Sun Microsystems is promoting Open Source Software and Open
Document Formats. What are some of the initiatives taken by Sun in this area,
and what are the trends?
Sun Microsystems is the largest Open Source Software (OSS) vendor in the
world. We believe in the participatory economy, a critical part of which is
sharing in order to grow. Open Source and Open Standards is a cornerstone,
without which one cannot have a significant, meaningful participation by the
people.
Sun has been promoting Open Source and Open Standards with
vigor. We have been holding awareness events and workshops. In fact, we also
invited the father of Free Software Movement, Richard Stallman, for giving a
talk at IIT-Delhi in January 2008. We have been working with various governments
and academic institutions to promote Open Source and Open Standards adoption.
Many universities in India have also adopted OpenSolaris and OpenSparc in their
curriculum. OpenSolaris is the worlds most powerful open source operating
system and OpenSparc is the worlds first and only major Open Source
microprocessor. We have also been working with various entities in the country
to help in greater adoption of the ISO standard Open Document Format.
Jaijit Bhattacharya, country director, Government Strategy, Sun Microsystems India |
What is the role of Java in various e-governance projects?
Java, with its numerous ISVs, allows development on a platform independent
basis. This allows for a longer shelf-life of the systems being developed. With
thousands of crore being invested into e-governance, it is imperative that we
ensure the development happens in open source technologies, so that the systems
are cheaper to maintain and will stay for a far longer time.
What are the projects you are looking forward to introducing in
India?
We are working on several projects that are oriented toward nation building.
As I said earlier, we are also bringing several of our globally successful
initiatives to India. We also understand that India poses several challenges
that are quite different to the operating environments elsewhere. We are
adapting our solutions and technologies to these requirements on ground.
Just providing e-governance is not always the solution; training
also should be provided to the people who administer it. Do you do that?
Sun Microsystems is a technology provider. We have several training programs
for technologies that we have been giving to government personnel who will be
running the e-governance infrastructure. However, apart from this, we feel that
it is necessary to have capacity building in other areas within e-governance.
Skills in IT procurement, vendor management, change management, etc are critical
skills. We still find that majority of procurement does not factor in the issue
of power consumption of servers when they are procured and sometimes the cost of
the power consumed by a server in its lifetime far exceeds the cost of the
server itself.
How do you see India positioned in the whole e-governance
movement compared to other developing countries in Asia?
It is quite impossible to do such comparisons as the compulsions and
requirements of e-governance in various countries differ significantly. India
has one of the most complex requirements of e-governance.
The systematic manner in which India is rolling out e-governance
will definitely ensure that Indias e-governance initiatives are largely
successful.
Team DQ
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in