a t io n s
Sri Lanka Country Portal
eGov
eGov
SOA Other
CMS GIC
Service 1 Service m
portlets
portlet portlet
Architecture portlet portlet
Enabling
Web 2.0
Concepts
Lanka Interoperability Exchange
Mobile
Credit Card
Services Service 1
Payment Service n
Payment (eg. eRL)
Directory
Gateway Gateway
Services
22
Providers
23. Lanka Gate Overview
Mobile
Businesses
Citizens
Governme Visitors World
Users
nt over
Employees
Mobile Country Other
Applicatio Client
Portal
ns Applicatio
Lanka Interoperability ns
Exchange
Credit Card
Mobile Messaging Other
Payment
Payment eServices eServices
eServices
eServices
$
Credit Card Mobile
Governme Banks Other
23
Payment Payment
nt Businesses
Services Services
Providers Providers
29. Cutting Edge Technologies Used
in Lanka Gate
LIX
Country Portal
* SOA architecture and Web
* Liferay enterprilse open source
Services
portal
* Enterprise Service Bus (WSO2
* JSR 168 portlets
ESB)
* Atom and RSS
* Service Registry (Not old time
* Web Services
UDDI, real web services registry
WSO2 registry) * Apache Axis2
* PBEL (Apache ODE) * Struts2
* Complete interoperability with * FOSS SDK to simplify portlet
many leading web services development
stacks (Microsoft, IBM, WSO2,
etc) 29
30. FOSS Projects in Pipe line
1) eRevenue License
2) Common eHRM
3) Common Fleet management
4) Common Grievance Handling System
5) Sahana Disaster Management System
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31. Current Issues - Weakness
Lack of general awareness on FOSS
Lack of FOSS technical capability
Low FOSS/Linux penetration in government
Vicious circle of quot;No FOSS solutions, No awareness and
believingquot;
Low support from local IT industry
Inability to favour FOSS in procurement
32. Positive notes – Strengths
Google Summer of Code 2008 Top Universities (World)
• University of Moratuwa
FSF Award for Social Benefit (Wikipedia)
Apache: 100 of 1500 from SL (3rd US, EU)
Growing FOSS IT Industry
• WS02, Respere, Thinkcube, Virtusa, Eurocenter,
hSenid, CeylonLinux, FOSSmart
Sri Lankan built FOSS used globally
• Sahana, Apache AXIS, Apache Synaps, KBFX, etc
Many Research publications, PhD students
ICTA having a small team of very best FOSS technologists
Global trends; growing no of countries using/mandating FOSS
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33. ICTA Approach - Strategies
Increasing Awareness
Focus on FOSS in Education
Encouraging Usage
Enabling Innovation
Target Audiences
• ICT industry
• Non-ICT industry
• Government agencies
• Teacher training institutes
• Universities & tertiary educational institutes
• Schools, Nenasalas and other tele-center models,
General public 33
34. Increasing Awareness
Targeted FOSS awareness campaigns
FOSS conferences & events (2 per year in at least 5
provinces)
Sponsorship (advertising, transport, handouts) of
FOSS awareness activities undertaken by the FOSS
community in Sri Lanka
Workshops by international FOSS experts
Translation, printing & large scale distribution of
FOSSrelated handbooks and leaflets in Sinhala and
Tamil
34
35. Focus on FOSS Education
Technical & financial assistance in ICT syllabus reformulation
• Ministry of Education (GIT syllabus)
• Largescale ICT training institutes such as Gateway, Informatics etc.
Teacher training workshops
“FOSSEd on Wheels” (at least 2 initiatives based around Nenasalas
along the route)
Workshops & installation drives in institutions
• Schools
• Universities & other tertiary educational institutes
• Teacher training institutes & other professional training institutes
Grants to setup FOSSbased software certification training programs
Reimbursements for FOSSbased software certifications
35
36. Encourage Usage
Setting up a FOSS help desk
Setting up FOSSonly labs in schools, universities
and educational institutes
Setting up FOSSbased PCs in Nenasalas &
Telecenters
Setting up a FOSS knowledge base for SMEs and
government organizations along with initial
deployment assistance
Providing communications assistance for FOSS
support companies
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37. Enabling Innovation
Setting up FOSS R&D Centers of Excellence
Innovation grants for FOSS technology achievements
Entrepreneur assistance grants for FOSS startup
companies in Sri Lanka
Organizing FOSSinclined Venture Capital Forums in
Sri Lanka to enable venture capital funding of FOSS
companies
Incubation assistance for FOSS startup companies in
Sri Lanka
37