looking east

I have spent a bit over three months in China, trying to find out how FOSS is organised and how it’s different in China from what we see the West. When I met Basile two weeks ago in Beijing, we have come up with the following hypotheses:

• Language is an impediment. Most FOSS activities take place in English.
• There is no culture of innovation in China.
• The discussion culture in FOSS projects is too confrontational.
• FOSS is still too young in China to be successful.
• There is only little support for FOSS in the Chinese software industry. Piracy has a negative effect on the creation of a proper software industry in general. Customers are not willing to pay for software.
• Students don’t learn about FOSS at universities and hence don’t know about it.
• Individuals can’t make money with FOSS in China.
• Chinese government policies are not favourable towards FOSS.

These hypotheses are an extension to the ones presented in an earlier entry I have posted in February. They are specifically applied to China (because that’s the country I am currently studying) rather than Asia in general, though I do think that most of them could be applied to other countries like Thailand too.

Despite the fact that these hypotheses are rather negative in their formulation and might have some other shortcomings, I believe that they provide a good basis for further discussions. Also, hypotheses are there to be proved or disproved, they don’t need to be valid in the first place.

Why am I posting this?

Because I would like to get some feedback. I would love to know if there is something completely wrong with them, if I have totally missed the point, if I have forgotten something important, or anything else you have thought of while reading them. Please let me know :).