Agency to boost use, local development of open-source software

The three-year road map, starting next year, is aimed at increasing the number of local software companies developing open-source software in a bid to increase its market share in the country and reduce dependence on imported proprietary software.

Sipa open-source software department manager Paitoon Butri said by 2011, there will be at least 100 local open-source software companies, up from just 20 companies at present. And by then, about 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the country's software industry will develop open-source software.

The plan is divided into three phases. The first phase aims to build confidence in using open-source software among local users, including manufacturing, services and automobile enterprises as well as government and education sectors, along with setting up open-source software companies.

"In the first stage, we need to put in a lot of efforts to develop the open-source software industry," Paitoon said.

Meanwhile, Sipa will promote the implementation of open-source software. The agency will match users with developers and encourage them to bring open-source software into practice. Sipa will also provide funding for the implementation of open-source projects.

"In a bid to make open-source software widely accepted, we need to promote successful cases of its development and usage. We will match users and developers, and provide them the funds to implement solutions in the actual business environment," Paitoon said.

The agency has allocated a budget of about Bt50 million a year to encourage open-source software development and achieve its road map goals.

The agency plans to support two main types of open-source software companies - those  that offer software products and solutions, such as infrastructure software, application software and desktop or front-end software, and companies

that provide software services for customised and enterprise

software.

In the second phase, the agency will strengthen the open-source software industry by providing marketing support to local software houses for targeting the domestic and international markets.

"Once we increase their numbers, we then need to improve their quality levels. This will be done through seminars, business matching and international road shows," Paitoon said.

Finally, the third phase aims to take Thai open-source software to the worldwide market.

The agency expects at least 10 out of 100 local open-source software companies to reach the international market inthe near future.