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Dr. KD Raju from Jawaharlal Nehru University-New Delhi released a study on worldwide government technology policies and open source software. Is the Future of Software Development in Open Source? Proprietary vs Open Source Software: A cross Country Analysis, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, Vol. 12, No.2, (2007).
Surveying open source initiatives across Brazil, China, Europe and India, Raju observes increasing proposals and adoption of open source preference policies. However, Raju cautions that such preferences do not address the enormous impact that technology policy can have on economic development, industrial organization and innovation. There is no reason to believe that … proposed governmental promotion of OSS increases social welfare. The argument of economic and technology development with the help of OSS is also weak. For example, India achieved the present level of economic progress with the help of proprietary software rather than OSS….
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Some governments are taking decisions mostly on political reasons without analyzing technological and economic needs.
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The argument of economic development through OSS is not proved by empirical data. It is a common fact that any industry development needs proper investment and development … the sustainable profit making is absent in the OSS set up. The importance of neutral government technology practices draws back to the beginnings of the modern digital economy. Previously, professors Mowery-Simcoe expertly analyzed how the success of early Internet era federal R&D programs rested on “technology neutral“ policies to promote commercial activity and technological advancement. Neutral government policies that consider the functionality and quality of technology promote economic growth, industrial development and innovation, while preferences that support any particular business-development model are untested.
posted by Noel Le @ 11:35 AM | Academia
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