DOST-ASTI stresses necessity, benefits of open source

By Ronald James P. PanisSPECIAL PROJECTS WRITERTHE Department of Science and Technology/Advanced Science andTechnology Institute (DOST-ASTI) continues to stress the necessity andadvantages of adopting the open source concept, hoping that thegovernment, which still has to totally embrace the idea, will fullyimplement the system in its various agencies."The government is not solid in supporting open source, which maybedue to political and economic issues," said Engr. Edwin Viñas, ascience research specialist I at DOST-ASTI, who lamented the fact thatsome government agencies even promote commercial software such asWindows.During his session at the recently-held Philippine Open SourceConference 2004, Viñas said the government should consider the factthat "in the realm of information and communication technology opensource is the best platform for experimentation and development"because it allows "making something without (any) investment.""In open source, software development is a continuous process (as) itcan build upon the ideas and systems already available, therebyspeeding up the development and deployment of necessary solutions," hestressed.Viñas believes the government can save funds it direly needs by usingopen source because it will have the "freedom" to customizeapplications without violating any license."I believe I can be more productive if I use open source. As adeveloper, I can totally control and understand my applications if Iknow every detail of the platform I'm using. By understanding the coreof any system, one can develop applications suitable for one's needs,"he explained.Viñas practices what he preaches at DOST-ASTI where about 85% of thesystems are operating using open source. He disclosed that thedepartment is currently developing a highly scalable networkmanagement system dubbed "Pawikan" – that runs on open source. Pawikanis being developed by a group of engineers under the NetworkApplications Team of PREGINET. Pawikan features automatic networkdiscovery, topology mapping, fast SNMP data collector system,web-based user interface and SVG Weathermap system.NetMan is used to manage network devices and services by monitoringthe performance of the network, diagnosing network problems, andcontrolling behavior of network elements such as bandwidth andtraffic. At present, there are around 500 NetMan software, which is amixture of commercial and open source (covering 75%), available in theInternet.Viñas noted that "Pawikan" will initially be released in time with theA13 Autumn Meeting in Cebu City, slated on October 5-8. A13 isDOST-ASTI's research partner in Japan which is connected to the lattervia satellite together with other Asia-Pacific countries.Instead of installing commercial network management software tooperate its systems, DOST-ASTI deploys a family of Unix/Linux serverssuch as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux. FreeBSD and Linux Fedora are thedevelopment platforms that the department uses to run its NetMon(network monitoring) software.To bolster its research and development efforts, DOST-ASTI is focusingon one of its big projects called the Philippine Research, Educationand Government Information Network(REGINET). PREGINET is a broadbandnetwork that connects academic institutions, government agencies, aswell as research and development institutes nationwide. The networkserves as a channel for research and development collaboration amongthese local entities. It is also connected to several internationalresearch and education networks.As part of the R&D efforts ofDOST-ASTI, the NetMon software is being developed under the PREGINETwhich also serves as the testbed not only for network managementapplications but also with other network applications suchvideoconferencing, distance learning, bio-informatics, digitallibrary, and many others.
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