Free and open-source software (FOSS) challenges our preconceptions about how software is produced and distributed and the associated freedoms and responsibilities. FOSS is software that has made its source code - its set of instructions - open to the public and freely available. It allows and motivates programmers and users to change the source code. It permits them to redistribute the same or derivative software. Finally, FOSS encourages, or even obliges, programmers to give other programmers and users those same freedoms and opportunities.
Liberating the source code is a goal in itself. But free code also supports broad collaborative development in software production, facilitates porting with other programs produced by independent programmers, and allows the customization of software to meet different commercial, regulatory and cultural requirements.
Most importantly, in particular for developing countries, FOSS allows today´s and tomorrow´s experts and information technology (IT) leaders to acquire skills and advance their knowledge rapidly. But what are the economic and social development implications of FOSS? Why should FOSS be of particular interest to developing countries and transition economies? Is FOSS applicable to commercial and business activity? And finally, how does the FOSS idea and process effect other spheres of human activity important for development, such as health, education or copyright and patent law?
These are some of the key issues that will be discussed at this Expert Meeting. Realizing the importance of this topic, the UNCTAD E-commerce and Development Report 2003 includes a comprehensive overview of the FOSS phenomenon and explains why it is important for governments, business and civil society to seriously and openly debate and consider the benefits of a positive and pro-active approach to FOSS (read the chapter on FOSS in the UNCTAD ECDR 2003).
