Transcript Exploring roles of crowdinvestors in start-ups

Social and Economic Repercussions of Free- and Open
Source Software (FOSS) in Emerging Countries
A Qualitative Case Study on the Power of Users in Policy Development in Southern India
Florian Schirg
Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization
Professor Christopher Lettl
Vienna University of Economics and Business
ICT & Development
SW-Licences and Purchasing Power
FOSS is a strategic tool to:
ICT plays an important role in social and
economic development.
(eg. UN ICT Taskforce 2005, Todaro 2006:97ff, Wilson 2003)
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foster economic growth,
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reduce the digital divide
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foster ICT development
(CIPR 2002, Weerawarana & Weeratunga 2004, Rajani et al. 2003, Weber 2003, Ghosh
2003 & 2004, Debroy & Morris 2004, Proenza 2005, Miscione et al. 2008, Gabu 2011)
Common software licenses in purchasing power comparisons (Ghosh (2003):
Country
Piracy
Effective $
GDP months
India
United States
70%
25%
42725
560
14.53
0.19
Calculation: Cost for (Windows+Office) / (Monthly GDP/capita), Data from 2001
 Commercial software is unaffordable to most people in LDCs.
FLORIAN SCHIRG│ SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS OF FREE- AND OPEN SOURCE
SOFTWARE (FOSS) IN EMERGING COUNTRIES
Qualitative Case-Study
Free- and Open Source Software in India
(Wikipedia)
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RQ
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RQ
Does FOSS influence the Indian economy, its
development and its social environment?
Does the specific economic situation increase use
of FOSS in development countries, respectively in
India?
Semistructured
Expert
interviews
&
 Open/circular research strategy
 18 Expert interviews across Southern
India: Professors, entrepreneurs,
politicians, NGO-Leaders, teachers
Experts hint to
Kerala case
User
interviews
FLORIAN SCHIRG│ SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS OF FREE- AND OPEN SOURCE
SOFTWARE (FOSS) IN EMERGING COUNTRIES
=?
The path to FOSS through Education
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2002 - IT@School Project: Hardware-only Purchases
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A large software producer sued teachers for license infringements
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Members of teacher’s union learn about FOSS
 Teachers demanded use of FOSS in schools through a political process
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Teachers involved in change-process from within
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Discovery of empowerment as a strategy
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Licence savings enabled more investments in infrastructure and
hardware at schools
FLORIAN SCHIRG│ SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS OF FREE- AND OPEN SOURCE
SOFTWARE (FOSS) IN EMERGING COUNTRIES
Long term effects:
More public FOSS-projects launched
E.g. Akshaya e-Governance & Education Project
Special PPP-Business Model for 3000+ villages
New policy goals
 First Indian State with proactive ICT-policy
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Transformation into a ”Knowledge
Society”
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World leadership in FOSS Activity
(incl. export of services and
software)
Active reduction of digital divide
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FOSS-friendly economic policy to build
competencies, e.g. Through subsidies and tax
reductions for start-ups with FOSS in its business
model’s core.
Technology parks with FOSS-Focus
Thanks to Reinhard Fischer for valuable discussions
and Reinhard Pirker for all support!
FLORIAN SCHIRG│ SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS OF FREE- AND OPEN SOURCE
SOFTWARE (FOSS) IN EMERGING COUNTRIES