1. 1 Country Report from Taiwan on Open Source Software Dr. Der-Tsai Lee Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica Asian Open Source Software Symposium March 3-6, 2003 Phuket, Thailand

2. March 3-6, 2003 22 Outline Current Status of OSS Development in Taiwan Applications of OSS Technology National Strategy on OSS Government-funded OSS-related Projects Conclusion

3. March 3-6, 2003 33 OSS in Taiwan: A Brief Overview Free software was first noticed in university campuses in Taiwan a decade ago when the GNU utilities started to spread out on the Unix- like workstations. The community awareness of OSS was gradually formed later.

4. March 3-6, 2003 44 Watershed events of OSS in Taiwan The creation of the Chinese Linux Extension (CLE) project in 1997Chinese Linux Extension (CLE) the most referenced Linux environment in Taiwan a cohesive point for the community. Wide range of tryouts of free softwaretryouts Tightening of IPR law in May 2002 Media and legislator ’ s attention to free software

5. March 3-6, 2003 55 Industrial Utilization of OSS in Taiwan Industry started catching up OSS activities in 1998-1999. Linux-oriented companies established. The first Linux exhibition in Taiwan was held in year 2000. Now mostly dived into the embedded system, 3 Linux PDAs were shown in LinuxExpo 2002. Many hardware companies have products with Linux device driver.

6. March 3-6, 2003 66 OSS Community in Taiwan Software Liberty Association of Taiwan (SLAT)SLAT an NPO Founded in 2001, dedicated to promoting OSS and serving the free software communities. Holds annual International Conference on Open Source (ICOS) and many other community-oriented events. Various Active User Groups

7. March 3-6, 2003 77 Chronology of Major Events on OSS in Taiwan Drawn by T.-C. Liu

8. March 3-6, 2003 88 Applications of OSS Technology - Industry Servers (for web, e-mail,... etc) Network products (router, Quality of Service device, load-balancing device, firewall,... etc) PDAs (including software development kit based on WinCE, Qt embedded or Gtk) Appliances (digital VCR,... etc)

9. March 3-6, 2003 99 Applications of OSS Technology - Community Desktop: Internationalization/localization (i18n/l10n) of packages Font management tools CD-ROM linux (knoppix and alike)... etc Web framework: Zope/CMF/Plone, Perl/Python/PHP, i18n/l10n framework, blog,... etc

10. March 3-6, 2003 10 OSS Role among Sectors in Taiwan Drawn by T,-C. Liu, based on the Chinese version of P.Yeh and C.-K.Hung

11. March 3-6, 2003 11 National Strategy on OSS Build an environment for free software industry development Cultivate expertise and advanced technologies Chinese IT applications: establish interface standards and develop fundamental software Promote free software exchange QoS measurement mechanism Promote nation-wide utilization of free software Free software as an alternative based on free competition principle under Government Procurement Act

12. March 3-6, 2003 12 Government-funded OSS- related Projects 2 Government formed a Linux promotion task force in 2001. Approx. NT$20M was funded for linux research and open source for science education in 2002 (National Science Council) Grants for technological research indirectly related to Linux reached NT$60M in 2002 Promotion of open source in K-9 schools started in 2002.

13. March 3-6, 2003 13 Government-funded OSS- related Projects 1 A Free Software Steering Committee is formed within NICI A Free Software Working Committee is formed under MoEAIDB Several projects are under discussion and review for FY2003. Open source software foundry Compatibility test center Demonstration projects Open source standards development … etc

14. March 3-6, 2003 14 Open Source Software Foundry A bridge among government, industry, community and academia. Focus on building an infrastructure for open source development. A foundry similar to sourceforge.net for local developers to interact in local languages. Provide technical, operational and legal assistance National repository of e-government related projects strive to help government with procurement of open source solutions/services, and help industry find proficient open source personnel Lead by Academia Sinica.

15. March 3-6, 2003 15 OSSF Network OSSF Academia Industry Government Community -standards groups -service nexus -IA -MoE -MoEA -Parliament -NPOs -LUGs -national lab -university

16. March 3-6, 2003 16 OSS Compatibility Test Center Provide standardized tests on open source software compatibility on hardware Strive to leverage with OSS the strong and diverse hardware industry in Taiwan Lead by Taipei Computer Association

17. March 3-6, 2003 17 Conclusion Taiwanese OSS development in historical perspective Form a cross-governmental unit to strengthen OSS development in Taiwan Set up localized OSS foundry to interact with different sectors Leverage with local IA industry

18. March 3-6, 2003 18 Thank You! Contact Info: Der-Tsai Lee IIS, Academia Sinica, Taiwan Open Source Software Foundry