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Title:
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GEOSPATIAL OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: ADVICE KNOWLEDGE BASE FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING CRITICAL MASS OF ADOPTERS |
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Author(s):
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Zeferino Benjamim Saugene |
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ISBN:
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978-972-8939-09-0 |
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Editors:
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Miguel Baptista Nunes, Pedro Isaías and Philip Powell |
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Year:
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2010 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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Free/Libre Open Source Software, Geographic Information Systems, Advice/Tacit Knowledge Sharing, Community of Practices, Developing Countries. |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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20 |
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Last Page:
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28 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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The global development approach brought by Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) has introduced new perspectives and gains to the end-users. Nowadays, it is common to find in every corner of the world professionals from different fields carrying-out their activities supported by FLOSS tools. Moreover, a lot has been said regarding the need of understanding and taking into account sharing issues for successful implementation/adoption of Geospatial Information Systems software. With the advent of geospatial FLOSS (GeoFLOSS), because of its nature of providing source code for every developer who needs to change it to fits his own needs, one issue that is constantly discussed is tacit knowledge sharing. For that, virtual knowledge sharing environments are commonly used through discussion forums (blogs, wiki, meeting, formal or informal discussion) within the communities. However, the level of skills in these communities discussions is heavily dependent on the moderators who are often considered the champions. Developers who want to take part in these communities are forced to speak the same language. Those who do not adapt are repelled by themselves. This is common in developers from most of developing countries. Thus, a way to avoid this phenomenon is to create discussion forums based on their practices, cultures and habits for later after getting the expertise discuss at the same level as the champions. This study illustrates how developers from most of the developing countries struggle to profit from the social networks. By discussing the relationships between developers and communities through the cases of FLOSS adoption, the paper aims at establishing a framework (strategies) to create a critical mass of GeoFLOSS developers in developing countries. |
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