Report from Taiwan on Open Source Software

1
Report from Taiwan on Open Source Software

• Openfoundry Team
• Presented by
• Tyng-Ruey Chuang
• Institute of Information Science
• Academia Sinica
• Nangang 115, Taipei, Taiwan
• September 1, 2004

2
Outline

• Current Status of Open SourceDevelopment in
  Taiwan
• National Strategy on Open Source
• Open Source Software Foundry (OSSF)
• Experience Sharing Legal issues, SOP, and
  repositories

3
Open Source in TaiwanHigher Education

• University campuses in Taiwan first used free
  software (GNU utilities, etc.) more than a decade
  ago.
• The Chinese Language Extension (CLE) for Linux
  was created in 1997, and was a cohesive point for
  the community.
• Tightening of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
  law in May 2002.
• Media and legislators attention to free
  software,
• Wide range of tryouts of free software.

4
Open Source in Taiwan Industries

• The industry started picking up OSS activities in
  1998-1999.
• Linux-oriented companies established
• The first Linux exhibition was held in year 2000
• Now mostly dived into the embedded devices
• Many hardware companies have products with Linux
  device drivers.
• Companies now seeking better business models
• Advantech, Axtronics Technologies, Citron
  Network, TBLink, TECO,VIA Technologies, WISCORE
  (more in tomorrows sessions)

5
Open Source in Taiwan Communities

• Software Liberty Association, Taiwan (SLAT) A
  non-profit organization (NPO) founded in 2001
  that is dedicated to promoting open source
  software and serving the communities.
• Holds annual Intl Conf. on Open Source (ICOS)
  and many other community-oriented events.
• Various active user groups (Debian, Knoppix,
  Perl, Bloggers, etc.).
• Adult education Primary and secondary schools
  OSS Application and Consulting Center.

6
Chronology of major eventson OSS in Taiwan
Drawn by Tzu-Chiang Liu
7
National Strategy on Open Source

• A Free Software Steering Committee is formed
  under the National Initiatives on Communication
  and Information (NICI), a strategy-planning
  government agency.
• A Free Software Working Group is formed under
  the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of
  Economic Affairs.
• Several projects have started in FY 2003/2004.
• Open source software foundry
• Compatibility test center
• Demonstrative applications and SOP
• Chinese execution environment (I/O methods)

8
Open Source Software Foundry

• Serve as a bridge connecting government,
  industry, community and academia.
• Focus on building an infrastructure for open
  source development
• A foundry similar to sourceforge.net for local
  OSS developers to interact in local languages.
• Technical, operational and legal assistance
• Led by the Institute of Information Science,
  Academia Sinica.

9
Typical Projects in OSSF
Educational Operating System Simulator,
etc. Research Software prototypes/tools, mostly
from projects sponsored by the National Science
Council. Utilities Chinese input methods, etc..
Innovative OSS tools The openfoundry itself,
for example. OSS Localization Mozilla,
WordPress, etc. Personal/Community
projects. Software depositories.
10
Experience Sharing - Tutorials in Legal Issues

• BoF in legal issues at the 2nd AOSS meeting in
  Singapore.
• ½ day tutorial in legal issues at Hanoi, Vietnam
  on March 6, 2004 (3rd AOSS).
• FAQ on open source software (in Chinese
  English).
• Free and Open Source Software Licensing Primer
  (draft) for UNDP-APDIP International Open Source
  Network.

11
Experience Sharing - Standard Operation Guide
(SOP)

• Guidelines of open source solution for enterprise
  and end users
• 5 open source server solutions as the first step
• Database, MySQL
• WWW, Apache
• Mail, Sendmail
• OS, Linux
• File Sharing, Samba
• URL http//ossc.cosa.org.tw/

12
Experience Sharing - Software and Resource
Repositories

• What functionalities to provide, and how best to
  serve the OSS developers/users?
• How to build accountability into the systems?
• What are the legal/policy/privacy issues?
• How to connect the government, industry,
  community, and academia?
• How to collaborate among us?
• Please join the working group (this afternoon)
  and BoF (this evening) and share your view!

13
Thank You!
Website www.openfoundry.org Contact Mr.
Yen-Chen Kuo or Mr. Tzu-Chiang Liu Phone 886
2-27883799 ext. 1404 E-mail yenchen,
tcliou_at_iis.sinica.edu.tw

• OSSF team
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• Project lead and co-lead
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• Funding agencies
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