FOSS as a Tool for Development: The Kerala Experience

The mainstreaming of Free and Open Source Software(FOSS) has been one of the most visible changes in the domain of software in the last decade. Starting out as a rallying point for techno-activists, FOSS is today a valued option supported by Governments, Businesses as well as the civil society in most parts of the word. The State of Kerala in southern India, already quite unique on a variety of social, democratic and political indicators, was the first to adopt FOSS as an instrument of State policy in 2001. As it celebrates a decade of FOSS in 2011, Kerala demonstrates the remarkable transition of FOSS into a cost-effective, pragmatic, and technologically sound strategy that simultaneously upholds the principles of freedom and democracy. Given that software is set to permeate most aspects of humanendeavor, the use of FOSS is an example for a highly sustainable-socially, politically and technologically-model of use of ICTs for humanity.