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Free/Open Source Software in the office of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran
With regards to the importance of Information Technology in our country , a group of MPs in a letter to the president have requested the self - sufficiency of IT technologies in Iran from foreign companies .
In this letter the parliament representatives have emphasized on the importance of IT with regards to security, economics and country's independence and have requested the government to pay special attention to the position of software, in this regard.
This letter adds that Free/Open Source software has been one of the key factors of IT and FOSS maturity is the result of more than 20 years of hard work for developing Free/Open source software throughout the world. Iran, like many other active countries in FOSS area, such as China, Brazil, Japan, Argentine, Peru, and South Africa, has started a National Free/Open Source Project three years ago. The project was a collaboration among university, industry and government IT policy makers.
Parliament representatives in their letter have indicated that this project will set the grounds for production of the country’s operating system, which can be an alternative for Windows operating system. They have also emphasized that making the country self-dependent in developing software technology and making it independent of the foreign software's companies is a result of promoting FOSS.
To take FOSS more seriously at the government level, the following suggestions need to be considered:
• Taking into account the position of software specially FOSS within the 4th development program.
• Training staff members of the government and rewarding those taking part in courses, such as the GNU/Linux courses.
• Issuing instructions and recommendations to all government sectors to replace their Windows operating system with the Linux operating system, within both new and old projects (providing that this change does not hamper the organization’s functionality).
• Special rewards should be given to companies that produce open source software.
• Plans for training the needed skillful workforce in this field, etc…
It is also essential for the government to have a serious plan for its various departments such as ministry of education, ministry of science, technology and higher education and ministry of communication and information technology, according to the above plan. It should be noted that since this is a new subject, legislations are required for this type of software. It is hoped that the government passes the required legislations to the parliament for ratification.
This letter adds that Free/Open Source software has been one of the key factors of IT and FOSS maturity is the result of more than 20 years of hard work for developing Free/Open source software throughout the world. Iran, like many other active countries in FOSS area, such as China, Brazil, Japan, Argentine, Peru, and South Africa, has started a National Free/Open Source Project three years ago. The project was a collaboration among university, industry and government IT policy makers.
Parliament representatives in their letter have indicated that this project will set the grounds for production of the country’s operating system, which can be an alternative for Windows operating system. They have also emphasized that making the country self-dependent in developing software technology and making it independent of the foreign software's companies is a result of promoting FOSS.
To take FOSS more seriously at the government level, the following suggestions need to be considered:
• Taking into account the position of software specially FOSS within the 4th development program.
• Training staff members of the government and rewarding those taking part in courses, such as the GNU/Linux courses.
• Issuing instructions and recommendations to all government sectors to replace their Windows operating system with the Linux operating system, within both new and old projects (providing that this change does not hamper the organization’s functionality).
• Special rewards should be given to companies that produce open source software.
• Plans for training the needed skillful workforce in this field, etc…
It is also essential for the government to have a serious plan for its various departments such as ministry of education, ministry of science, technology and higher education and ministry of communication and information technology, according to the above plan. It should be noted that since this is a new subject, legislations are required for this type of software. It is hoped that the government passes the required legislations to the parliament for ratification.
