Abstract:
This study investigates the perception of Free and Open Source (FOSS) products among
IT professionals within the business community of Sri Lanka.
Until recently FOSS has been branded as a hobbyist interest and as a playground for
computer geeks. However, in recent years, this concept has been intensively discussed
and many organisations and governments have become keen promoters and users of
FOSS. These governments and businesses are now realising the dangers of locking
themselves in to a single monopolistic supplier for all their software needs. In addition,
the premise of high quality software with low deployment costs and the ability to
customise and distribute without infringing copyrights has made FOSS products highly
attractive to organisations.
The FOSS community currently has two flagship products. The Apache web server,
which is the market leader in the web server products category, commanding over 70%
of the current deployments, and the Linux operating system that has been having a
phenomenal success in adoption rates recently. This success of FOSS products has now
caught the attention of proprietary software giants like Microsoft who have started
special campaigns targeted at the business community to bring fear, uncertainty and
doubt, popularly known as FUD, regarding FOSS products.
Although FOSS offers many advantages, Sri Lankan IT professionals in the business
community have not shown a great interest in adopting FOSS products in their
organisations. This study examines the role of perception for this phenomenon.
In order to develop a framework for the study, the author studied established theories
used in previous studies such as the Diffusion of innovations theory and the TOE
framework, which has been used extensively to understand the technology perceptions
and adoption in organisations. Informal interviews of several key IT decision makers in
larger organisations helped to develop the boundaries of the project. A questionnaire,
primarily based on these inputs, was developed and was sent to IT department staff at
selected medium and large private sector organisations.
The study primarily followed quantitative research methodology. Qualitative techniques
were used to supplement and elaborate the findings. These were primarily the
interviews with key IT decision makers, which were held in the second phase.
x
The findings of the study suggest that there is a probable relationship between the
perception of FOSS (in product technology and vendor support) and the level of usage
of FOSS products. With the use of FOSS products, the organisations’ perception of FOSS
appears to be getting better.
Therefore, it can be argued that the most important issue to address is to correct the
perception of FOSS products of non FOSS users. The FOSS community should develop
strategies to build confidence levels of non FOSS users. Once organisations start using
these products, they appear to change the way they perceive FOSS.
The study also invited respondents to give their strategies and plans in reducing the
total cost of ownership and in handling licensing issues. This part of the study
attempted to identify the role FOSS products are expected to play in their organisations
in managing such challenges. By using this information, the FOSS community,
especially vendors, can identify the needs and opportunities in the today’s organisations
and focus their activities accordingly.
