1

Country Report from Taiwan on Open Source Software

Dr. Der-Tsai LeeInstitute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

Asian Open Source Software SymposiumMarch 3-6, 2003

Phuket, Thailand

March 3-6, 2003 2 2

Outline

Current Status of OSS Development in Taiwan

Applications of OSS Technology National Strategy on OSS Government-funded OSS-related

Projects Conclusion

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OSS in Taiwan: A Brief Overview

Free software was first noticed in university campuses in Taiwan a decade ago when the GNU utilities started to spread out on the Unix-like workstations.

The community awareness of OSS was gradually formed later.

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Watershed events of OSS in Taiwan

The creation of the Chinese Linux Extension (CLE) project in 1997 the most referenced Linux environment in

Taiwan a cohesive point for the community.

Wide range of tryouts of free software Tightening of IPR law in May 2002

Media and legislator’s attention to free software

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Industrial Utilization of OSS in Taiwan

Industry started catching up OSS activities in 1998-1999. Linux-oriented companies established. The first Linux exhibition in Taiwan was held in yea

r 2000. Now mostly dived into the embedded system, 3 Li

nux PDAs were shown in LinuxExpo 2002. Many hardware companies have products with Lin

ux device driver.

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OSS Community in Taiwan

Software Liberty Association of Taiwan (SLAT) an NPO Founded in 2001, dedicated to

promoting OSS and serving the free software communities.

Holds annual International Conference on Open Source (ICOS) and many other community-oriented events.

Various Active User Groups

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Chronology of Major Eventson OSS in Taiwan

Drawn by T.-C. Liu

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Applications of OSS Technology - Industry Servers (for web, e-mail, ... etc) Network products (router, Quality of Service

device, load-balancing device, firewall, ... etc) PDAs (including software development kit bas

ed on WinCE, Qt embedded or Gtk) Appliances (digital VCR, ... etc)

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Applications of OSS Technology - Community Desktop:

Internationalization/localization (i18n/l10n) of packages

Font management tools CD-ROM linux (knoppix and alike) ... etc

Web framework: Zope/CMF/Plone, Perl/Python/PHP, i18n/l1

0n framework, blog, ... etc

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OSS Role among Sectors in Taiwan

Drawn by T,-C. Liu, based on the Chinese version of P.Yeh and C.-K.Hung

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National Strategy on OSS

Build an environment for free software industry development

Cultivate expertise and advanced technologies Chinese IT applications: establish interface standar

ds and develop fundamental software Promote free software exchange QoS measurement mechanism Promote nation-wide utilization of free software Free software as an alternative based on free comp

etition principle under Government Procurement Act

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Government-funded OSS-related Projects 2

Government formed a Linux promotion task force in 2001.

Approx. NT$20M was funded for linux research and open source for science education in 2002 (National Science Council)

Grants for technological research indirectly related to Linux reached NT$60M in 2002

Promotion of open source in K-9 schools started in 2002.

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Government-funded OSS-related Projects 1

A Free Software Steering Committee is formed within NICI

A Free Software Working Committee is formed under MoEAIDB

Several projects are under discussion and review for FY2003. Open source software foundry Compatibility test center Demonstration projects Open source standards development … etc

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Open Source Software Foundry

A bridge among government, industry, community and academia.

Focus on building an infrastructure for open source development. A foundry similar to sourceforge.net for local developers to interact

in local languages. Provide technical, operational and legal assistance National repository of e-government related projects

strive to help government with procurement of open source solutions/services, and help industry find proficient open source personnel

Lead by Academia Sinica.

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OSSF Network

OSSF

Academia

Industry

Government

Community

-standards groups -service nexus -IA

-MoE-MoEA -Parliament

-NPOs -LUGs

-national lab -university

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OSS Compatibility Test Center

Provide standardized tests on open source software compatibility on hardware

Strive to leverage with OSS the strong and diverse hardware industry in Taiwan

Lead by Taipei Computer Association

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Conclusion

Taiwanese OSS development in historical perspective

Form a cross-governmental unit to strengthen OSS development in Taiwan

Set up localized OSS foundry to interact with different sectors

Leverage with local IA industry

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Thank You!

Contact Info: Der-Tsai LeeIIS, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

<dtlee@iis.sinica.edu.tw> Open Source Software Foundry <ossf@iis.sinica.

edu.tw>