1. A Global Dialogue on The Impact of Open Source Software on Transforming Government Shahani Markus Weerawarana, Ph.D. October 2008 Sri Lanka

2. Overall Perspectives Panel 1

3. Well-known Benefits in Leveraging Open Source Software Ability to avoid vendor lock-in High degree of “ownership” via access to underlying source code Lower implementation & deployment costs Greater flexibility in implementing “minor” changes and enhancements Greater reliability & stability Better security etc.

4. Impact of Open Source Software in eGovernment Solutions Better adherence to open standards thereby facilitating interoperability Ability to rapidly implement or customize “working prototypes” to test complex/dense requirements Ability to easily reuse or deploy in same or similar solutions in multiple locations Ease of software localization thereby enabling “friendlier” user interfaces Greater opportunities to improve local IT industry via support & maintenance contracts etc.

5. Essential Ingredients for Success Conducive Atmosphere Good awareness of open source software and its natural benefits Willingness to “level the playing field” Desire for “openness” and accompanying culture Enabling Environment Facilitative procurement processes IT-savvy personnel with good knowledge of open source software landscape for R&D

6. “Nice to Have” A comprehensive knowledge base of open source software suitable for generic eGovernment solutions, with associated “ratings” and feedback/comments A collection of specialized open source eGovernment solutions that could be easily customized for typical deployment scenarios in many countries

7. Perspectives from Sri Lanka from the experiences at the ICT Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka Panel 2

8. eGovernment Projects Leveraging Open Source Software LankaGate Project – transforming access to government services Architecture-driven, agile process, facilitated by a “new” procurement approach (SDSA) and the “open source development methodology” Enabling “virtual business transformation” via a pure Service-Oriented Archecture An end-to-end thin slice implementation to validate the architecture by leveraging open source software 5 projects - In various procurement and implementation stages

9. eGovernment Projects Leveraging Open Source Software Performance Management System for the Ministry of Public Administration 3 month implementation cycle “zero cost” of implementation & deployment by leveraging university interns Deployed and in active use!

10. eGovernment Projects Leveraging Open Source Software eSamurdhi Project – to optimize delivery of welfare and social upliftment services to the most needy citizens 4 month implementation cycle Architecture-driven, agile implementation process Approach of customizing existing open source applications leveraging the SDSA procurement process RFP definition stage.

11. eGovernment Projects Leveraging Open Source Software eLocal Government Project – to provide a collection of solutions to deliver local government services Architecture-driven, agile implementation process Approach of customizing existing open source applications leveraging the SDSA procurement process Conceptualization stage

12. More Examples... Government Web Site Development using open source content management Complete Source Code Management (SCM) tools stack using open source solutions Sri Lanka location code navigator (internal ICTA implementation) leveraging open source rapid prototyping framework (GRails)‏ Emergency deployment of an open source eCondolence Book – simple customization of existing open source application (2 hours)‏