We welcome you to the discussion forum 'FOSS: Policy and Development
Implications' (FOSS-PDI).
FOSS-PDI will debate and discuss issues including, but not limited to,
the themes below:
1. Opportunities and drawbacks of FOSS for developing countries â?? the
roles of government, civil society, business in the process.
2. FOSS & Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) â?? stretching the
development dollar for scaling-up impact.
3. The global Intellectual Property Concern - Business monopoly of first
world nations software giants versus third world collaborative efforts.
4. Enabling legal/regulatory/policy framework for country specific
strategic evolution FOSS.
5. Open-source processes outside the software sector â?? Free Medicine,
Seed Bank, Open Access, Open Archiving etc.
6. Comparison of proprietary software vis-Ã -vis FOSS in terms of
technical merits â??reliability, stability, and vulnerabilities,
especially in the context of national ecurity.
7. FOSS versus Public Domain Software and Freeware â?? the Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) of FOSS.
8. Understanding why individuals contribute to FOSS projects and what
motivates FOSS developers to "donate" their time and are these
motivations different in developed and developing countries? Are there
constraints, especially in developing countries, that could be addressed
by government or private sector interventions?