Open source software is the future for South African business and government. It lowers barriers to entry for small businesses, allowing them to turn their backs on "big American software companies".
This emerged in opening discussion at a geospatial conference focusing on free and open source software in Cape Town on Monday.
"This is about democratising technology in terms of access and creation," said Google's Ed Parsons, chief of geospatial technology.
Continues Below↓Parsons was keynote speaker at the 2008 Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference and Exhibition at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
"It's about people having access to change the information if they want. It is no longer locked behind a piece of software and a big company."
Open source software is freely distributed and allows users to change a programme's source code - it's DNA - to suit their needs. They may redistribute this as they wish.
One example for people wanting to work with geospatial data, digital maps essentially, is to download a programme called QuantumGIS free, rather than buying the expensive ArcView.
"Open source software reduces the government's software expenses massively," said Sindile Bidla, deputy director of the Eastern Cape's Spatial Information Services' chief directorate for spatial planning and information. "It's the future for a developing country such as ourselves."
As South Africa spent less on foreign products, more money would be kept in the country, said Bidla.
"It will lower barriers to entry, promoting a local service industry to provide support to open-source users who may want to alter their software for their specific needs."
The conference aimed to harness "the 'make it work, get it done' world of open source application development".
Peter Rieks, manager for event sponsor Autodesk's geospatial products, said open source software encouraged faster innovation, more frequent product releases and open communication between contributors and users. "It is a positive disruption of the status quo."
