INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE POLICY IMPORTANCE FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT" OPENS IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan
Oct 31 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, NOYAN TAPAN. Exchange of the best international
experience on the open source software (OSS) policy may contribute
to the necessity for OSS introduction in Armenia. Larisa Minasyan,
Director of the Open Society Institure Assistance Fund’s (OSIAF)
Armenia Office, said this at the opening of the two-day international
conference "Open Source Software Policy Importance for Information
Society Development." Experts from Armenia, Russia, Bulgaria,
Macedonia, and Tadjikistan are participating in the conference,
the main purpose of which is to introduce representaives of the
Armenian government, civil society and IT industry to the OSS use
and the policy implemented in this sector. Tagui Tumanyan, of the
Center for Information Law and Policy (CILP), presented the results
of a survey on usage of OSS conducted in Armenia’s 14 ministries
(of foreign affairs, education and science, finance and economy,
and others) and universities (the American University of Armenia,
Yerevan State University, and other big universities), which show a
low level of OSS usage. Out of the programs implemented in Armenia
with the assistance of donor organizations, T. Tumanyan indicated
the UNDP-supported program "Regions", which created the opportunity
to organize electronic dialog between government bodies and citizens
in some Armenian marzes (provinces). Another program developed with
the use of OSS is the computer translation program implemented
with the assistance of the Soros Foundation. T. Tumanyan also
attached importance to the creation of high-efficiency servers
intended for scientific papers, which function with OSS usage in
40 educational institutions. David Sandukhchyan, CILP Director,
informed conference participants that the strategy of e-governance in
Armenia, which was worked out for a year, has been submitted to the
RA government. Foreign experts invited to take part in the conference
will tell the participants about experience of OSS usage in state and
local governments and educational institutions of their countries,
about obstacles to OSS adoption and factors contributing to it. The
conference is organized by the Internews Center for Information Law
and Policy (CILP), the Open Society Institute Assistance Fund (OSIAF)
and the organization Internet Society of Bulgaria.