Mission Statement and Strategic Goals

The National Strategy for Open Source Software

Developed by

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
(KACST)
 

October, 2014

Mission Statement

Introduction[TBD]

Section: Vision

Towards low cost systems and software that develops national capabilities and national technological independence for the state and its institutions using open technologies

The vision is formed by three elements: beneficiaries, needs, and means. The first element, beneficiaries, are identified as the state, the private sector, and civil society institutions The second element, the needs, are identified as reducing cost of systems, developing national capabilities, and supporting national technological independence. The last element,  means, are identified to be achieved through `open technologies,' which includes open source software, open standards, in addition to what is available as technologies under the creative common licence or any equivalent licence.  

Section: Values

Introduction[TBD]

1. Fair competition: allow equal opportunity for systems and software of all types, to evaluated based on well defined and agreed upon quality metrics. 

2. Individualism and creativity: to call for producing new and unique solutions to local and public issues, and give incentives to individuals and institutions to reward creativity initiatives. 

3. Independence: the ability for individuals and institutions to depend on themselves in software development, maintenance, or usage.

4. Accessibility and adaptability: individuals and institutions should  enable individuals to develop appropriate software solitons according to the lowest level of resistance  

Section: Goals

Introduction[TBD]

Mission goals are as follows:

1. Develop high national capabilities able to innovate and creative.

2. Develop a competitive eco-system with international quality standard

3. Reduce the cost of medium to large costs  

Strategic Goals

Introduction[TBD]

A. Create an open source national research program to build a competitive advantage in serving the national identity

Introduction[TBD]

A1. Build funds to support national research programs in OSS

Research funds will be allocated to serve a well defined research program that improves the understanding of common problems and solutions to Software/OSS use. Research should be both reflective of current and past experience and insightful of current and future directions and trends. Funds should be obtained from both public and private sources with focus on diversification and equal opportunity. Following the strategy's principles of accessibility, funds is allocated to public and private entities, individuals and groups alike, with proper measures of control for each. To ensure fairness and equality, a quota system of fund allocation should be used.

For example, a yearly funding may be structured based on research goals and outcomes. The research fund is offered according to a framework that allocates funds to research schools, entrepreneurs, university professors, and graduate students. The funding framework is reviewed yearly, taking in account strategic goals and performance measures.

Raising funds to support OSS research is based on an identified strength of the ICT sector high return on investment [reference]. Generating funds to support OSS research is fundamentally driven by the continuous growth of the ICT market and IT government spending. But research funding should also strive to find ways to maintain sustainability.

A2. Implement OSS research programs related to e-services

Research programs shall focus on e-services' use of OSS. E-services is identified as one of Government's largest investments in IT [reference]. Research should focus on satisfying the general goals of the strategy outlined in the mission statement, which focuses on reducing cost, human development and innovation, and developing competitive software industry.

For example, research shall focus on producing tools to support IT decision makers choose which OSS software to use, how to maintain a low TCO, and in some cases, when not to use OSS. Research should also provide decision makers with case-study reports, including reports on best practices, and common challenges.

A3. Implement research programs related to OSS quality

Research programs shall direct its efforts to the study of software/OSS quality. Issues related to OSS quality shall be addressed openly with the development of evaluation frameworks. Evaluation frameworks are a collection of tools and methods directed to analyse specific quality attributes.

For example, research shall focus on evaluating usability issues related to  Arabic text. Improving the use of Arabic text in OSS shall improve its usability and increase its wide use between arabic speaking communities.  Other issues such as reliability and maintainability, which represent common concerns about adopting OSS, shall be themes embedded within the research program. 

Research reports shall be directed to an audience of researchers and practitioners, with emphasis on practical solutions that address relative OSS quality issues. While not all quality issues have the same importance, it is critical to priorities OSS quality issues depending on organization goals and type of applications used. The research program will be responsible to identify organization quality needs, and priorities them, in order to set target quality goals to be achieved.

B. Produce public comments regularly to call for a more effective use of technology using OSS

Introduction[TBD]
 
B1. Address investment opportunities in OSS technologies
Public statements shall be issued to encourage investments in OSS technologies. On a regular basis, statements should target investors, entrepreneurs and IT market leaders alike. Messages to investors are expected to include up-to-date information about market growth and technology trends. Information about investment opportunities may be provided by market surveys, an output of OSS national research program.  

For example, a high government official may release the following brief statement: ``growth in investment in OSS services has increased by \%20 for the past two years.'' The statement may be quoted in news briefs or headlines, drawing attention to developments in OSS investment opportunities, and highlighting government support.

B2. Direct attention to OSS advantage as a flexible work environment of OSS

Public statements shall highlight the flexible work environment of OSS projects. OSS projects are built fundamentally on volunteer work who may participate in projects remotely. Both aspects, volunteer work and the ability to work remotely, represent key advantages of OSS work. 

For example, a high government official (e.g., from Ministry of Labour) may publish the following statement: ``OSS offer a highly flexible work environment, especially suitable to software engineers and IT specialists to work from home.'' Such work environment may be an opportunity to empower females to participate in OSS projects.

B3. Help expose ICT challenges and weaknesses more effectively

Public statement shall be used to express weaknesses and challenges that face implementing the OSS vision particularly, and facing the ICT sector generally. Such statements, when necessary, may help to call of collective action to overcome a wide range of issues, that may not be directly associated with OSS, but have a significant impact. 

For example, statements may bring to the attention the over reliance on outsourcing for software services. Statements about outsourcing and other related issues may be released by more than one government institution based on the issue. Two government institution that may play a key role in implementing the ICT challenges sub-goal is MCIT and MCI.   But the ICT challenges sub-goal, when directed to address challenges facing OSS in the Kingdom, may require more effective coordination between government agencies.

B4. Expose amount of spending on proprietary software
Public statements shall expose regularly the amount spent on proprietary software and compare it to amounts spent on OSS. Such statements are significant in exposing the competitive advantage OSS has over other approaches to software acquisition.

B5. Explain how OSS establishes national independence

Public statements shall highlight the role of OSS in national development, and creating a technological self-depending economy. Communicating the national impact of OSS support is expected to create the needed awareness of how critical is it to support every effort to participate in creating a vibrant OSS community.

MCIT may play a key role delivering statements addressing the impact of OSS on the software industry in the Kingdom, and its impact on the ICT sector as a whole. Statements on national independence may cite success stories from within the local industry or from other industries abroad. Such statements are expected to serve the mission which states the role of OSS in gaining technological independence.

C. Publish guides to use OSS for all fractions of society, education and training stages, and areas of communication and information

Introduction[TBD]

C1. Target a large sector of users

Guides to use OSS should target a large sector of the community in order to have a bigger impact and outreach other parts of the community. For example, guides to use open source office applications such as Libreoffice will help a larger sector of the community including children, teenager, student, employs and other to use this open source software rather than proprietary software.

C2. Guides should help localize labour forces

Guides to use OSS should target the materials and tools where there is a lack of Saudi Labour in order to help in localizing these skills. For example, currently there is a need to employ people with excellent skills in using open source operating system such as Red hat, fedora, and other. However, new Saudi graduates and even current employees have poor skills in this type of tools which push the companies towards hiring foreign people.

C3. Solve common OSS issues preventing from OSS effective use and accessibility

Although OSS have almost an alternative software for each proprietary software, most of these software have no Arabic guides to use them which may prevent new users from effectively use or lower accessibility of the software. Guides to use OSS should be written to tackle common OSS issues that may face new users of the these software.

C4. Help government migrate from proprietary software to OSS

Even when government agency is looking to migrate from proprietary software to OSS, different challenges may rise to kill their initiative before they even start. Most agencies are looking for help from experts who have done this migration before in a very successful way in order for them to mitigate the risk and reduce waste, avoid extra spending and effectively utilization of resource. Guides to migrate from propriety software to OSS should be written to include learned experience from previous migration specially local experiences. It address all issues that may rise during migration and provide the right cures for them before even appear.

D. Build an OSS national project to serve the national identity using local human resources.

Introduction[TBD]

D1. Fund OSS national projects using IT revenue.

Currently the IT spending is considered high due to the need to upgrade IT infrastructure and existing software. However, most offered solution are proprietary solution rather than OSS which due to the support offered by giant companies which represent the owner of these solutions. This kind of domination increases our dependence currently and future on these solution and reduce our chances of being self-dependent. In order to create an environment in which creative and local solution are developed, the government need to support efforts which reduce our dependency on foreign solutions. Implement national projects in OSS is an effective strategy that have been approached by other countries to have their software solution implemented internally. Also, this strategy will help in injecting local market with highly skills people at the end which increase its competence level. To achieve the intended goals by this strategy, funding is very crucial and necessary to deliver the right outcomes. The current high spending on proprietary solution should be used to help in finding local alternatives for these solutions in the near future.

D2. Support national OSS projects with high impact to the general public

Due to the importance of the outcomes of national OSS, the process of selection these projects should be well designed to maximise the benefits of their outcomes. One of the critical criteria of selection is the positive impact that the project may have. Projects with higher impact to the general public will help in recruiting new employs, increase the number of users and supporters. In fact, it will also serve a large sector of the public and raise the awareness about the importance of OSS.

D3. Form a flexible work environment that utilises human resources in all forms (Full-time, part-time, volunteer), and supports all fractions of society (i.e., female, disabled)

Open source software development has its unique characteristics that are suitable to utilize the skills and capabilities of a large sector of the its users. The flexibility of work environment for OSS in general can be used to utilises human resource in all forms such as full-time, part-time, volunteer, males and females. For example, the national OSS projects can be used to hire unemployed female either full time and part time to utilize their skills. Housewives with the right skills can utilise their free to volunteer and keep their skills improved for future jobs opportunities.

D4. Use national projects as a source for new local IT managers and entrepreneurs for government and private sector

National OSS projects should be an excellent work environment to produce a high quality functional software that can compete with top proprietary ones. People with best technical and managerial skills will be part of this projects and will help in transfer these skills to the other employs. Later during the project, some of employees with high skills will be able to leave and join other government agencies and private sector to transfer their skills outside to different sectors of the government and private. In this manner, the national OSS projects will work as house of skills development to the best practice and technology as well as their main roles of software development. 

D5. Enhance R&D capabilities among national project stakeholders for effective use and development

Since the national OSS projects should provide an excellent work environment that delivers a high quality OSS via empowering their employees with the latest technologies in software development, it is important to establish a common research platform for the corresponding stakeholders to enhance their capabilities to conduct research and development for effective use and development of OSS. This common platform will serve also as a platform to exchange experience, knowledge, and work methodologies. Furthermore, it will strength the relationship among the stakeholders and help to achieve the other strategy goals.

D6. Utilize related national and international initiatives to develop new regional markets for the national project

Saudi Arabia is a leading country in the region at all levels including ICT. It is considered one of the main ICT market in the region and the leading country for different initiatives such as Arabic content and open source software. This can be utilized to explore new regional markets for the national OSS projects. Since most of the countries in the region have homogeneous cultures, existing barriers are expected to have less effect and are easy to overcome. For example, the development of a suitable Arabic editor or enhancing some existing software like libreoffice might attract a large number of users outside the Kingdom. Also, different initiatives in the kingdom require a high level of close collaboration in order to complement each other.

D7. Consolidate the national project efforts with government e-services program(s)

The government supports the e-services program (Yaseer) to help the government agencies to offer their services online which will provide a high flexibility for the Saudis to use these services any time from their homes. This initiative is highly supported and funded since their expected outcomes are going to help in moving the economy to knowledge-based economy. OSS can be used as a vehicle to help implement their services and accelerate their deployment. It is also important to consider OSS in the e-services since these services will be used by almost the entire society.

D8. Support national OSS projects with high strategic impact

Relying on foreign proprietary software has a great risk on the government since it will rely on a software that cannot be modified or upgraded without the help of the software vendor. In fact, the proprietary software cannot be statically analysed to identify possible security threat or back-doors since the source code is not available. Moving to OSS can help in mitigating this risk and help the government in fully own the software and the source code. Software with high strategic impact should be selected to address this critical need.

E. Implement OSS in all level of education and in ICT-related training

Introduction [TBD] 

E1. Establish and maintain OSS curriculums that serve the ICT needs

The government is spending a huge amount of its budget on education and training in order empower the students (who are considered the largest portion of the society) with science and knowledge that help them improve their skills and have better opportunities to participate in the Kingdom movement toward a knowledge-based economy. Targeting  young generation during their study (via establishing and maintaining OSS curriculums the serve the ICT needs) will help in adopting OSS for the rest of the society as well as it will be part of the culture of these young people for the rest of their life. Having some OSS as part of curriculums will also help the young students to explore other related OSS easily and explore possible opportunities.

E2. Leverage state-of-the-art e-learning technologies to build accessible and useable  courses 

State-of-the-art e-learning technologies enable delivering eduction and training courses remotely to reach a large set of people regardless of the students' location. It can be also used to provide repeatable interactive materials that help the students to understand the courses. Currently, education and training agencies invest a lot in providing the right solution for their students. OSS training should utilize these technologies to outreach the students and to provide a higher quality experience of eduction and training.

E3. Provide OSS training to localize required work skills

Training should address the needs in the market and qualify the students  to work. However, there is a lack of skilled Saudi people for different OSS. This is due to the lack of training on these software during their study. The curriculums should be updated to deliver training for OSS and provide the required skills to the students in order to contribute in localizing these skills in the Kingdom. 

E4. The OSS education and training must match the IT requirements in private and public sectors 

Due to the quick and rapid changes in the IT solutions, education and training institutes should continuously keep updating their curriculums in order to reflect these changes and being able to match the IT requirements in private and public sectors. Being disconnected from these changes might results in graduating students with mismatch skills who do not serve the needs of the market.

E5. The medium-small OSS training and education providers need to be supported in multiple levels.

Training for propriety software is supported by their vendors where the training materials are provided and updated frequently as well as well established training tracks and certification. Also, these vendors encourage the training and provide low rate to attract more students. In order for medium-small OSS training institutes to survive and compete, they need government support at different levels. The support could be in terms of funding or simplification of the training process.

F. Regulate the software industry generally and OSS specifically to increase fairness and national and regional competitiveness

Introduction [TBD]

F1. Regulate software that has high rates of use

Information technologies are widely used in all sectors in the kingdom. Most of the used technologies are based on proprietary software that requires licensing fees which usually drain huge amount of the different agencies' annual budgets. 
Hence, the policy document should encourage agencies to prefer the use of OSS software when appropriate mainly for widely used software. If proprietary software is to be used then justifications should be made. In accordance with the policy document, legislations should be issued to realise the policy and maintain the preference of OSS software.

F2. Institutionalise software/OSS regulatory research

To enhance the kingdom's ability to develop and maintain innovative OSS solutions, regulations should be issued (and if exists, should gain more focus) to promote research trends and secure funding of research centres.

F3. Implement new regulations for software engineers recruitments'

The current recruitment regulations in the IT sector should be updated and this includes the salary scale. Saudi IT personnel should be trained to enhance their capabilities in developing, maintaining and using OSS software to fill the market's needs in this regard both at the national and regional levels

F4. Encourage the use of open technologies (e.g., OSS and open standards) in e-services

As the Saudi government is supporting the migration from the traditional way to service Saudi people toward providing e-services in all sectors, policies and regulation should be made to encourage the use of OSS technologies and standards in providing the e-services for people.
For example, the use of open standards has several benefits such as preventing public and private sectors from being locked-in.

F5. Encourage entrepreneurship initiatives and small business

Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs)employ most of the labor power in the IT field. Using high quality software is vital for SMEs to enhance their business and competitiveness in the market. SMEs usually cannot afford the high cost associated with such software if its proprietary software. To encourage entrepreneurship initiatives and SMEs in the IT, adopting OSS should be favored. 

F6. Empower female in the software industry

OSS has low cost compared to proprietary software, hence it is more affordable and achievable for female to use to enhance their IT skills. Accordingly, policy document should foster female empowerment in the IT industry by encouraging the use of OSS among females which will provide them with more opportunities in the IT.

F7. Enforce the use of Arabic content in OSS

The Kingdom is concerned with the amount of Arabic content in the web. A national initiative has launched few years ago to enrich the Arabic content and work is still in progress. There are many OSS software and tools that support publishing and increasing the web content, e.g. Drupal, Joomla, Hadoop, etc.
The policy document should support using OSS tools to enhance the Arabic web content.