Adoption of Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) by Non Governmental Organisations in East-Africa

Hivos, the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (in Dutch: Humanistisch Instituut voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking) conducted a study focusing on the diffusion and adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) in its partner organisations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The aim of this research was to find out whether OSS is a good alternative to the software currently used by Hivos partner organisations in East-Africa; and to determine how Hivos could stimulate the diffusion and adoption of this software by partner organisations.

During the field study, 26 partner organisations of Hivos in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were visited. While the research was underway, almost no organisation visited used OSS. There was only one organisation that used OSS (to catalogue their library). Out of the 26 organisations visited, ten were aware of the existence of OSS. Even then, this knowledge usually did not go further than having heard of Linux.

Respondents, familiar with OSS but not using it, mentioned several reasons. Some were afraid that the software is not compatible with software used by other organisations within their network. Some cited the problem of lack of adequate support for this software. For several organisations the advantages of OSS over the software they currently use are not very clear and therefore they do not see the need to spend time and money on a transition to other software. Finally, some respondents have the opinion that OSS is less user-friendly than the software they are currently using. But, all in all, a lot of organisations are enthusiastic about OSS and want to learn more about it.

Most of the visited organisations have a decent state of ICT. On average there are three computers for every four employees. However, this varies greatly. A little over 60 per cent of the visited organisations have some kind of local area network. Almost all of the partners have an Internet connection in their office, although the type and speed of connection vary greatly. Twelve out of the twenty-six organisations maintain a website and all of the visited organisations use e-mail.

Most of the software used is proprietary like Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe Pagemaker and CorelDraw. The most common reason cited for the use of Windows software was that it was pre-installed on the computer when the computer was originally obtained. Furthermore, most organisations do not know any alternatives to this software. The fact that this is the most widely used software also is important to the organisations. When asked about their opinion on the software they are currently using, most respondents are quite satisfied.

The costs associated with using software are very low for most organisations. Most of the organisations do not pay for using the software. Since there is not much control on the use of legal software, there is not much pressure on organisations to use legal software. Besides that, the prices to obtain legal software are very high, probably too high for many of the organisations visited. A lot of the organisations are not even aware that the software they use is illegal.

Most visited organisations possess the basic skills to use computers and the normal functions of the software on the computer. In several organisations there is someone with more advanced skills that can fix the more common problems. However, when things go seriously wrong, almost all of the organisations have some kind of contract with a service- and maintenance-company that can help them in case of computer problems and also come by for regular maintenance. Unfortunately, both the quality as well as the price of these companies vary greatly.

The study asserts that in the big cities (Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala), there are people and organisations present who have good knowledge of OSS. However, outside the big cities, even services for the widely used Microsoft software can be hard to find, let alone services for OSS, so introducing OSS in these regions will be a lot harder.

Recommendations

"Based on the results of the field study, the report concludes that several organisations can adopt OSS in their organisations, without jeopardising the smooth running of their organisation. Here are a few suggestions:

• First of all, as many communication channels as possible should be used to get the message of OSS across, not only to the Hivos partner organisations but also to other organisations. When communicating the message of OSS, make sure that this communication happens by people that are familiar to the people working at these organisations. In this communication, the negative perceptions that respondents have towards OSS should be changed into more positive ones.
• To increase the trialability of OSS, a workshop can be initiated where OSS-products are shown and can be tried out by people that are interested in this software.
• To increase the usability of OSS, it can be tried to get the more common OSS-products translated in local languages, so that people without knowledge of English and Swahili can also to use computers.
• Migrating to OSS will (initially) cost money for partner organisations. To stimulate this migration, Hivos can financially aid organisations that want to switch to OSS in attending trainings and get support in this migration course, et cetera. Hivos can also link these organisations to good training- and support-firms in the vicinity.
• Most experience with OSS is on server computers, not on workstations. Therefore, starting with using OSS on only the server computers will have a higher chance of success than migrating the entire organisation at once."