Driving innovation with Open Source

For the last ten years, Estonia has been ranked as the ‘Best of the Best’ for e-government applications by the United Nations. Sikkut said part of their success can be attributed to the use of open source in projects such as: e-health; e-police and e-justice; national citizens and business portals; e-procurement; document exchange systems; and digital culture portals and systems.

He added that open source gave the government “more bang for the buck” by taking advantage of the technological know-how and input from open source communities.

Sikkut’s presentation stimulated a spirited discussion on concerns relating to the accountability, ownership, confidentiality and security when using Open Source. In particular, experts from Red Hat were able to clear out misconceptions about the use of open source software, particularly on perceived ambiguities about licensing.

Meanwhile, Damien Wong, Red Hat’s General Manager for ASEAN, said that open source is paving the way for more innovative services as evidenced by over 40 countries releasing policies and mandated preference for open source.