Going From “Ow” To “Wow” In Open Source

“What are the challenges in open source adoption at developers’
and/or implementers’ level, and how can these challenges be
overcome?

“There are many challenges for open source at all levels.
Awareness is a key issue among them. It is surprising that many
software engineers and developers haven’t a clue about open
source.

“Recently, at a meeting with a client, the developer of the
incumbent home grown software (.Net/MS SQL) actually declared that
open source is a security issue. So I invited him to the OSI Days
this year. I hope that he attends it and that should open his eyes
to reality!.

“As you can see, if software engineers with four to five years
of experience are ignorant, what do we expect from users who really
don’t care much about technology? After all, technology is just an
enabler and should augment the user’s work.

“Another big challenge for open source is that most of us, ie
the Indian software community, are consumers of open source. How
many of us have contributed the code back? The answer is a very
small percentage of us’. Advocating the use of FOSS to end users is
another big challenge. Most organizations do not have the money to
spend on selling FOSS, unless you count the big guys like Redhat.
Much of our work revolves around making people aware of FOSS
solutions and how they make better business sense. We need an apex
body like NASSCOMM to help in promoting FOSS.”

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