“We like sunshine here” -or how open-source and other low footprint tech is revolutionizing govern-ment IT in emerging countries and how we need to learn from them today!

About me: 31 years old, educated (almost finished) as a sociologist * Former Head of Division for Danish IT-infrastructure and implementation division in Danish Government

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Cofounder of Tradeshift, working with a killer team to disrupt b2b trade *

The last time I spoke here I managed to piss off both Microsoft and the Open-Office fundementalists (this time I don’t have a boss)

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Just connect

What is Tradeshift?

What is Tradeshift?

What is Tradeshift?

What is Tradeshift?

Facts:

Tradeshift is build in 10 months using open-source top to bottom: Apache, Cassandra, PostgreSQL, Ubuntu, Drupal and much much more.

* It is hosted on Amazon EC2 using a heavily customized provisioning layer * Everything on the platform is exposed as REST API’s allowing for third party innovation on top of our infrastructure

* We provide the basics of transaction engine, social networking features, analytics collaboration and invites which is available for anyone who wants to build business applications on Tradeshift

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It is a completely free business to business transaction platform *

Big enterprise = high requirements Big incentive

Advanced ERP systems

Business software

Office applications Paper + email w/ PDF

Easy to convince to do eProcurement

Micro enterprise = low requirements Low incentive

Hard to convince to do eProcurement

Advanced ERP systems

Business software

Office applications Paper + email w/ PDF

But this problem is not confined to business. The problem is that we tend to think complex = better

How we normally see the world:

1st place (The Economist)

3rd place (OECD/Accenture)

2nd place (UN)

Why are we at the top?

Because we managed the complexity of advanced IT very well

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We have a digital signature and severel multi-million large scale SOA projects with all the right buzz words

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We use Enterprise Architecture to create large scale government transformation such as “Statens IT”

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We are rated by how expensive projects and processes we can afford, not the value delivered to end users…

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Wants to reduce poverty, connect informal business and grow economy

A small city the size of Copenhagen in the north of Brazil

Tradehub between East and West

Part of one of the fastest growing economic areas in Brazil

Sao Luiz:

Open-source in Brazil:

"Open-source alternatives are a great opportunity for developing countries," says Jose Luiz de Cerqueira Cesar, head of IT at Banco do Brasil. "If computer users within a geographical region pool their expertise, they can develop software that is perfectly suited to their needs. (BBC)

Another project is a recycle project in the Favela’s "We use Linux," Dalton Martin says, "which means we've been able to customise the graphics and language content. Life has a special reality here, and we need to build technology that works for the community.” (BBC)

"If this was a rich country, it wouldn't matter and we could buy Microsoft products, but we're a developing country and Linux is just a lot more accessible, so we're heading toward a Linux generation.” (Wired)

How constraints is shaping IT

Mobile payments

Cellphone sale of farmer products

OSS “Producers”

Mobile trust networks

OSS Gov, Cloud

Open-source

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Simple is good

Since they are developing rapidly, by 2050 the combined economies of the BRICs could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world (Goldman Sachs)

Lessons:

The mobile network in Sri Lanka is faster than the one I have here

The next IT revolution is being shaped by constraints

SMS/Texting is the most ubiquitous service delivery infrastructure (Try to do SOA on SMS)

Cloud computing might be the new cell networks enabling leapfrogging

My prediction: In 2020 most of IT innovation and develop-ment will happen outside Denmark and our government IT will NOT be in the top 20 of any global IT ranking

WHY? (Because we spent the last five years discussing document formats and other stuff that does NOT MATTER instead of the really important stuff we need to do something about)

Problems: The problem of document formats

The structural problem of government IT infrastructure and thinking

Or because we think like this

And not like this when we buy government IT

Imagine tearing it down and bying a new one after 4 years…

Solutions: We need to start thinking of national IT-infrastructure in 10, 30, 50 years perspective, that means OSS is default

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Forget about the obsession with text editors and document formats, learn how to use ”save as” while we wait for random PRINTING formats to go away

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Risk is a matter of perspective, government should stop being whining pussies and embrace the cloud * The best solutions and ideas are going to come bottom-up, not top-down – what is the Danish government model for enabling REAL innovation?

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Long term thinking:

Open-source is the only choice that allows for long term maintenance *

Clients doesn’t matter, they are going to be virtualized anyways, linux is great as a building block, but that is it.

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Focus on changing government to a platform for innovation: Open API’s, Open Data, Open-Source infrastructure

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Demand this, fight for it, tell the politicians. Protest if you have to!

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web: www.tradeshift.com email: chl@tradeshift.com twitter: @tradeshift / @christianlanng

cell: +45 31189100

Want to learn about API’s and how to develop for Tradeshift: api@tradeshift.com