FOSS as a Tool for Development: The Kerala Experience

摘要

The mainstreaming of Free and Open Source Software(FOSS) has been one of the most visible changes inthe domain of software in the last decade. Starting out as arallying point for techno-activists, FOSS is today a valued optionsupported by Governments, Businesses as well as the civil societyin most parts of the word. The State of Kerala in southernIndia, already quite unique on a variety of social, democratic andpolitical indicators, was the first to adopt FOSS as an instrumentof State policy in 2001. As it celebrates a decade of FOSS in 2011,Kerala demonstrates the remarkable transition of FOSS into acost-effective, pragmatic, and technologically sound strategy thatsimultaneously upholds the principles of freedom and democracy.Given that software is set to permeate most aspects of humanendeavor, the use of FOSS is an example for a highly sustainable -- socially, politically and technologically -- model of use of ICTs forhumanity.