Investigating Open Source Software Benefits in Public Sector

Abstract

This paper investigates the benefits of OSS in public sector organizations in order to understand the trends and patterns in different regions over time. Although open source software is used widely, in this study the authors examine the adoption of open source software in the public sector. As such, the paper uses content analysis to review published articles on open source software in the public sector or government organizations between 2003 and 2012 across the regions (Africa, America, Asia, and Europe). The results suggest that that there is no-one-size-fit-all to open source software adoption benefits to the public sector in different regions. The results also show that technical benefits, vendor independence and customization are considered to be important for open source software adoption in public sector organizations. While this suggests that public sector organizations perceive open source software as one step towards vendor independence, customization is considered a very important benefit of open source software adoption in Asia than is the case in America.