• 
• 

Published on November 6, 2007

It is hoped to train people in the area and eventually encourage them to develop products based on open-source software under Thai brands.

The development of open-source software in Thailand is still at the packaging stage where local software developers just buy open-source software to customise and pack into a product for sale. They are not yet developing their own software applications.

To move to open-source software development in Thailand, it is necessary that the country train people who could develop their own software, not just customisation, said Virach Sornlertlamvanich, founding member of OSSN.

The network, which was formed by Nectec and open-source developers in Thailand, will next year establish the Linux Technology Centre as a base for local open-source software development.

Before its establishment, Virach said the network would begin to train local people as open-source software developers. The plan is to create at least 10 open-source developers who can make software at the kernel level. The kernel is the essential centre of a computer operating system - the core that provides basic services for all other parts of the operating system.

Virach said if local developers could make software at that level, they would be able to create their own products and bring the country to the next level of open-source development.

"The 10 developers are expected to be a foundation for the centre's establishment as once they can develop open-source applications on their own, Thai-made open-source products could go on the market," he said.

The network is now talking with open-source software centres in many countries such as the Linux Foundation, a non-profit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux; and IBM in Bangalore for collaboration on technology and knowledge transfer to local people.

"We're talking about training courses and bringing experts from other countries to educate our developers. We hope the first trained group will become a key element for the country's further development in the area," he said.

The training will focus on the development of device drivers, an element to make application software and hardware work together; and performance tuning, a method of tuning computing performance up to required speeds.

Virach also speculated that other potential areas for open-source software development in Thailand could be applications for mobile devices, security and anti-virus software as well as electronic learning.

The plan is to develop open-source-based mobile devices for data collection and storage. Virach said the centre would pool local resources to design and develop all functions for both hardware and software and this would be the first open source-based product totally made by Thai people.

"It's another step in our development. We hope to see the first Thai-made mobile device come out in the next three years and this will jump start the country towards the next level of open-source development," he added.

Pongpen Sutharoj

 The Nation