From robert.sauer@jims-israel.org Thu Dec 11 08:10:09 2003

Regarding your article: Open question

Dear Open Source Friends,

Please read below my reply to a particular inquiry about my article. I am sending it to you as well since I think it clarifies a few important points that were raised by all who contacted me.

Here is my reply:

Thank you very much for your insightful remarks. I'm glad you found the article interesting and I'm happy you contacted me about it.

I had come across Prof. MacCormack's paper and I also found it very interesting. I agree with him that the state of the art of TCO measurement is not where we would like it to be and that fact adds a lot of uncertainty into the equation. Nonetheless, for public policy purposes, one has to take a position. Given the existing evidence, and given the institutional history of the Israeli government (pays bloated salaries) as well as the unfortunate economic situation in Israel (huge national budget deficit), I believe, as I stated in the conclusion of the article, that it would be pre-mature to switch to open source solutions in the Israeli public sector. There is a greater probability that expenses will increase rather than decrease following such a move. The Israeli government should therefore postpone a switch until more comprehensive studies are conducted and more evidence is collected. The Israeli government has been risking taxpayer money for far too long in almost every sphere of its activities. Note that I am not saying that the switch should never take place. I'm only saying that now is not the right time in Israel.

I agree with you that the forking hypothesis of Lerner and Tirole is quite interesting and perhaps needs further testing. However, there is sound economic logic to their hypothesis. Lerner and Tirole use the examples of Sendmail and the Berkeley project as problematic forks. I read about some more recent examples on slashdot the other day. I bet a paper on the economics of forking will appear soon enough and further enlighten us all. In other words, there is no doubt that further research needs to be done here as well.

I'm sure you are correct in saying that open source is technically preferable in certain environments, while Windows is preferable in others. What concerns me is whether or not the superiority of open source in certain environments will trickle down to the end user in a government office. Will it improve the efficiency of publicly provided services? Or will it hopelessly confuse the clerk?

I understand your concern for shared source. Perhaps its not ideal. But, on the other hand, intellectual property rights must be clearly defined and protected. If they aren't, I bet software innovation will also come to a screeching halt. There's a similar problem in the pharmaceutical industry with parallel importation and lax enforcement of the TRIPS agreement.

In any case, I want to thank you again for your comments and examples and for conveying your professional experiences. Please keep me informed of the fruits of your research. And please feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone else that you think might be interested in the subject and concerned about the conclusions that I reached in my article.


Best Regards,

Rob Sauer