VIVAnews - The government and Sun Microsystems set up center for developing open source technology called COSTA (Center for Open Source Technology Awakening).
COSTA will be a learning and development center, which will later be an 'incubator' for small-sized enterprises applying open-source-based technology.
"This is a strategic measure to provide free access to cutting-edge open source technology for the local community," said Wibisono Gumulya, Country Manager Sun Microsystem Indonesia, in Jakarta, Nov 19.
"The development center shows that the Indonesian government is few steps ahead of other Asian countries concerning its commitment in the open source sector," said Crawford Beveridge, Executive Vice President and Chairman of Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America, Sun Microsystems Inc.
Director of South Asia and India Government Strategy of Sun Microsystems, Jaijit Bhattacharya, said that Sun will provide, among other things, trainings, curriculums and several open source softwares.
Another role will be establishing a community online system, providing open source best practices for the government, as well as free consultation for organizations intending to adopt open source technology.
Sun will also contribute several open source technology such as Java, Open Solaris, NetBeans, MySQL and Curriki.
COSTA will be headed by Deputy Assistant for IT Development and Utilization at the Department of Research and Technology, Kemal Prihatman. Meanwhile, Sun Indonesia appoints its Business Development Manager, Harry Kaligis, to support the project.
The development center will make use of the open source infrastructure belonging to the Department of Research and Technology, that is, Indonesia Goes Open Source (IGOS) Center and Open Source Software Management Center (POSS), in various cities and universities.
The development center will be the hub for various existing open source management in the Department of National Education (SEAMOLEC), the Department of Communication and Information and the Department of Industry (RICE).
According to Harry Kaligis, open source development in the four departments were previously running independently. With COSTA, it is expected that there will be synergy. "This will be a very long program. We are not closing the possibility that other departments may join," said Harry.
Wibisono hopes that as more parties participate in COSTA, it will help improve the Indonesian economy.
The initiative for forming COSTA started in April. At that time, Crawford Beveridge discussed the issue directly with several government officials. According to Beveridge, there was no other COSTA projects in the Asian region.
However, such countries as Germany, France, Finland, Peru, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and India have utilized open source in their government.
The partnership agreement between the government and Sun Microsystem is scheduled to be signed today, 20 November, in Jakarta.
Translated by: Bonardo Maulana W.
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