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We are working on several projects oriented toward nation building

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DQI Bureau
New Update

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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