FOSS: Key enabler for viable E-governance

TRIVANDRUM, INDIA: "Early initiatives in e-governance in India was characterized by a multiplicity of technology platforms, leading to high costs of development, difficulty in maintenance, lack of interoperability and a tendency to let the initiative weaken after the original innovator moved out from the project, said Satish Babu, National Secretary of the Computer Society of India inaugurating the one-day seminar on the JBoss Application Server.

However, there is a new trend now, endorsed by both government and private service providers, to use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) platforms to base e-governance offerings. This shift was clearly articulated in this year's CSI National E-governance awards ceremony in Hyderabad in December, where there was a firm preference for FOSS platforms and Open interoperability standards.

While the low cost of FOSS products is definitely a factor in this choice, other important factors included are the robustness of FOSS products, the lack of legal restrictions, and increasingly, the availability of trained human resources, he added.

He said that Kerala was a trailblazer in the choice of FOSS as the platform of choice for e-governance, and congratulated Kerala's IT administration for obtaining three awards in the CSI-Nihilent e-governance awards, including that of the second-best state for IT implementation.

The CSI-Nihilent National Awards have been instituted by CSI with the collaboration of the National Institute of Smart Government, Hyderabad.

Further he added "JBoss Application Server suite was eminently suited for developing local e-governance applications, and that the establishment of a JBoss Centre of Excellence (JBoCE) in Trivandrum would help promoting this Open Source platform in India and the Asia-Pacific markets."

The seminar was then addressed by S. Satyamoorthy, head, JBoss (Asia-Pacific) who spoke on JBoss technologies, their features and their use. Amarnath Raja, CEO InApp, addressed the participants on the JBoss Seam technology.

The event was organized by Computer Society of India, Trivandrum Chapter, in association with IEEE Kerala Section. The event was sponsored by Technopark, Red Hat India, and InApp Information Technologies, Technopark.