www.public-software.in

Software developed for public service, and especially in government, has a unique context and objectives deriving from those of public service; with its imperative of providing public goods and ensuring equity and social justice. It is well known that private and commercial actions have very different context, motives and considerations than public actions. For instance, the largest possible reach and diffusion as well as transparency of actions are basic to public service, which are not necessarily values espoused by private and commercial players.

It is for this reason that software and applications developed for and in the public sector (meaning core governance areas and not the commercially organized public enterprises), which at present is developed largely in commercial/ private paradigms, need to be informed by a set of specific guidelines arising out of imperatives of public service¹. Such 'Public Software' can be defined as “software developed for the public good, which is publicly owned”.

Public Software is essential to create a knowledge society for all, since only software that is freely shareable can allow universal access. Similarly, participation of citizens in knowledge creation is essential and this is possible only when the software itself is possible to be customized by all users. Both universal access and local customization is possible only with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Proprietary software or private software is neither freely shareable not is it possible for local customization. Government and indeed all public institutions (academic, civil society) must hence adopt public software and promote its adoption in society.

For anyone to participate in the digital society, computer is the primary instrument. Basic desktop/Laptop software hence needs to be freely shareable. This is easy to implement since there are several FOSS applications for operating system, document processing, video/image editing etc². Many states in India are preferring public software applications on the desktops and this needs to be mandated by policy. Kerala and Assam already have and Tamil Nadu and other states are making such a policy. Apart from desktop software, public software is essential in areas of free and open fonts, open access databases and information repositories, open connectivity mechanisms etc.

In case of larger applications which require back-end application development, it is important that the software be purchased outright at the time of its development by the vendor. In most cases, the person making the RFP does not specify the ownership of the application and there is a danger that though public monies are paid to the vendor, the ownership remains with the private vendor. This means that the public sector entity does not have the right to make changes or corrections to the applications³ which makes government vulnerable to restrictions and cost escalations.