Adobe Photoshop, the leading market graphics editor software, costs from US$485.00-520.00 for individual users. Retail price of the latest version of Macromedia Dreamweaver, a web-development tool, is pegged at US$399.00. A compression utility tool that reduces disk space, Winzip, can cost from US$29.95 – 49.95 for single users.
No wonder that in many developing countries, software piracy is rampant; copies of popular programmes are sold in black markets for as little as US$2.00 each.
Enter FOSS, the alternative to buying expensive licensed software or the cheap (but illegal and often unreliable) knock-offs. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) or Free/Libre/Open-Source Software (F/LOSS) refers to software that is “liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code.”
The FOSS movement works directly opposite corporate intentions, says Aileen Familara, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Officer of Isis International Manila. She says it believes that “software should be free: free to be modified, free to be redistributed, free from onerous licensing schemes, free to use.”
With programmes such as Linux (a free Unix-type operating system), Open Office (a multi-lingual and multi-platform office suite), Mozilla Firefox (a web browser), and many others all available for free on the net, FOSS has become popular over time.
FOSS has tremendous potential for social change and women’s empowerment, and women’s organisations working on media and ICT, which are now advocating for open software solutions.
Why FOSS?
- open source software is made available free or at a low cost
- availability of the source code and the right to modify it
- right to redistribute modifications and improvements to the code
- right to use the software in any way
- no one has the power to restrict how the software is used
- there is no single entity on which the future of the software depends
- there is always the possibility of creating an alternative code base if the current one is perceived as wrongly managed
- no per-copy fees can be asked for modified versions
- fewer conflicting priorities due to marketing pressures
- it provides a new forum for democratic action
Source:
Gonzalez-Barahona, Jesus M. 24 April 2000. “Advantages of Open Source Software.” Posted at <http://eu.conecta.it/paper/ Advantages_open_source_soft.html>.
African women and FOSS
To popularise and explore FOSS’ benefits for women, the Association for Progressive Communications-Africa-Women (APC-Africa-Women) conducted skills training for women techies and activists in Africa in December 2005. The Women’s Electronic Network Training (WENT) held in Kampala, Uganda brought together 22 women from 12 countries with varied perspectives on ICTs.
The workshop included how-to's of installing a variety of FOSS programmes. It also covered such issues as the evaluation of ICT initiatives, software licensing, and ICT development strategies.
Gender and ICT issues were likewise discussed, with "[m]any participants who work in rural-based organisations express[ing] concerns around the lack of access to facilities that enable safe and reliable electronic communication," says Jenny Radloff, APC-Africa-Women coordinator.
WENT Africa 2005 was convened by APC-Africa-Women in collaboration with Isis-WICCE, WOUGNET, Women'sNet, Linux Chix Africa, and Bellanet Africa, and with the funding support of HIVOS.
FOSS in the Philippines: Walking the talk
Halfway around the globe, Isis International Manila, a women’s information and communication organisation advocating for the use of technologies for women’s empowerment, promotes FOSS solutions as well.
Isis’ Aileen Familara says the organisation’s advocacy “lies in that juncture where F/LOSS challenges corporate industries involved in information, communication, and technology (ICT): where software cannot be controlled by a monopolistic conglomerate; rather, is freely created, shared, and developed by a community of users in response to community needs.”
Isis “walks its talk” and has migrated to open software. As a media organisation, Isis relies on technology and was once dependent on marketed software. However, saysra, “the organisation saw that if it were to continue using software, it had to be one that was not bought from the giant software makers who demands costly licensing fees. It had to be software that was relatively lesser in cost and, more importantly, could potentially be shared with other organisations.”
At the Isis office, proprietary programmes like MS Office have been phased out. “The staff here uses Open Office (an alternative to MS Office which contains free source alternatives to popularly used programmes like Word, Excel and PowerPoint),” according to Isis Systems Administrator Pretchie Obja-an. Part of the migration’s success is the training and technical support made available to the staff, according to Obja-an. “They could always ask me for help,” she adds.
Isis is encouraging other organisations to use open source software. Last December, the organisation held a training on web development to address women’s organisations’ lack of web presence. It focused on utilising free and open source software, and introduced participants to the use of GIMP (an image manipulation programme similar to Photoshop), NVU (a website development system like Dreamweaver and Frontpage), and 7-zip (a compression tool like WinZip).
Familara says that using FOSS tools are similar to using proprietary programmes. GIMP, for example, has similar functionalities to its commercial alternative but also has different filters, icons and a Graphical User Interface.
Isis acknowledges that resistance typically accompanies the use of new programmes.
“Some people think that FOSS programmes are unreliable,” says Familara. “It might be harder for people to learn if they already know the alternative. It’s another learning process for them.” Obja-an agrees: “New users of FOSS sometimes get confused, especially when they are in a hurry. If they had a choice, they would use what they are already familiar with.”
For Isis, however, benefits outweigh these difficulties. Obja-an notes that it depends on the openness of the user to alternatives, citing the words of a training participant who claimed that FOSS was easier to use than the equivalent proprietary software. In the end, Obja-an says, free and open source software “is all about choice.”
Sources:
APC Africa-Women. “WENT Africa 2005.” Posted at APC Africa-Women, <http://www.apcafricawomen.org/went2005>.
APC WNSP. 10 December 2005. “Women techies and activist training in FOSS.” Posted at APC WNSP <http://www.apcwomen.org/news/index.shtml?x=91921>.
Bove, Tony. “Get off Microsoft: Alternatives to Microsoft Office.” Posted at No Starch Press, <http://www.tonybove.com/getoffmicrosoft/home.html#office>.
Familara, Aileen. 2004. “Women do F/LOSS: Isis migrates to open source on desktop.” In Women and Action, No. 3. Downloaded 26 January 2006 at <http://www.isiswomen.org/pub/wia/wia3-04/len.htm>.
Isis International Manila. 10 November 2005. “ISIS Wired Series Web development training using open source tools.”
Wikipedia. “Floss,” <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOSS> and “Free and Open Source Software (FOSS),” Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_Open_Source_Software>
Zehle, Soenke. 19 January 2006. “Notes on African software politics.” Posted in Pambazuka News No. 238 at <http://allafrica.com/stories/200601190611.html>.
Some useful resources if you wish to explore FOSS tools:
A Primer on Open Source for Non-Profits <http://www.nosi.net/>
To download Open Office: <http://www.openoffice.org>
Help and documentation: <http://documentation.openoffice.org>, <http://www.ooodocs.org>
About Mozilla Thunderbird: <http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird>
About the Opera Browser: <http://www.opera.com>
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Isis Resource Center holds one of the largest feminist collections of materials in the Global South. With 40 years of publication experience, Isis holds a vast collection.