Why Open Source?
From TurboCASH Wiki
OSR Home
Contents |
Why Open Source?
Introduction
The South African government have taken to the opportunity to use private sector initiatives to stimulate Research and development using a Research and Development Tax Incentives (RDTI). This has been carried out successfully by a number of countries. They have also realized the benefits of Open Source Software. Software that is freely available in Source Code, spreads easily and creates huge opportunities for developers. By using these tax incentives, we are investing in intellectual property that is freely available to all the people of South Africa, users, developers and intermediaries.
This opportunity reminds me of the 11 (Bis) days about 20 years ago when the Movie industry scurried off with a whole group of attorneys and made secret plans to launch movies into markets banned to Apartheid companies. We are taking a totally different approach here. The Open Source Revolution is a new way to approach Intellectual property and we each have an equal chance of participating. This is a Open Initiative that anyone can partake in. I would encourage you to work with us, but if you feel it better to take the information and work on your own, please feel free to do so.
Open Source is a business. We do not expect developers, investors, attorneys, accountants or users to participate unless they are in it for the money. We certainly don't want SARS to rule on these projects unless they can clearly see the long term benefits to the SA Fiscus.
Core to understanding the Open Source model is to understand the GNU GPL
The Business of Open Source
The French have two words for Free. Open Source is Free as in libre not as in gratis. The Open Source business creates substantial opportunities. While there are costs associated with Open Source they are significantly lower than commercial products. This is particularly relevant when we deal with markets that have monopolies.
Typically commercial companies will spend less that 20% of their revenues on Development. The rest of the revenues either pays their shareholders or is spent telling you what a fantastic idea it was to use their software. In the case of monopolies this gets much worse, where less that 10% is actually spent on development. A greater amount is spent paying the shareholders fro their priveledge of controlling a market segment.
The worst side of commercial software is that IP ownership moves off shore. South Africa becomes a nation of "installers". The Open Source model gives us a chance to change that. We can replace offshore licence payments with local development payments and create to IP ownership in which we all share.
There are users that will pay for the implementation of Open Source products. So buy picking the right products we are guaranteed markets. By working under the GNU GPL we are ensuring optimum output. Whiel Commercail software benefits teh few. OS Software benefits the many.
The conundrum of Open Source is that anyone that develops the software, must return it to the community. So one party pays for the development and the rest of us get it for free. What these tax incentives do is lighten that development burden considerably, but still allow us all to benefit. By sharing the development burden across a number of parties, we can effectively develop solutions for little or in some circumstances no after tax cost.
How Open Source Benefits A Country
- Open Source is Free to Users. Users can simply downlaod technology worth thousands of Rands. This means that by making this available we are making available to Small business Millions in readily available software Capital. Software drives modern economies. It is the "neurons" that connect our ideas and our productive capacity. Without software we are drawing plans in the sand. By injecting Open Source software into an economy that is relevant and locally supported, we are creating business capital
- Open Source is free to developers. The barriers to entry for developers are huge. Open Source dramtically lowers these barriers. Modern Software systems require integration to a vast number of services. By providing these free we give Start up develoeprs access to ready made components for their business ideas. The top performing economies in the World have strong It sectors.
- Current Commercial systems are driven by large US companies (in particularly Micorsoft). a large part to gjt revneu that you pay for commercail softwre goes back to feeding these offshore comapnies - creating jobs and whealth in far off places. By supporting Open Source, you move cash and the economic activity back into the local market and stimulate local GDP.
See the numbers on the TurboCASH example.
- LHUILLERY, Stéphane of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, gives an excellent paper on
ABSTRACT : It is now quite well documented that research and development (R&D) contribute to productivity growth (See OECD, 2001). Therefore, it is usual to consider that governments have a role in stimulating R&D investments and activities in front of market failures due to technology leakages. Subsidies, patent rights are popular incentive mechanisms to achieve these purposes. R&D Tax incentives (RDTI hereafter) are the most recent tools of science and technology policies. Except in Canada (since 1944) and Japan (since 1967), they have been introduced only in the past twenty years.
Who is Philip Copeman
I am a software developer and entrepreneur with 30 years experience in development. I am the project leader of TurboCASH Accounting, one of the most successful Open Source projects to run from South Africa. I am a foot soldier for the Open Source Movement and committed to the GNU GPL.
I have a wide range of experience in managing research and I will take an active hand in managing and delivering the projects proposed here. See Philip's Research CV.
I am a known Atheist, Dyslexic, Insomniac - Who lies awake at night thinking about Dog. So please feel free to correct my spelling and grammar on this site.
OS in Australia
The Australians have always been cleverer than us in nurturing and developing their Media and Software development industries. They look set to beat us on Open Source too. To find out how they approach this industry go here (PDF Format)
Research Tax Credits in The United Kingdom
Even in a first world country with really expensive development labor, The UK government has manged to set its economy up as a producer of research. Read how they go about UK Tax incentives
Research Tax Credits in New Zealand
European Union
[Image:http://www.flossimpact.eu/images/eu_small.gif]
South Africa would need to increase its OS research by at least 5 times if it is to become a player in this new industry. In a wider sense an R and D economy spends about 3% of GDP on R and D. That means in a R 1 Billion economy you would want to spend R 30 Billion. We spend about R 6 Billion. This is what we need to correct.
To understand how serious the Europeans are check this http://www.flossimpact.eu/
To understand how much catch up we have to play read this http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf
