Experiences of Open Source Software in Institutions: Cases from Tanzania and Norway
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Despite the wide spread adoption of Open Source Software (OSS), there are continuing debates over the competition between OSS and proprietary software. Proponents of open source software contend that developing countries find ICT to be too expensive to afford but with Open Source Software they will manage to leap frog and address the digital divide. We found it useful to establish more evidence of the usefulness of open source software. In this study, the consequences of adoption and use of OSS was investigated in a cross sectional interpretive case study in selected Institutions in Tanzania and Norway. The empirical material suggests that OSS products are enterprise dependent software. They lower ICT expenditure, support open standards implementation, and promote creative knowledge on the use of local languages.
Keywords
Open Source Software, ICT in public sector, Zalongwa, Kilinux, Tanzania, Zanzibar