My talk was entitled "Sustaining innovations for the public sector". The argument of my case was that Open Source Software (OSS) can win hands down against proprietary software where it concerns cost-saving but it takes more than that ensure its sustainability in the public sector. Elements such as prejudice which has nothing to do with technicalities and government policies need to be addressed in a better perspective. The hidden potentiality of OSS needs to be highlighted because too long the popular use of properiety software has mindset users not to look beyond. Fears and apprehension must be answered with convincing justifications that sceptics can relate to. Without a doubt, the development of an OSS community specific to a particular OSS needs to be quickly established, preferably acceptable to the local lingo and generate a homely atmosphere. This should eventually nurture local interest and an Internet reference point is needed where cyber help and advice can be easily obtained day and night . Training a diversified group of people helps widen the community base and strengthen the multi-functional use of the OSS. Adovcates do not last forever, thus, the importance of finding a successor to maintain continuity in the adoption of an OSS. Others strategies include the need to expose and encourage potential users to use OSS early so that they arel not be misled into believing that softwares only centre around proprietary software but that there are many OSS out there that can give propreitary software a run for their money. Got myself a book to read and t-shirt as souvenirs for giving that talk :-D .The PDF version of my slideshow can be downloaded here.
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